Paramount Wants ‘Star Trek 3’ To Be Less ‘Star Trek-Y’
By Germain Lussier/May 20, 2015 12:00 pm EST
For the upcoming Star Trek 3, titled Star Trek Beyond, co-writer and co-star Simon Pegg recently said the studio felt an early script for the movie was “a little bit too Star Trek-y.” That suggests the studio wants something that’s less “Star Trek-y.” What exactly does that mean? We’ll explore what that means for the Star Trek 3 plot below.
Pegg was talking to Radio Times Magazine (via Trek Movie) about Star Trek Beyond when he said the following:
That’s most likely the script Roberto Orci, who was originally going to direct the film, was doing. Orci is a hardcore Trek fan who was rumored to have gone very deep into the sci-fi bones of the franchise. Pegg himself doesn’t go into specifics about what he means but does add this:
They had a script for Star Trek that wasn’t really working for them. I think the studio was worried that it might have been a little bit too Star Trek-y.
Avengers Assemble, which is a pretty nerdy, comic-book, supposedly niche thing, made $1.5 dollars. Star Trek: Into Darkness made half a billion, which is still brilliant. But it means that, according to the studio, there’s still $1 billion worth of box office that don’t go and see Star Trek. And they want to know why.
To a layman who only knows Star Trek from a few movies and general pop culture feeling about the franchise, this may sound odd. Star Trek as a western? Or in a heist plot? But Trek experts, such as Devin Faraci at Birth Movies Death, point out that Paramount’s idea of “Too Star Trek-y” might be completely wrong:
So maybe the problem is that Paramount doesn’t even know what Star Trek is. Maybe if they do make a film that’s a bit more fun and crazy and out there, something further away from the general stoic perception of Trek, that will be the thing that strikes a chord with audiences.
I read that last bit and I say to myself… oh, they just want to make it like the original Star Trek TV show. A show that was pitched as Wagon Train To The Stars, a space western. A show that had episodes where Kirk and Spock found themselves on a planet ruled by 1930s mafioso, a show where the spirit of Jack the Ripper took over Scotty and a show where one of the greatest episodes is a submarine battle story. They had episodes that were courtroom dramas and episodes that were love stories. To me that is Star Trek - a bunch of different genres and story types into which the Trek characters are inserted.
Star Trek Beyond, directed by Justin Lin, will be released July 8, 2016.
