R.I.P. Roberto Orci 1973 - 2025

Writer and producer Roberto Orci died February 25 at the age of 51 after a battle with kidney disease. Orci along with his writing partner Alex Kurtzman co-wrote and produced Star Trek (2007), Star Trek Into Darkness, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, jump starting those major franchises in the 21st century. 

Those were not the only movies as co-wrote The Island, The Legend of Zorro, Mission: Impossible III, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and more. On the television front, he got his start working on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess, later writing for and producing Alias, Fringe, Transformers: Prime, Sleepy Hallow, Hawaii Five-O and more. 

His other producing projects including the Now You See Me movies, Scorpion tv show and more. If you are a bit of a geek, he probably was far more influential on your interests than even aware. 

“He was a visionary storyteller with a boundless heart and a beautiful soul,” Orci’s brother, J.R. Orci said to Deadline. “But beyond his creative talents, he was a compassionate friend who would put his life on hold to help a stranger and find room in his home for the most overlooked pup at the shelter.” 

A long time Trekkie, in another world Roberto would have been in charge of the franchise instead of his ex-partner Kurtzman who was dragged by Orci into the franchise. Orci participated in Trek conventions, commented on the franchise online and in social media.

He even named the captain of the USS Kelvin in Star Trek (2009) after his uncle Richard Robau who introduced him the series as a young boy, commenting on TrekMovie saying "How much do I care [about Star Trek]? My late best wonderful uncle introduced me to this world. I would never do anything to hurt Trek. I will always care. For my Captain Robau."

Condolences to his friends and family on their loss.

Orci Comments Cryptically on Trek Firing

As reported last week, Roberto Orci is no longer directing Star Trek 3 but will retain producer credit on the movie. Now I think that means his involvement with the film will be next to nil but his posts in the comment section of TrekMovie.com seems to contradict that.


On comments about his level of involvement with ST3:

203. boborci - December 6, 2014
I will be very involved:)

To a comment about his inexperience as a director:

206. boborci - December 6, 2014
185. not at all. still excited to makeTrek 3! And on time. We’ll find the right director!

Roberto Orci Out as Star Trek 3 Director

Deadline and confirmed by other media sites that Paramount has fired Roberto Orci as director of Star Trek 3. According to the site, "Rampant rumors are swirling and I’ve confirmed there is fire behind the smoke that he won’t be directing. I even hear that Edgar Wright and others are on a short list to take the job. Orci stays on the project as producer, I’ve heard." The exact reasons have yet to be revealed (and unlikely will be). No replacement director has been announced but its probably early enough in the pre-production process that as long as Paramount does not drag their feet on finding a replacement they should still be able to get a 2016 release date.

It reads that he is essentially going to be completely removed from any involvement in the film a producer credit is more of a contractual thing than anything. Most films have at most one or two true producers that is on set and making decisions day to day with the rest of the list just names that were in some tangential way involved in getting the film financed or sequel carry over. In a weird way think of an executive producer as CEO of the movie, most of the other producers as vice presidents with one of the lot chosen as the project manager. Like at big companies, only the project manager is involved in the day to day decisions because their key job is to keep things on budget and on time. The support of the other VPs (other producers) and CEO (exec. producer) is necessary but their actual influence on what becomes the final product is minimal. So in this case Orci will likely get a producer credit but his ability to influence the movie that becomes Star Trek 3 is now at an end as probably so his involvement with the franchise as a whole (including the IDW comics). Since his work on the films has been a collaborative effort requiring him to mostly bend his desires to meet those of Abrams and others higher up the food chain, we really have no idea if this is a massive missed opportunity with a true Trekkie at the helm or a dodged bullet. Sadly we probably will never know for sure.

Orci Provides Star Trek 3 Updates, Quinto Ready for Next Film

Two minor updates on the Star Trek 3 front, one from Roberto Orci via Collider and another from actor Zachary Quinto (Spock) to IGN. Relevant quotes below but essentially Orci says the script is still being written and until its completed the film has not yet been officially greenlit and he has not officially signed on as director. Things will progress to official status once Paramount is pleased with the script. As for Quinto, he supported the choice of Orci as the director of Star Trek 3 and is looking forward to a story that takes place during the five-year mission.

Orci:

“Well, I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch. The studio has yet to even read the script. I’m in the middle of writing it, with the talented team of [John D.] Payne and [Patrick] McKay. They are true Star Trek fans, as well. So, I can’t even think anything about the future until I give them a script and they greenlight it. Until that happens, everything else is just a rumor.”

Variety: Roberto Orci Tapped to Direct Star Trek 3

Variety is reporting that Roberto Orci has been chosen by Paramount to direct Star Trek 3. The co-writer of all three Trek films was considered a frontrunner and had been campaigning for the job. Paramount and Abrams' Bad Robot have not officially confirmed the news but doubt Variety would report something straightforward without confirmation from executive level within one of the companies. Here is to hoping that Orci's history of high concept, poor execution movies was more the result of appeasing his writing and directing partners rather than a sign of his own storytelling limitations.

Roberto Orci New Frontrunner To Direct Star Trek 3

Deadline is reporting that after heavy campaigning, Roberto Orci has successfully placed himself as frontrunner to direct Star Trek 3. The writer previously co-wrote the scripts for Star Trek, Star Trek Into Darkness, Amazing Spider-Man 2 and other actions films.

On one hand this could be good news and Roberto Orci is a true Star Trek fan. He knows the TV series, the characters and more and isn't the not-really a fan that JJ Abrams was who really just wanted to make a Star Wars film but at the time that wasn't an option. On the other hand, the simple fact is Orci and his previous collaborators are awful storytellers. While Orci, Abrams, and company are excellent at conceiving a concept and Abrams has an excellent eye for casting, but they are just horrible at the details of execution. They are so focused on action beats that a coherent plot and character development becomes a rushed afterthought that gets "fix it in post".

Abrams, Stars Promote Star Trek Into Darkness

For the last week or so JJ Abrams and some of the stars of Star Trek Into Darkness have been promoting its home video release. Most of the time they covered the same "you should see this movie" ground they covered when promoting the movie theater release but a few nuggets of interest were said. Eve talks about the underwear thing, Abrams answers questions on Khan & the video game, Peter Weller defends his character, and Kurtzman and Orci focus on story choices. Below are the links to the stories and segments I found interesting. My comments will be in italics.

Spinoff Online - JJ Abrams

I think the thing was that Khan really is the most iconic villain of the series, and it felt like an opportunity to see another side of Khan and to something that, like the first film did, use elements that people were familiar with but in a new. It’s a valid argument that it’s about time for them to go off and discover and see things that have nothing to do with what we’ve seen before, and I think we’ll always have some overlap. But I’m excited about the next chapter.

Orci, Kurtzman Back for Star Trek 3

Despite previous reports, Paramount Pictures has decided to stay on course and re-signed Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman to write the script for Star Trek 3. However, Damon Lindelof is not part of the film so it might streamline the writing process resulting in a faster turnaround. Previously Thor writers Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz were rumored to be on board with Orci and Kurtzman in editor/consultant roles on script. I guess the in demand duo figured out how to open their schedule to meet whatever deadline Paramount (hopefully) is working from to prevent another four year gap between sequels.

I cannot say I am excited by this news. The writing record of Orci and Kurtzman is one of great ideas followed by subpar execution. I think they have big, great ideas but the details to effectively execute the big idea are beyond their skill set. Their cool ideas tend to be full of bad character development, many story holes, convenient solutions, and spectacle just for the sake of it rather than any story purpose. In other words, Hollywood considers them the perfect script writers. Which sadly is not really what Star Trek is about.

Star Trek Writers Talk Star Trek Into Darkness

The promotional campaign for Star Trek Into Darkness continues as Paramount is likely to do everything they can to try to take the weekend box office from Iron Man 3 in Europe this coming weekend. Quite the challenge considering the movies $175M US opening, $680M total already. In this post its a look as the writers of Star Trek Into Darkness spoke with TrekMovie.com about the film along with an interview with Karl Urban. Links and highlights below. A final bit is a video as JJ Abrams compares starting work on Star Wars with Star Trek. No information of any real kind is said.

Damon Lindelof Interview
- Unless cloning technology exists, "it is going to be tough" for Abrams to direct ST3.
- Hopes to work on the next feel as "care too deeply for Trek to step away."
- A replacement director would need a "passion for Trek" and a "vision for what comes next."

Orci and Kurtzman Interview from Star Trek Magazine

TrekMovie.com has posted excerpts from Star Trek magazine that is out now. In the issue, Star Trek Into Darknese writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman talk a bit about the movie's big bad John Harrison, the development of the crew and some of the themes they were aiming for while avoiding giving any spoilers.

Harrison as opposite to Starfleet believers:

Well he understands Starfleet because he was enlisted in a similar way. Some might see part of the title coming from the fact that he’s kind of a dark shadow of members of our crew. He too has gone through the process to some degree, that some of our crew have gone though, and clearly for some reason it’s failed to bring him over, so I think he represents that part of our heroes.

Enterprise crew still learning:

Kurtzman, Orci Remain Coy on Star Trek Villain

In brief comments to TrekMovie, Star Trek Into Darkness writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci commented on the name of John Harrison for the movies big bad as played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Roberto Orci had indicated months ago that the character would be a familiar one to Trek fans but (so far) that does not seem to be the case. When asked if he had lied about that, he just said "We will have to wait and see."

Alex Kurtzman said, "Well without revealing too much what I can tell you is that in the same spirit as "can the Enterprise be under water? What does that mean? How are we going to justify this? How are we going to explain it?" We went back and we talked a lot about things that made us want to make the first movie in the first place as fans. And what do we feel was successful for the fans. A lot of that had to do with honoring the history — honoring the show. But we also want to come up with a way to make the stories feel fresh and unpredictable. So without revealing too much, we applied the same thinking to Harrison."

Long story short, it seems my alias theory remains alive. The name is probably used in the movie but I think its the name used to infiltrate Starfleet, not the actual name of the character that will learned as the Enterprise crew attempts to stop whatever his master plan is.

Roberto Orci on Sequel Characters, Title, Trailer

In an interview with TrekMovie, Star Trek sequel writer/producer Roberto Orci shared a few tidbits about the upcoming movie. While not confirming anything specific, he did give an update on quest for a title, debunking Urban's Gary Mitchell rumor, and more. The two part interview is here and here, highlights below.

Highlights:
- Said would never lie when said in another interview a few weeks ago that Gary Mitchell is not in the movie.
- Fall is likely date for 1st teaser trailer.
- Have final list for official movie title but short list does contain two without "Star Trek"
- Canon characters: Alive Eve and Benedict Cumberbatch roles
- New characters: Noel Clark, Nanzeen Contractor, Peter Weller, Joseph Gatt roles
- First rough cut in about a month, still plenty to do with editing, visual effects, special effects, music, etc.
- Orci said that Paramount (Trek movie rights), CBS (Trek TV rights), and current Trek Supreme Court (Abrams, Orci, Kurtzman, etc.) have discussed (through intermediaries) the possibilities of a new Star Trek TV series depending on how ST2 does and plans for ST3. An animated TV show is a possibility. [Or to sum: lets talk next year if the film makes big bank.]
- For now, anything the ST Court works on can be considered canon but reserving the right to over ride it in the movies. So for now all comics, books, etc set in the 2.0 universe is all one universe. [So nothing really changes as Orci and co understand continuity anyway but might mean slightly more careful consideration in how things might connect when telling stories.]

TrekMovie.com: So how long will we not know who Benedict Cumberbatch is playing? How long will you guys try to not talk about it?
Roberto Orci: For as long as we can because of our belief that one of the fun things about Star Trek that distinguishes it from other franchises is that the story turns. It isn’t just the spectacle of Star Trek, not just the explosions and the battles, it is the plot. That is why we are so protective of plot and character with this particular franchise. In others that isn’t the case but in this one we can preserve the experience for some people of not knowing exactly until we get there. Will we succeed in keeping it under wraps? Probably not, but we will try it.

Orci Comments on Trek Series, Characters Not in Sequel

During a Q&A session for KERN radio over the weekend, Star Trek sequel writer answered a few questions about the sequel and the possibility of a future TV series. While he did not drop any specific nuggets about the movie, he did head over to TrekMovie and answered a few more questions including eliminating a few possible characters that fans theorized might be in the film. One was my pet theory that Alice Eve was cast as Janice Rand but that would be a negative as the Rand is not in the sequel.

The highlights:
- Have discussed doing a series after the movies but "Paramount controls the movies and CBS controls TV. So there is a little bit of power struggle there in terms of what happens. I have mentioned to CBS the idea of a Star Trek series and they are interested in it, but they would have to coordinate with Paramount and they would have to coordinate with Bad Robot." Basically I am not holding my breath on it occurring anytime in the next five or so years at least and definitely not with any existing movie cast members (I suspect they will run from Trek as fast as they can at the first opportunity).
- Remain open to doing an animated series, but "We haven’t even gone in to pitch, because the rights of how to get it done are so complicated that we are sort of waiting to see what can really happen."
- They might have a title with a "75% chance" it will contain the words "Star Trek" (I guess going the The Dark Knight route was considered)
- Characters not in the movie: Janice Rand, Gary Mitchell (2nd pilot episode becomes God-like), Charlie X, Ruck the Android, and the Borg.

Orci Q&A Reveals Sequel Tidbits

While on a plane ride, Star Trek sequel writer and producer Roberto Orci engaged TrekMovie fans in an impromptu Q&A about the yet unnamed Star Trek 2 sequel. It occured on the site's post about the five Star Trek Captains panel that occured this weekend at the Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con. He did reveal a few tidbits of info but for all intents the Abrams cone of silence remains intact. The full transcript is here. The highlight summary is below with my random thoughts in ().

- Klingons are in film, have ridged forheads like in cut scenes from 2009 movie. (*see below)
- Official sub-title still being debated (Always hard to top Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country)
- No decision has been made yet on what Trek might do at San Diego Comic Con
- "The sequel was hard to get behind and figure out" compared to first in part due to "benefit of lower expections."
- No date on teaser trailer, "but super soon."
- "Harry Mudd is not the villain. (Thank god, always hated that character)
- Would not answer question if Leonard Nimoy is in film. (Easy to say no if he isn't...)
- Simon Pegg (Scotty) does more in this film as does McCoy.
- Orci open to participating in a Trek TV and animated series. (Neither is currently in the works and likely will not be until Trek 3 comes out years from now)
- Said there are "more than a few" hints in the comic books about the sequel.

* The comment about the Klingons suddenly gave me the idea that Benedict Cumberbatch could be a Klingon. One that was cosmetically altered to infiltrate Starfleet. It would explain ability to take on Spock since Vulcans and Klingons are about equal in strength.

Orci Tweets Pics from Star Trek (2009) Set

Yesterday TrekMovie successfully campaigned to get Bob Orci's twitter account up to 10000 followers and as promised Orci tweeted pics from the set of Star Trek...the first movie. The pics show the cast and crew getting together for a photo, Orci on engineering set and Leonard Nimoy at work. To view the set with Orci's comments, click here. Considering JJ Abrams' love of secrets, I doubt Orci could post a pic of costume shoe from the currently filming sequel without getting in trouble.

Roberto Orci Talks on Sequel Writing Process, Time Jump

The other day Zachary Quinto commented on the Star Trek sequel script saying, "There was a writer's strike the first time so they weren't able to let the script evolve. Now it's really changing...on a regular basis." Apparently that caused some concerns among fans (not entirely sure why since drafts are the norm). Seeing this concern on TrekMovie, Bob Orci wrote their comments about the writing process and revealed that while the sequel will have a time jump; it may not necessarily be the real world gap of four years.

boborci: First, this movie is by no means written by committee. It has been written by ONE team. Me, Alex [Kurtzman], and Damon [Lindelof]. Thanks to the protective umbrella of the success of our first movie and JJ Abrams, we get less studio interference than almost any other production around. This process is the OPPOSITE of script by committee.

Orci Briefly Comments on Star Trek Sequel

Bob Orci, one of the writers for the upcoming Star Trek sequel, occasionally likes to lurk the web to read about what fan are saying about Star Trek. One of his stomping grounds is sadly not this site but TrekMovie where he answered a few questions about the sequel. He spoke about the budget (larger than last), scope (bigger), and mentioned that more of the engine will be seen in the film. In regards to what "more" means to the budget, the previous film's estimated budget was $145 million so as long as in that range that should give Abrams the room to make excellent use of visual special effects and add more lens flares.

Star Trek 2 Writers Continue to Talk Scripting

Between the San Diego Comic-Con and Cowboys & Aliens, the three writers of Star Trek 2 (or 12) continue to speak with the press about their work on the script for the movie and some of the pressure they feel in living up to fan expectations. Rob Orci and Alex Kurtzman talked about the fan pressure (wanting to live up to expectations) and 3D (not "thinking about 3D at this point).

Their writing partner, Damon Lindelof, spoke with MTV (video below) saying the "key relationships" and villain has been worked out. Lindelof did say no Borg but would not confirm Khan except to say that they did a "pro and Khan" list to help make a decision. They also hope to give the supporting characters a chance to "shine a little brighter".

Abrams Not Rushing Sequel, Expect More Enterprise

In an interview with IGN, writers Rob Orci and Alex Kurtzman said to expect more of the Enterprise.

They own the ship from day one, in the movie," Orci said. "It's their home now, first one was how do they get on that ship together. Now it's all the characters are established, including the Enterprise. It's certainly a discussion point of how do you address [Kirk's] relationship to that ship, and [the crew's] relationship... That's gotta go into the soup somehow, but it can't be the same way as how it was [in the pre-2009 Trek universe]."

Meanwhile, JJ Abrams tells 24 Frames that they are not going to rush the movie. Considering the film now has no release date, Paramount has pretty much indicated that they team has as much time as they need.

"There was a lot of desire [on the studio side] to fast-track a new 'Star Trek' and have it be shooting already," Abrams said. "And in theory we could have done that. But what all of us [the creative team] were concerned about is the release date be the master we were serving. Nothing is more disheartening than something going in front of the camera before it's ready. The crew can feel it and the cast can feel it. It's just a heart-attack machine."

Star Trek Sequel Release Likely Delayed

The writing team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman all but guaranteed that the film when not make its June 29th, 2012 release date in an interview Cinepremiere. They now say the sequel is hoping to start principle photography in January 2012. This would leave about five months to finish the script & pre-production, a more reasonable time line for a special effects heavy big budget film. The start date also means the film will either get a Christmas season release date or (more likely) a Summer 2013 start date. While the delay is annoying and shows an overall lack of focus on the part of the principle architects of the franchise, it does increase the probability that JJ Abrams will return to direct. (via TrekMovie)

Orci: We had ideas when we did the first [Star Trek] movie – we always think it is bad luck to think of the sequel – but we had some ideas for the sequel way back then and actually we are doing some of those ideas now and pitching and pitching them to the studio and JJ [Abrams] has been developing them with us. The idea’s that we had have stuck so we feel pretty strongly that we have an amazing story and we are going to be shooting very soon.

Q: How soon?
Orci: Hopefully…
Kurtzman: …Early next year.
Orci: I think probably in January, but every time we say "we will be shooting any second now," we are not, but it is going to be soon.