Commander Riker Would Love to Direct Star Trek 3

roseofbattle

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Apr 18, 2011
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Commander Riker Would Love to Direct Star Trek 3

Now that Roberto Orci has left the director's chair of Star Trek 3, a veteran Star Trek actor says he'd like to direct the film.

Jonathan Frakes [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/star%20trek%203], who played William Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation, would be giddy to take on the directorial role.

In an interview with Komo News, Frakes ecstatically said, "Hashtag BringInRiker! I'm all over it."

Frakes has directed several TV series in and out of Star Trek and two Star Trek films, First Contact and Insurrection.

Frakes said he's contacted Paramount Pictures to express interest and has spoken with producer J.J. Abrams, who directed the rebooted Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness.

"I'm trying to keep the lid on how excited I am about the possibility, knowing it's such a long shot," Frakes said. "But there's nothing I would like better."

That may indeed be quite the longshot as rumors point to Edgar Wright taking over as the director for Star Trek 3. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/star-trek/11277394/star-trek-edgar-wright.html] It likely won't be too long before we find out who's going to be the director since Paramount Pictures is trying to stick to a Star Trek 3 release in 2016, keeping with the series' 50th anniversary.

Will Paramount Pictures "make it so" for Frakes?

Source: Komo News [http://www.komonews.com/radio/home/featured/Bring-in-Riker-Jonathan-Frakes-wants-to-direct-Star-Trek-3-285401871.html]


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The_Darkness

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Nov 8, 2010
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First Contact is, hands down, without a doubt, no-shut-up-about-Khan, my favourite Star Trek movie (although that's in no small part due to Patrick Stewart being just awesome).
(Wrath of Khan is actually down around 3rd or 4th in my list - I rate Undiscovered Country above it.)

On the other hand, Insurrection... plays out like an overlong TNG episode. Fun, but not a good movie.

But then, Commander Riker commanding a Star Trek movie? That's almost too good to pass up. Consider my fingers crossed.
 

Ne1butme

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Nov 16, 2009
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Insurrection is not a point in his favor.

Edit - Just realized that he could be redeemed if he made all the new trek actors use the Riker maneuver to sit down. That would be glorious.
 

Dr.Awkward

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Mar 27, 2013
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Considering Frakes directed the last two of The Librarian series, which were all TV movies, he's done it before. But if you've watched it before, you'll notice two things about all three movies - They're not written very well and what he writes/directs tends to be a bit too campy for what it is.

So... I'm kinda meh about it when looking at his past works?
 

Mr. Q

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Apr 30, 2013
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It's certainly a step up from Orci, I'll say. At least Frakes has actually worked on Star Trek. Unless someone has a better option, I'd say go for it.
 

Greg Tito

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Sep 29, 2005
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First Contact isn't that great. It's a glorified episode, and I disliked the worp inventor guy so dang much.

Only good part was Barclay. :)
 

Rawbeard

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Jan 28, 2010
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No thanks. He would bring Worf into the story just to humiliate him. Frakes picked up some of Shattners worst qualities, but ate the ham, instead of acting like it.
 

Atmos Duality

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Mar 3, 2010
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*shrugs*
Couldn't be any worse at this point.
IMO, the last good (not great) Trek film to come out was First Contact, which, despite its flaws, actually has a point to it that isn't utterly ruined by pretentious gobshite or unbelievable mind-bending stupidity.
 

Soviet Heavy

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Jan 22, 2010
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Inserrection is a bad movie saved only by it's fantastic audio commentary. It has Frakes and Marina Sirtis ranting through the whole thing. Frakes is just laughing at how goofy the movie is, and Sirtis is drunk halfway through the commentary.
 

Aerotrain

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Sep 7, 2014
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I'd say let him have a hand at it just for how passionate he is about Star Trek, he's one of the actors who's always into the conventions and fan interaction and seem to truly love the source material. And yeah, he learned his lesson the hard way about being too stiff and boring in the first seasons so even if he won't make a great movie at least it'll definitely be a fun movie.Just make it part of his contract that he needs to keep the beard throughout all of production.

"You have the bridge, number one."
 

Tanis

The Last Albino
Aug 30, 2010
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Depending on what the movie is going for, I could see it working.
 

BoogieManFL

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Apr 14, 2008
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Better than some random dude who knew nothing about Star Trek, like the director of Nemesis.
 

Darth Marsden

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Sep 12, 2008
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No.

Frakes' filmography speaks for itself, frankly. He wasn't JUST responsible for two Star Trek movies - he was also responsible for the Thunderbirds movie. Since that abomination, he's pretty much worked solely in television, even directing an episode of Agents of SHIELD, funnily enough (1.08 - The Well, since I know you're curious).

Put simply, I don't trust the man to do a modern big budget action film, since the last few he's done were a decade ago and those weren't exactly high quality. He seems to have found himself a nice little spot doing TV work, and he seems to be doing pretty well there, so maybe he should just stay there.
 

Somethingfake

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Oct 22, 2008
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Greg Tito said:
First Contact isn't that great. It's a glorified episode, and I disliked the worp inventor guy so dang much.

Only good part was Barclay. :)
I'm afraid I'll have to disagree on that. First Contact was pretty much the only good TNG era movie, but we can still be friends despite this right?
 

Merlark

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Dec 18, 2003
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I don't remember those movies, so I am not sure of J.franks would be an improvement. maybe Movie bob could say more on his style. but while I enjoy both abrams star trek movies as sci-fi movies, they are completely terrible star trek movies. its like a high budget galaxy quest where nothing is taken seriously. which is fine, because its amusing to watch.

But as a reboot, turning everything into both a joke or random chance is pretty insulting. why is james t kirk captain of the enterprise? because some idiot made him first officer and died.

Which is worse, getting a bad star trek movie or possibly a good star trek movie but not a very good sci-fi movie?
 

Davroth

The shadow remains cast!
Apr 27, 2011
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As much as I like Riker as a character... I'd prefer Edgar Wright taking over. :p

On the topic of First Contact, whoever wrote that script must have forgotten to look up Picard's character, or wilfully ignored it. I fully expected him literally going for the jugular with a borg drone at some point... It wasn't insurrection bad, but damn...
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

Henchgoat Emperor
May 15, 2010
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Love Frakes, love his directing even if Insurrection wasn't great (it wasn't Motion Picture horrible or Final Frontier horrible either). Would definitely enjoy him helming the 3rd entry.
 
Dec 10, 2012
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As much as I love Jonathan Frakes, (First Contact is awesome and Insurrection's problems came from the script and Michael Piller's inexperience) and I think that he would be a better man for this job than almost anyone, I kind of don't want him attached to this.

At this point, I honestly want this Trek reboot to blow up in everyone's faces so we can forget about it already. I would rather no more of my favorite Old Trek actors become associated with this bastardization of a once-great franchise. (And now I hate myself for coining the phrase 'Old Trek.' God damn it J.J. Abrams.)