The average moviegoer probably doesn’t recognize the names of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, but they are definitely familiar with their work. Over the past ten years, they’ve been attached to such massive blockbuster projects such as ‘Transformers’, ‘Star Trek’, and the next two installments of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’, as well as TV shows like ‘Hercules: The Legendary Journeys’, ‘Hawaii Five-O’, ‘Alias’, ‘Sleepy Hallow’, and ‘Fringe’. But now it looks like the partnership has come to an end as news has just broke today that they will be splitting up.
According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Kurtzman and Orci are going their separate ways in the movie industry. However, they will remain together on the television side of things through their company K/O Paper Productions, who has an overall deal with CBS TV Studios.
Sources say that the separation is an amicable one that has been a bubbling for a while now. After all, each one has been exploring some franchises separately as of late. Earlier this month, Kurtzman was tapped to direct the ‘Spider-Man’ spinoff ‘Venom’ for Sony in addition to Universal monster revivals for ‘The Mummy’ and ‘Van Helsing’. As for Orci, he’s working on the script for ‘Star Trek 3’ with J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. But if he gets his way, then he might be immersing himself even more in the starship Enterprise.
In addition to the huge news of the pair’s split today, word also got out that Orci is throwing his name in the mix to direct the third film in the ‘Star Trek’ reboot series, which has been left without a director since J.J. Abrams went on to join ‘Star Wars: Episode VII’. While no negotiations have begun yet, Variety says that co-producers Abrams and David Ellison back the bid. If he does land the job, it will mark the writer’s directorial debut, as opposed to Kurtzman who directed the indie film ‘People Like Us’.
Currently, it’s uncertain how their current film projects will be split up. Both members of the duo have collaborated on most of their current slate of work, but my guess is that Kurtzman will get the Spidey stuff and Orci will get the ‘Star Trek’ stuff. Regardless of who gets what, it’s being said that their production company will be reconfigured to accommodate their separate future endeavors.
While it’s disappointing that they’ll no longer be working together on movies, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are bright stars in the business and I’m confident that they’ll come out on top with this split. Are you disappointed that they’ll no longer be working together on films? Do you have high hopes for their individual projects? Sound off in the comment section.
