Kurtzman And Orci Talk Khan And Bringing In Another Writer On STAR TREK 3

Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have quite the impressive and extensive resume. The writing partners have teamed up on The Island, Mission: Impossible III, Transformers, Star Trek and of course Star Trek Into Darkness. They've also teamed up on the forthcoming Ender's Game, Edge of Tomorrow (formerly known as All You Need Is Kill), and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. They are also involved with numerous tv projects as well. Point being, they're very busy. Which is why they brought in Damon Lindelof to help with writing Star Trek Into Darkness. Below, the duo discuss whether they'll bring a third writer again on Star Trek 3 and if they listen to online feedback from fans about the projects they're working on.

Kurtzman admitted that they do read online responses to projects they're working on, even films they're in the middle of writing. Said Alex"Bob will constantly say when we're writing something, 'Oh you know, I've been reading a lot online and people aren't liking X or Y or they're critical of this or that.' We'll certainly weigh that into the things that we write. We'll decide if we want to give that total merit or say, 'Okay, but still there's more to be explored here and we really like it.' So I just don't believe that you're ever really finished. I think you have to let it be an evolving process. There's all these articles that are being written right now about the summer tent poles, and why some work, and why some don't. We've had a very fortunate summer, but I can't exactly tell you why."

So were they aware of the media frenzy surrounding Benedict Cumberbatch's role, and whether he was or was not Khan and the more current topic of debate of whether Khan was accurately portrayed in Star Trek Into Darkness? "Khan is a whole different ball game," said Kurtzman. He continued, "We debated whether we were going to us Khan or not for a year before we started writing anything. Before we committed to breaking story, even. Khan is the Joker of Star Trek. Khan is the most memorable villain in Star Trek and probably the thing that got me completely locked in on Trek as a kid. And because it was also, really the most emotional Trek ever, we knew what we would be taking on by taking on Khan. And part of it was, 'Okay lets do it because of all of the reasons, because we're protective of him, because we know what it means.' At the same time we talked a lot about how we were going to make it really different. We did not want to do a remake of The Wrath of Khan. And yet there are certain things about our version of Khan that you recognize, that feel similar, but it's not the same story. We just didn't want to do that and I think so far, for the most part, people appreciated that. But it took a lot of thought. We gave it a lot of thought."

And on rumors that they'll actually hire someone else to write the film or bring on another writer to help out again? Said Orci, "We are currently talking to Paramount to see if we can make a schedule work where we can remain involved, but again, for example the second movie we teamed with Damon Lindelof, so on the the third film we may do something similar. [But] With anyone who's willing and able to come help out with the crew of the Enterprise [not necessarily Lindelof]."