Immediately following a very well-received Cowboys & Aliens panel at this weekend’s WonderCon in San Francisco, producer and screenwriter Robert Orci spoke with press backstage about the film, also dropping a few details about the upcoming Star Trek sequel which he’s scripting alongside writing partner Alex Kurtzman.
In addition to saying that he thinks that production will begin this fall, Orci admitted that specific fan reactions to the original film have directly influenced the sequel’s narrative and dropped a few hints about what fans can expect.
“Everyone said [Kirk] is too young to become Captain,” he explains, “So maybe in the next movie, somebody goes, ‘Man, you sure became Captain young and fast.’ You start to incorporate people’s opinions… If it’s organic to the story and you find someone who doesn’t think too highly of Kirk because he maybe skipped a few steps, that’s maybe a fun thing to consider. That comes from a fan reaction and maybe gives you a story point.”
Rightfully proud of the 2009 film, Orci still recognizes that there were other issues with the project that didn’t sit well with the entire fanbase and hopes that the sequel might offer a chance to rectify some of them.
“[Fans] wanted more character time with everybody,” he adds, “and, because that was an origin story for ‘Star Trek,’ everyone had to come in at a certain point. Now everyone is going to be there from the beginning, so they’re going to get that. Everyone sure hated engineering. They thought it looked like a brewery, which it was. I’ll pass that on to J.J. [Abrams] and see what he says.”
While the first draft of the script is complete, Orci’s job is far from over and plans to be working on the sequel for some time to come.
“We’ll be working and tweaking that story through shooting,” he says, “This time we don’t have a strike, so we’ll actually be able to change things on the set. On the last movie, we handed in the script and that was it. You couldn’t change a word. This one feels like we’ve got all the time in the world.”
Check back soon for the full interview!
