With its new $150 million Alex Kurtzman deal, Paramount is telling Star Trek followers: Resistance is futile

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The reviled tremendous producer’s cope with CBS has been renewed for one more 5 years, a lot to the bitter disappointment of most Trekkies.

In Star Trek lore, one of many biggest villains the United Federation of Planets ever confronted was the Borg. They have been a seemingly unstoppable drive that may assimilate complete races into their collective, stripping away every part that made them particular and distinctive earlier than shifting on to search out one thing new to eat.

On this sense, Star Trek’s present overseer – Alex Kurtzman – may be very very like the Borg. He has been recognized to churn out one disappointing Star Trek collection after one other, every of which disregards established canon however nonetheless trades off nostalgic references from higher collection which got here earlier than, all to the rising ire of abused Star Trek followers.

However with the information that Viacom/CBS has signed Alex Kurtzman and his manufacturing firm Secret Hideout to a brand new total deal till the yr 2026, the message to Star Trek followers is evident…

Resistance is futile

President and CEO of CBS, George Cheeks, just lately known as Alex Kurtzman “our future” regarding the community. Kurtzman has a protracted historical past with each Paramount Studios and CBS. He and his former accomplice, Roberto Orci, lower their tooth on the favored syndicated reveals Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. He then went on to group up with superproducer JJ Abrams on the reveals Alias and Fringe.

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But it surely was his characteristic movie work that earned him the title of “Hollywood’s Secret Weapon.”  Kurtzman and Orci’s work on Michael Bay’s The Island and Transformers films, in addition to The Legend of Zorro and the revitalization of Mission: Unimaginable (once more, with JJ Abrams) led to Kurtzman reaching “golden boy” standing, notably at Paramount.  All this led to Kurtzman being a part of the artistic group behind the Star Trek film reboot, beginning in 2009 (but once more, with JJ Abrams).

Regardless of being well-regarded in Hollywood, along with his initiatives from 2005 to 2011 having grossed a mixed whole of round $ three billion, Kurtzman is broadly often known as being a “unhealthy author with good concepts.”  He’s recognized for his excessive idea tales, but additionally for poor dialogue and nonsensical plotting.  He’s additionally broadly recognized for having little-to-no inventive integrity and can make adjustments primarily based on studio mandate, whether or not they make sense or not.

In fact, this fame as a “wunderkind” within the leisure business stemmed from Kurtzman’s strategic alliances with a bunch of tight-knit professionals together with JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof (LOST), Roberto Orci, Adam Horowitz (As soon as Upon A Time), Bryan Burk (Abram’s longtime producing accomplice), and a bunch of others.  Nevertheless, Kurtzman’s observe document after breaking off his partnership with Roberto Orci in 2014 and stepping out from JJ Abram’s shadow has been lower than stellar.

After his stint on the JJ Abrams’ Star Trek movies, Kurtzman selected to maneuver to Sony Studios to concentrate on the Spider-Man franchise, the place he wrote The Wonderful Spider-Man 2 and was tapped to jot down The Wonderful Spider-Man three as nicely. He was gearing as much as develop a cinematic universe round Sony’s Spider-Man license and was going to supervise a collection of movies primarily based on The Sinister Six characters.  Kurtzman was additionally going to be the author and director of the Venom movie as nicely.

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Nevertheless, the field workplace disappointment of The Wonderful Spider-Man 2 prompted Sony to “re-evaluate” its plans for the web-slinger, and earlier than lengthy, Kurtzman had jumped ship over to Common, the place he was put in command of that studio’s proposed “Darkish Universe”, which Kurtzman conceived as a shared-cinematic universe for the studio’s traditional monsters.

The “Darkish Universe” was set to kick off with The Mummy, which Kurtzman would direct, and Tom Cruise would star in.  Whereas this was occurring, Kurtzman’s TV manufacturing firm at CBS, Secret Hideout, had been tapped to co-produce the flagship season of Star Trek Discovery – the primary new Star Trek TV present since 2005 – alongside Bryan Fuller’s Dwelling Useless Man Productions.  Nevertheless, Kurtzman’s concentrate on Common’s “Darkish Universe” meant he had little involvement (or curiosity) in any of his TV initiatives on the time.  It wasn’t till The Mummy flopped that Kurtzman would retreat again to TV.  

With a reported $ 300 million funds, the movie grossed solely $ 80 million domestically and round $ 400 million world-wide (an abysmal efficiency for a film starring Tom Cruise).  Inside days, Common had ended its cope with Kurtzman and cancelled the plans for his “Darkish Universe.”  Thus, after primarily killing two enormous cinematic franchises, Kurtzman went to the one place left to him – CBS and Star Trek.

Since that point, Kurtzman has been actively concerned in all points of the Star Trek universe, producing three seasons of Star Trek Discovery, two seasons of Star Trek Picard, two seasons of the animated present Star Trek Decrease Decks, and one season of Star Trek Prodigy, one other animated present geared toward younger viewers.

However the creation of “Kurtzman Trek” has rubbed many longtime followers the improper manner.  Below his management, Star Trek has change into costlier to supply, launched nudity and foul language into these historically family-friendly reveals, and has seemingly fully disregarded long-established canon, all together with the type of nonsensical unhealthy writing Kurtzman is thought for.  This has led to an enormous fan backlash, with solely probably the most loyal core of the Star Trek fanbase (who’re prepared to just accept something with “Star Trek” within the title) pleased to look at these new choices.

Many had hoped that CBS can be taking the Star Trek license away from Kurtzman and his Secret Hideout firm when their preliminary total cope with the community was scheduled to finish in 2023.  However the brand new deal (rumored to be within the $ 150 million vary) now ensures Kurtzman’s management over Trek till no less than 2026.

Why CBS seems at Alex Kurtzman as its “future” has little to do with the standard of his choices (his abysmal collection Clarice, primarily based on the long-lasting e-book The Silence of the Lambs, was cancelled after just one season) and extra to do along with his output.  In a world the place studios are scrambling for content material for his or her streaming providers, producers like Kurtzman, who’re in a position to get a number of collection off the bottom concurrently, are in excessive demand. By no means thoughts the standard, simply admire the amount, maybe.

Along with the present Trek choices, Kurtzman is actively growing three new collection – Unusual New Worlds, Part 31, and Starfleet Academy.  He’s additionally growing new unique choices for CBS’s Showtime channel, the subscribers of that are vital to Paramount+’s backside line.

“He has an virtually supernatural capacity to maintain separate prepare tracks in his head, this present, this present and this present, and he can soar from one to the opposite,” Kurtzman’s writing accomplice Jenny Lumet mentioned in an interview with the New York Instances. “He is without doubt one of the few individuals who can maintain all of the trains working.”

Which is a good ability to have, for those who don’t thoughts a couple of of the trains going off the rails and crashing spectacularly.  Information of Kurtzman’s total deal hit Star Trek fandom like a nuclear bomb, inflicting quite a few social media posts decrying the choice.

On the finish of the day, that is one other instance of Hollywood being tone-deaf to their viewers and persevering with to work with creatives that care extra about their egos than the long-term well being of the franchises they’ve been entrusted with.

For now, Kurtzman and his management over Star Trek are right here to remain – boldly going the place nobody desires to go.