Star Trek 3 Loses Director Orci, Production Shut Down Temperalily

Welcome back!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  It's Monday, so let's jump right in...

Just a few months after Roberto Orci was announced as the director of the upcoming Star Trek 3 movie, it was revealed last week that he no longer has that job.  This came as a bit of a surprise, Orci had been lobbying for the job after J.J. Abrams left the director's chair to helm the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens movie.  Orci has been a writer and producer for the previous two Star Trek movies, and this one was set to be his directorial debut.

At the time of the announcement that Orci was no longer the director of the upcoming film, no reason had been given.  But sources close to the set and company revealed that it may have had more to do with a disagreement on the script, rather than lack of faith in the newbie director. 

According to these sources, the script focused on the crew of the Enterprise, the Vulcans, and an unnamed new alien race.  The three groups are all trying to get their hands on a time-traveling device.  The Vulcans want it so they can go back and stop the destruction of their home planet of Vulcan.  If they were able to do this, it would essentially "reset" the entire Star Trek universe again, making what happened in the previous two movies pointless.  This storyline would explain how they were planning on bring the younger Kirk face to face with his older counterpart.  The rejection of this storyline may have been what led to Orci's firing.  Even though Orci is no longer the director, he will still have a producer's credit on the upcoming film.

With Orci out, they need to have someone take over as director, and soon, too.  Paramount Pictures is still aiming to have the movie released in 2016, just in time to capitalize off of Star Trek's 50th anniversary.  The list for new directors is short, with Edgar Wright's name leading the pack.  There is also an online petition going on that is trying to get the studio to hire Star Trek alumn Jonathan Frakes.  There had been no word from Frakes or Paramount regarding this petition.