Speculation at one point was that Star Trek might not make enough money to warrant a sequel. Well those fears have been quashed with Star Trek pulling in $231 million domestically, making it the highest grossing film so far in 2009. It might be able to hold on to that title if it manages to fend off the upcoming Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (doubtful). Either way, script writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kutzman are in the limelight because they co-wrote both movies.
Orci and Kutzman sat down recently with SciFiWire to discuss their thoughts on Star Trek’s success, where they might take the franchise down the road and what type of story the sequel might follow. Both writers act like they have their heads together and have the same thought for the franchise: DON’T LET IT SUCK! They seem to understand the fine line they are walking between all new original stories based in the Trek universe and the re-telling of old Trek stories to keep the original fan base happy.
There is nothing set in stone as far as they are concerned and they haven’t even started working on a script yet (unless you count agreeing to do another movie as working). Orci said during the interview:
“We’re going to start thinking about it any second now. But we’re still just having a mental sorbet before we jump back in. And, you know, just seeing all the reactions to the movie. We want to make sure we take it all in and really figure out what worked and what didn’t and proceed from there. But now that we have … an open canvas, … anything can happen.”
Orci and Kutzman appear to truly understand what it takes to keep a franchise running (in theory anyway). They appreciate how much better their version of Trek performed at the box office over its Trek predecessors and aren’t taking that lightly. They went for a broad market share demographic and by all accounts they reached it. The true test will be how they handle a sequel – and we’ll get a chance to check that out with later this month when Transformers 2 opens.
If the story for TF2 is better then TF1 then my hopes (and others I’m sure) will be high that Star Trek 2 will be as good as or better than Star Trek 1. But it all starts with the story and if they don’t pick the right one to tell in Star Trek 2 then the whole franchise will fail before it really ever gets started. I think Orci has a grasp of that concept though:
“[you] just can’t use old things willy-nilly,… there’s still an internal logic that has to be followed. … We could still cross some lines [if] we think, “Oh, we can do anything now.” And a savvy fan will go, “Well, technically, [you can't].”
Well he’s absolutely, 100 percent correct on the last statement. There have been lengthy and heated discussions here on Screen Rant about that topic. Some plot points and questions about physics are to be expected; it is, after all, a science fiction movie about traveling through space with aliens while moving faster than the speed of light.
As far as the story goes, Orci and Kutzman aren’t sure if they will follow a new original concept that stays within the parameters of the Trek universe, re-tell another modified story from the show or mash the two ideas together. I wouldn’t plan on hearing anything about the script either until after TF2 starts winding down and they have time to regroup their thoughts.
On personal note, I wouldn’t mind seeing a good tribble story, but I don’t think it’s meaty enough to sustain a two hour movie.
Do you have confidence that Roberto Orci and Alex Kutzman have what it takes to keep the Star Trek franchise hot?
Read the rest of the interview over at SciFi Wire.
Star Trek is currently playing in theaters.
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