Roberto Orci Tapped to Direct STAR TREK III (Replacing J.J. Abrams)

Director-screenwriter-producer
Roberto Orci.

Roberto Orci has been tapped to helm the upcoming sequel of the second Star Trek series of films. He replaces J.J. Abrams, who directed the previous two films (Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness); he will be directing the seventh Star Wars film and will only produce this Star Trek feature. Orci (with J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay) will also pen the screenplay.

Orci, born in Mexico City to a Mexican father and Cuban mother was raised in Canada and the United States. In addition to his screenwriting, directing and producing credits on such film projects as Mission: Impossible III, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Watchmen, he is the co-creator, along with Alex Kurtzman and Abrams, of the Fox science fiction series "Fringe", on which he served as consulting producer. His television projects include "Hercules: the Legendary Journeys", "Xena: Warrior Princess", "Alias", "Hawaii Five-0" and "Sleepy Hollow". The Hollywood Reporter listed Orci as one of the 50 most powerful Latinos in Hollywood of 2007. 

Orci is currently in pre-production (as co-creator and executive producer) for the upcoming television series "Matador", which will premiere on Robert Rodríguez's El Rey Network. The television series will star Gabriel Luna, Alfred Molina, Julio Oscar Mechoso and Elizabeth Peña.

For more information, check out the Justin Kroll article in Variety by clicking here.