Kurtzman And Orci Splitting Up For Future Movies; Orci Looking To Direct Star Trek 3

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When it comes to blockbuster filmmaking, writer/producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have seemingly always come together as a package deal. First working together in the late 1990s as writers on the TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, they took their act to the big screen in 2005 with Michael Bay's The Island and have been Hollywood mainstays for big-budget summer action ever since. But now it appears that their partnership in features is coming to an end. Variety is reporting news that Kurtzman and Orci are "parting amicably" and will be moving forward in different directions with their future feature efforts.

The cause for the split is that both filmmakers want to start pursuing different directing opportunities. Kurtzman has already made his directorial debut, having helmed the family drama People Like Us, and he is currently attached to make the Amazing Spider-Man spin-off movie Venom. Orci, meanwhile, is apparently "laser focused" on directing the upcoming Star Trek 3, which recently hired Patrick McKay and John D. Payne to pen the script. His years of service in blockbuster movies - not to mention his work writing the last two films in the franchise - has apparently earned him the favor of both the folks at Bad Robot and Skydance, but Paramount right now seems to be hesitant about the idea.

Most recently, Kurtzman and Orci paired up to write The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which has already started opening around the world and will be arriving in theaters next week.

But Star Trek and The Amazing Spider-Man is far from the full extent of their reach in modern blockbusters. They also collaborated on the script for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen:

Wrote J.J. Abrams' Mission: Impossible III:

And even did the sequel The Legend of Zorro back in 2005:

For those of you concerned about Kurtzman and Orci's work on the small screen, don't fret - they will stick together on television. In addition to being executive producers on Hawaii Five-O, they are also working on new shows with CBS, CW and Robert Rodrigeuz's El Rey network.

Eric Eisenberg
Eric Eisenberg
Assistant Managing Editor

Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.