14 DAY TRIAL // Work on “Star Trek 3” has hit a bump in the road, as Roberto Orci, who penned the scripts for the first 2 installments in the rebooted series and was supposed to be making his directorial debut with the third, dropped out.
He will remain on the film as producer, but Paramount is now actively shopping for directors. No word yet on why Orci left, but the fact that he’s still acting as producer suggests that this was his decision, at least partly.
If Paramount is interested in what the fans have to say, they might find their director sooner than expected, because the fans think that Jonathan Frakes would be just perfect for the part.
Frakes played Commander William T. Riker on the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” series and following films, but he also has experience as a director. It’s true, most of his work is in television, but he could probably cut it as director of such a massive feature film as well, the fans are convinced.
Frakes’ directorial credits include “Star Trek: First Contact,” “Star Trek: Insurrection,” “Deep Space Nine,” “Enterprise,” “NCIS: Los Angeles,” and “Burn Notice,” and he’s been honing his skills for decades.
The fans have faith in him so, to that end, they’ve set up several support Facebook pages and are tweeting messages to Paramount under the hashtag #BringInRiker. Many of them say that no other director would be perfect for the job than one who was also part of the Enterprise crew.
Plus, with Frakes as director, imagine how many times he’d get to sit on a chair after swinging his leg over the back of it, like Riker loved to do. It would happen off camera and we wouldn’t see it, but we’d know he’s doing it, right?
