Alex Kurtzman To Shepard Star Trek For Six More Years; Backstory on Rise of Alex

Viacom/CBS has extended its deal with Alex Kurtzman and his Secret Hideout production company. The $150 million plus deal means he will continue to remain in charge of all things Star Trek for six more years.  The deal isn't limited to Trek as it pretty much involves anything Kurtzman and his studio decides to make.

The history of Alex Kurtzman and Star Trek is an interesting one. I hope one day an investigative journalist looks into it. Emphasis on investigative so it isn't just a puff piece. The relationship with  Alex Kurtzman's Star Trek actually goes back a way and really started with Transformers. Yeah the Bay film.

Back in early 2000s he was still working with his writing partner Roberto Orci with the pair working together on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, JJ Abrams' Alias, and Fringe TV shows.  In 2004 they were tapped by Michael Bay to write The Island (the movie that jumpstarted Scarlett Johansson's career). This then lead to them writing Bay's first Transformers film., which is produced by Paramount Pictures which is owned by CBS/Viacom who also owns Star Trek. The success of Transformers along with their previous Abrams work resulted them in being asked to write the Star Trek reboot film.

Now one thing to understand is Alex Kurtzman was not a fan of Star Trek. The fan was Roberto Orci. It could be argued Orci was a super fan, having watched all the TV shows, read many of the book, comics and more. At the time Kurtzman's experience with Trek seemed to be just a few of the movies and none of the TV shows. I suspect to this day Kurtzman has never watched a full season of any of the pre-Discovery shows. In short, it was clear then the pair wrote the movie because of Orci's interest in Star Trek, not Kurtzman's. He was just along for the ride, money and potential success it would bring.

Any case the pair created the K/O Paper Products production company in 2005 that resulted in TV shows Hawaii Five-O, Scorpion, Limitless and more. Yep all on CBS. During this period they also wrote the Star Trek Into Darkness, Transformers 2 and more. In April, the pair announced an end of their writing partnership. Shortly thereafter Orci was tapped in May 2014 to write and direct the third Star Trek film. Kurtzman was working on The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  It short, it seemed the Star Trek super fan was going to be given his dream job.

Then in late 2014 something happened. Its not clear what. It was announced in December that Orci was out of Star Trek 3.  While he kept a producer credit, likely for contractual reasons, it was clear even at the time that something happened as Paramount completely severed their relationship with Roberto Orci. Shortly there after the pair announced an end to their 15+ year partnership and shuttered K/O Paper Products. 

In 2017, Bryan Fuller was tapped to executive produce, write and co-create Star Trek: Discovery. Fuller pitched and created Discovery, most of its characters and its overall season arc.  If look at Fuller's TV history (Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Heroes, Pushing Daisies, Hannibal), he likes his show dark and tackling complex takes on the human condition. Shows that tend to be critical darlings but not offering wide appeal.  In short, he really was a perfect hire for a modern take on a Star Trek TV series.  However, his TV history isn't exactly filled with hits.

Between his Star Trek movies, at the time airing Hawaii Five-O on CBS, and Roberto Orci now effectively black-listed from Hollywood for unknown reasons, it probably isn't a surprise that CBS executives decided Fuller needed help with the show being behind schedule and over budget. Added to that Alex Kurtzman's show history is bright, happy, simple popcorn entertainment, specifically designed to be enjoyed in the moment and forgotten shortly thereafter. Perfect recipe for big hits and maximum bang for the buck. After all CBS All Access streaming was launching with Discovery as a critical tent pole.

I suspect Fuller and Kurtzman didn't get along well at all.  Kurtzman was there to fix things, he was also there to make sure Discovery hit all the quadrants with his style of story telling. Something that was a direct contradiction's to Fuller's storytelling style.  End result is that early pre-production work with Kurtzman to "right" the ship helped give Kurtzman his co-creator credit. 

Eventually CBS fired Fuller and put Kurtzman in charge of Discovery. Eventually the first season came out.  Its not entirely clear how much of the first season was Fuller's vision or how much was a heavily modified version of Kurtzman's take. While the reviews were not great, the show was credited for CBS All Access's experiencing strong success and became a cornerstone to the streaming service's future and a desire to expand the franchise's future with new shows for the streaming service.

Naturally, it made sense to tap the man with both TV and movie experience to run it and so Alex Kurtzman was put in charge of all the TV shows.  Once CBS and Viacom merged once again, his movie work on the franchise made him a natural fit to remain in place for all things Star Trek but due to contractual obligations, the movie side still goes through JJ Abrams' and his Bad Robot production company.

I suspect there is a host of details and time line corrections to be made but the gist is here. The story is fascinating.  Hoping that a reporter will one day tell the full unfiltered story of  how a  writing duo made up of a super fan and a non-fan somehow resulted in the non-fan becoming in charge of the most storied franchise in history. It still isn't clear if Alex Kurtzman actually likes Star Trek, even in interviews promoting current shows. It seems he likes the bright future idea of Trek but that is about all. I am sure he enjoys the financial and power windfall that it has brought to him.