‘Star Trek 3’ Will Not Be Written by Roberto Orci, Either

A couple of weeks ago, we learned that ‘Star Trek’ writer and producer Roberto Orci would no longer be making his directorial debut on ‘Star Trek 3.’ Shortly after, ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise helmer Justin Lin was tapped to direct the film, while rumors swirled that Orci had been booted over issues with the script. Those rumors seem to have been confirmed now, as Orci has revealed that he is only acting as a producer on ‘Star Trek 3' and nothing else.

Over the years, Orci has been a presence on the TrekMovie message boards, where he’s notoriously gotten into arguments with fans in the past. When it was announced that he was no longer directing the third film, Orci took to the message boards to assure fans that he was still involved, although how much he would be involved remained unclear. Now, in a post on the site about Justin Lin taking over for ‘Star Trek 3,’ Orci popped up once again to comment on the situation.

First, Orci left this brief comment:

I’m producing, [nothing] more or less.

Orci had previously worked on a script with Patrick McKay and John D. Payne, which was rumored to center around a time travel device, which the Vulcans were racing to obtain so they could go back in time and stop the destruction of their planet as featured in J.J. Abrams’ first film. This would effectively reboot the franchise, and Paramount was reportedly unhappy with this script.

With Orci no longer writing the screenplay, it seems that those reports over Paramount’s issues with the script are correct. When Orci was asked by a fan if they should boycott the film now that Justin Lin is directing, he replied:

I won’t lie, I don’t know yet, but the story we are talking about would be awesome, hang in there!

Some fans were apparently taking digs at Bad Robot, Abrams’ company that produces the ‘Trek’ films, which is when Orci chimed in with this arrogant statement:

Stop blaming [Bad Robot]. It was my idea so that you would not know what was gonna happen next. Nothing more or less. I stand behind it. And it, again, is the reason why I make movies and you don’t.

Tough talk from a guy who just lost his first directing gig. It’s unclear who will take on writing duties for the film now that Lin is in the director’s chair and Orci’s script has been tossed. ‘Star Trek 3' is scheduled to hit theaters on July 8, 2016, so Paramount still has some time to wrangle a new script.