WhenJ.J. Abramsfirst took over theStar Trekfranchise for the 2009 reboot, the self-proclaimedStar Warsfan made it no secret that he was aiming to make his film more inline with something from LucasFilm than the original 1960s sci-fi TV series upon which it is based. Writer and producer of that first movieRoberto Orcihad been hired by Paramount to continue the franchise withStar Trek 3shortly afterJ.J. Abramsbailed on the series to makeStar Wars: The Force Awakens. As many fans know,Roberto Orciwas soon fired from that movie, andStar Trek 3starSimon Peggmoved into replace him alongside Doug Jung. While many thought that maybeRoberto Orci’s first draft, which he wrote with newcomers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, was simply awful,Simon Peggreveals it was quite the contrary. The real reason the firstStar Trek 3draft was dropped and recreated from scratch was because it was just a little bit tooStar Trek-y.Simon Peggexplains:
“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 billion dollars. Star Trek: Into Darkness made half a billion, which is still brilliant. But it means that, according to the studio, there’s still $1bn worth of box office that don’t go and see Star Trek. And they want to know why. People don’t see it being a fun, brightly coloured, Saturday night entertainment like the Avengers. [They want to] make a western or a thriller or a heist movie, then populate that with Star Trek characters so it’s more inclusive to an audience that might be a little bit reticent”.
Simon Peggwent onto blast current geek culture, saying that today’s modern day blockbusters are dumbing down audiences. He cites recent films for not addressing anything currently going on in the world. And he admits that he wants to stop being a ‘nerd’ and take on more serious acting roles. But that might not be possible in today’s Hollywood landscape. He goes onto say:
“Before Star Wars, the films that were box-office hits were The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Bonnie and Clyde and The French Connection, gritty, amoral art movies. Then suddenly the onus switched over to spectacle and everything changed … I don’t know if that is a good thing. Obviously I’m very much a self-confessed fan of science fiction and genre cinema but part of me looks at society as it is now and just thinks we’ve been infantilised by our own taste. Now we’re essentially all consuming very childish things - comic books, superheroes. Adults are watching this stuff, and taking it seriously. It is a kind of dumbing down, in a way, because it’s taking our focus away from real-world issues. Films used to be about challenging, emotional journeys or moral questions that might make you walk away and re-evaluate how you felt about … whatever. Now we’re walking out of the cinema really not thinking about anything, other than the fact that the Hulk just had a fight with a robot. Sometimes (I) feel like I miss grown-up things. And I honestly thought the other day that I’m gonna retire from geekdom. I’ve become the poster child for that generation, and it’s not necessarily something I particularly want to be. I’d quite like to go off and do some serious acting.”
What do you think aboutSimon Pegg’s comments? Are they a bit too controversial or right on the nose? And what about thatRoberto Orciscript? Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all?
