RobertOrci Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I'm not one of those waiting for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen with a whole lot of anticipation. I feel bad about saying that, but let's face it, Transformers passed me right by as I was playing with Strawberry Shortcake. Many have tried to re-educate me on the awesomeness of Optimus Prime, and failed.

Nevertheless, even I have to admit it's pretty cool when a screenwriter drops in among their fans for a good sequel chat. That's what Robert Orci, one of the scriptwriters for Transformers 1 and 2, has done over at Transformer World 2005. The dedicated can sift through what is currently 82(!) pages of script Q&A, by the time you read this, it will probably be 182. Much of it is hints as to which robots might factor into the sequel -- including a tease that Arcee, the girl Transformer, might appear. On the other hand, he's careful to remind fans that anything you hear about the film is probably careful disinformation, but well meant. "It is fun to 'play' with fandom, not to toy with fandom -- I do not hand out disinformation."

But there's a few reliable sounding bits in here. According to Orci, the sequel will be more "global" in scale, and that there won't a lot of re-introductions. "The first movie is all about the mystery and reveal of the Transformers as a concept and a species, which means we had to hide them a lot in the first hour. In the second movie, now that everyone believes in the universe, we can jump right into the world of the Transformers." The movie will be firmly rooted in Transformers mythology, but will also maintain the "liberties" taken with it in the first film.

He insists they're listening to fan input, so anything you want to see, now's the time to demand it. I'm going to go ahead and demand Arcee, if only to ponder how Transformers can have gender, and whether she will be pink.

The last time an Enterprise crew paid a visit to the multiplexes, the result was 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis, which was the fourth (and final) sojourn of the Next Generation gang. Prior to that we had Robert Wise's The Motion Picture in 1979, the Holy Trilogy of The Wrath of Khan ('82), The Search for Spock ('84), and The Voyage Home ('86), and then ... The Final Frontier ('89) and The Undiscovered Country ('91) before Picard's crew (thankfully) took over. Their efforts yielded Generations ('94), First Contact ('96), Insurrection ('98), and the aforementioned Nemesis. And for a while it looked like that was it, at least as far as the silver screen was concerned. Yeah, right.

Today's Variety indicates that not only has a Star Trek 11 earned a green light, but also that J.J. Abrams will be the one behind the helm. (Abrams, as you most likely know, wrote and/or directed such entertainments as Alias, Lost, the upcoming Mission Impossible 3, the underrated Joy Ride, the certifiably insane Armageddon, and the woefully atrocious Gone Fishin'. Yes, J.J. Abrams wrote Gone Fishin'.)

And that's not all. Seems that Mr. Abrams will be joining the Federation with his MI3 writing team of Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci. (These guys also wrote The Legend of Zorro, The Island, the upcoming Transformers adaptation and, if the IMDb is to be believed, an old Nintendo game called The Goonies II.)

According to the Variety report, the new flick "will center on the early days of seminal "Trek" characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer space mission," and hopes to be complete in time for a 2008 release. Talk about living long and prospering, eh?