Last month J.J. Abrams said he was still waiting for Damon Lindelof, Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman to submit their script to Paramount before deciding whether he’ll direct the Star Trek sequel or not. If they want to hit their June 2012 release date they’ll need to get a suitable draft in pretty soon, and that seems to be the aim as a tweet from Orci suggests their deadline is sometime next month.

From @boborci via Trek Movie:

aiming to turn in first full draft of Star Trek in six weeks or so.

If the script is filmable we should be hearing news on whether Abrams will direct sometime in April. A summer shoot seems likely, but according to Trek Movie that might “slip a bit” in order to accommodate Chris Pine’s schedule. Paramount pushed Star Trek back from December 2008 to May 2009, so there is a possibility they’ll push the sequel back if needed.

As well as Pine, Zoe Saldana, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and John Cho are all expected to return.

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With a June 2012 release date currently set for Star Trek 2 Paramount may want to start filming in early Summer or late Spring. However, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are still working on the script and J.J. Abrams has yet to decide whether he’s directing.

He’s the latest on the sequel from Abrams himself, from IGN:

Q: How is Star Trek coming?

Abrams: There’s a script that’s being written by Damon Lindelof and Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman and I can’t wait to read it!

Q: So at this point, you’re not quite sure what’s in it?

Abrams: Oh, no. I’ve been developing the story with them, so I know the story. But they’re writing it and obviously I’m on the edge of my seat to crack the script open.

Q: Do you know when you might make the decision on whether you would direct it or not?

Abrams: Well, as soon as I get the script, that will be the thing. It’s just difficult to direct a film when you haven’t read the script, that’s all. But they’re hard at work, so…

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were hired to write Star Trek 2 way back in March 2009, but since then they have written and produced Cowboys and Aliens with Jon Favreau and have a bunch of other movies keeping them busy. Paramount will want to keep that June 2012 release date, so pre-production will likely begin soon and we can assume Abrams will once again be directing.

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UPDATE: Hero Complex has now updated their story, claiming their confirmation that Abrams is back as a director was a mistake. As of now, no director has been officially announced. Original story follows.

Hero Complex spoke with Star Trek 2 writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and revealed an important piece of news I haven’t seen officially confirmed until now: J.J. Abrams will be returning to the director’s chair for the sequel to 2009′s Star Trek. Hit the jump for some more choice quotes about the highly-anticipated sequel.

In the interview, the writing team – one of the most in-demand in the industry right now for blockbusters  - says they “have broken the story, which is very exciting.” But what direction will they take this new film now that the crew has been formed and everyone is together?

We’re looking at a lot of the old episodes for inspiration, still. Whereas the last movie was all about breaking free from “Star Trek” and its canon, now that we can do whatever we want, we still want it to feel like good ol’ “Star Trek” even though it’s a new story.

When asked if Star Trek 2 will have an Empire Strikes Back feel to it, where it’s essentially “Act 2″ in a larger story, the writers had this to say:

Yeah, that is an interesting question. I don’t know that we’ve ever thought of it in terms of a trilogy. We thought of the first one as, “How do we tell how this happened the first time and how do we free it so that it can go on forever without stepping on what came before.” So, if you were thinking of this movie as a second act, yeah, you would think of it as an “Empire Strikes Back” sort of story, but I’m not sure we’re thinking of it as a second act. I can’t speak for everybody on that, though.

Check out the full interview at Hero Complex and let us know in the comments section if you have high hopes for Star Trek 2. With that great ensemble cast and with Abrams at the helm, this is one of my most anticipated movies of the next few years.

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During a recent Q&A session with Star Trek writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman the duo spoke about the sequel, which they are in the process of writing. They said that now the first film has set up the characters the crew members will have to deal with a much more challenging villain next time around, and they also spoke of the pressure due to the success of the first film.

From TrekMovie:

Orci: We would never do a remake….it will be some time in the five year mission. But that is a question. Should we pick them up immediately the next day or should it be later, we are still discussing that.

Kurtzman: I think our idea on this is that the first of any series is about them coming together or the formation. I couldn’t really tell you what Jeff Bridges was doing in Iron Man, but it doesn’t matter at all because it is all about Iron Man becoming Iron Man. Whereas I think sequels are very much about the villain. Because while [in the first one] the villain serves to bring the crew together, the second one I think has to be a true challenging of what that family is about. That is why Wrath of Khan was so amazing. Khan tested each one of them and ultimately asked for the ultimately sacrifice, and that is why that movie held up so well.

Orci: Frankly I fee more pressure because we were so confident when we came up with the idea of how to bridge canon, and yet free ourselves from canon. Now we have no excuses for anything, now we are free. Now we don’t have the benefit of low expectations.

Kurtzman: It is true, I feel much more pressure.

I’m not that knowledgeable when it comes to Star Trek, so are there any villain(s) you’d like to appears in Star Trek 2?

Paramount recently set a release date for June 29, 2012, and filming is expected to start at the beginning of 2011.

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Buried in an article by The Daily Beast (via /Film) about how the success of Avatar is changing movies and 3D, there is a short paragraph that mentions Cowboys and Aliens, which Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau signed up to direct last year. Apparently the film will start shooting in July, and Favreau will be filming it in 3D.

If July is indeed the planned filming date then that will only give Favreau 2 months rest after finishing Iron Man 2 to begin work on the film, which explores what would happen if the traditional Old West enemies – cowboys and Native Americans – found the prairie attacked by aliens in mid-1800s Arizona. Robert Downey Jr. has signed up to play a character called Zeke Jackson, who I assume is the lead cowboy, and the script was written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, writers of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Star Trek.

The teaming up of Favreau, Downey, Kurtzman, Orci could produce some very exciting results, especially is cowboys, Native Americans and aliens are involved in all out war. However the Transformers 2 script was weak in many areas that didn’t involve explosions, so hopefully Favreau can steer it away from mindless action and add some depth. Even if the plot is ridiculous.

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With nearly $400 million in worldwide box office takings and overwhelmingly positive reviews Paramount are no doubt pleased with the performance of J.J Abrams’ Star Trek this year. Their pride will probably be extended even further knowing that the film is also the most pirated movie of 2009. Or maybe it won’t? Either way they are happy with it enough to green light a sequel, which is currently in the process of being written.

Zoe Saldana, who played Uhura in Star Trek, recently spoke to MTV while on the rounds promoting Avatar and she gave a small update on the sequel:

“I spoke to J.J. and Bryan Burk, his producing partner at Bad Robot, and they are still in the middle of building the script with Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, and we’ll probably be going into pre-production around this time next year.”

So if all goes swimmingly production on Star Trek 2 could begin early 2011. This could mean Paramount are aiming for a Winter 2011 or Summer 2012 release, which is light years away.

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Last week Michael Bay informed the world that he had started working on Transformers 3, and that it would be hitting our screens in 2011. This means they may start hashing out a script over the upcoming months, but who will be writing it? Back in March writers Roberto Orci And Alex Kurtzman hinted that they might not be returning as it was “time for fresh blood!” and they don’t want to risk becoming “stale and comfortable”. Now they have confirmed that their Transformers days are over.

From /Film:

Producer Don Murphy maintains a pretty lively website and forum that was crashed for a bit this morning when Roberto Orci confirmed in a forum post that he and Alex Kurtzman would not return at all for Transformers 3, leaving script duties entirely in the hands of Ehren Kruger. (Well, not entirely, as Michael Bay will have his input.)

2009 was Orci and Kurtzman’s year having written the scripts for both Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, however I’m still not sure if they are any good or not. Star Trek was one of the best reviewed films of the year with 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, while Transformers is one of the worst with a mere 19% and complaints of a bad plot and characters with no depth.

Regardless of talent, their films make money (which is good enough for some) and they will be busy working on the Star Trek sequel, as well as Cowboys and Aliens with Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau.

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A little burst of Star Trek sequel news for everyone, especially since there seems to be a small groundswell of journalistic activity questioning if Michael Bay is really going to step away from Transformers 3 to direct a “smaller movie.” The argument is that Transformers: ROTF stands to make Bay a butt-load of money and that a third film in inevitable. The problem is that pre-production should start in a couple of weeks to make a timely sequel, and screenwriters Bob Orci and Alex Kurtzman are busy working on the upcoming Robert Downey Jr action flick, Cowboys and Aliens as well as actively being in discussions with JJ Abrams about Star Trek 2.

That’s right, stepping away from the Michael Bay question, Orci and Kurtzman have expressed interest in running away from the Transformers franchise, but have promised Paramount a draft of Star Trek 2 by this holiday season.

In a video from Collider at the Saturn Awards, Steve Weintraub asks JJ Abrams about his involvement with the Trek sequel…

[Note: You can watch the video embed, directly to the right of the title in the "media box" area, or you can CLICK HERE to check it out at the source.]

If that wasn’t enough to quench your Star Trek thirst for awhile, or if you’re still blaming Orci and Kurtzman for the failings of T: ROTF (instead of rightfully blaming the WGA Strike), check out THIS POST at TNMC that discusses the scenes cut out of the first Abrams Star Trek film, including a whole Klingon subplot…that actually makes a lot of sense.

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Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman are having a pretty good year, regardless of what you think of their most recent releases, Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen. Without a doubt, these two are the biggest screenwriting duo currently working, with their next screenplay being the blockbuster-sized Cowboys and Aliens for Dreamworks.

However, Revenge Of The Fallen happens to feature two possible racist robots, Skids and Mudflap, who talk in ebonics, constantly bicker, can’t read and one even has a gold buck-tooth. Add their ape-like build and the fact that T:ROTF is aimed at children, and the internet goes up-in-arms about racial stereotypes that have no reason being in the film.

As quickly as possible, the PR machine has hit the digital streets to quash the uproar the likes of which I haven’t seen since Jar Jar Binks. AP managed to corner Bay:

Director Michael Bay insists that the bumbling ‘bots are just good clean fun.

“We’re just putting more personality in,” Bay said. “I don’t know if it’s stereotypes — they are robots, by the way. These are the voice actors. This is kind of the direction they were taking the characters and we went with it.”

If these characters weren’t animated and instead played by real black actors, “then you might have to admit that it’s racist,” [Tasha Robinson, associate entertainment editor at The Onion] said. “But stick it into a robot’s mouth, and it’s just a robot, it’s OK.”

But if they’re alien robots, she continued, “why do they talk like bad black stereotypes?”
Bay brushes off any whiff of controversy.

“Listen, you’re going to have your naysayers on anything,” he said. “It’s like is everything going to be melba toast? It takes all forms and shapes and sizes.”

Bay obviously doesn’t care if he’s created racist characters and pointed those stereotypes directly at an audience of children, but Orci and Kurtzman seem to be distancing themselves from the decision to include the Twins, something they insist Bay told them to put in the script (hence their near-total absence from the finale sequence).

From Film School Rejects:

They’ve already claimed in other interviews that the gold tooth and several other elements were Michael Bay’s idea, but when I talked to them, they moved beyond that to claim they were disappointed by the characters.

Cole: I heard that the gold tooth was Michael Bay’s idea, but do you have any response to those who found The Twins offensive?

Orci: Number one, we sympathize. Yes, the gold tooth was not in the script, that’s true.

Kurtzman: It’s really hard for us to sit here and try to justify it.I think that would be very foolish, and if someone wants to be offended by it, it’s their right. We were very surprised when we saw it, too, and it’s a choice that was made. If anything, it just shows you that we don’t control every aspect of the movie.

Cole: Were you offended by them?

Kurtzman: I wasn’t thrilled. I certainly wasn’t thrilled.

Orci: Yeah, same reaction. I’m not easily offended, but when I saw it, I thought, ‘Someone’s gonna write about that.’”

Smart move, guys, just point towards your director and run the eff away! Live to write predictable tent-pole films another day!

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I think I would be correct in saying that Star Trek has officially been ‘rebooted’, and apart from the DVD release fans are also looking forward to the sequel. Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman recently spoke to SCI FI Wire and said that they’re already thinking about the sequel, and they know their dilemma: whether to come up with an original story or go back into Trek lore to retell a story that’s been dealt with before.

“I think the major lesson we learned is that fans were willing to accept differences and surprises, provided that they were somehow echoes or inspired by canon,” Orci said in an exclusive interview earlier this month. He added: “We still have to be true to Star Trek the next time around, but we’ve also been blessed with being able to be unpredictable. And that doesn’t mean we can just be shocking for no good reason and just throw everything away. … It still has to echo everything that Star Trek has been.”

At this point, the writers don’t have a story or even a premise. “We have agreed to write another one,” Orci said. “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.”

You can read the whole interview by clicking here!

I am not a Trekkie so have no idea where they could go next time round. However, with the same writers and director i’m sure it will be in good hands.

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