Television and film screenwriting Orci and Kurtzman began their writing collaboration on the television series
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, After actor
Kevin Sorbo suffered a stroke, the duo were required to come up with inventive ideas to minimize his appearances on screen. Due to this work, they became
show runners at the age of 24. They would go on to work together again on the
Fox science fiction series
Fringe where all three were listed as co-creators. Orci and Kurtzman received their break in writing for films in 2004, with the
Michael Bay film
The Island, When Kurtzman and Orci first met Bay, he asked the pair "Why should I trust you?", to which Orci replied "You shouldn't yet. Let's see what happens." While the film was not an overwhelming success, they were brought back for Bay's following film,
Transformers, after producer
Steven Spielberg asked them to come in for a meeting. The movie took in $710 million at the box office. in an uncredited capacity. They worked once more with Abrams, on
Mission: Impossible III. When they collaborated once more with Bay for
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, they were under significant time pressures due to the
2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike. Kurtzman and Orci had two weeks to outline the film, and after the strike Bay had them moved into the
Hotel Casa del Mar. The hotel was six blocks away from his office, enabling Bay to conduct surprise inspections. In the period between 2005 and 2011, the films written by Kurtzman and Orci grossed more than $3 billion, leading to
Forbes describing them as "Hollywood's secret weapons". The busyness of their screenwriting careers required them to collaborate with other writers due to the number of projects they were involved in. For example, on
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, they teamed up with
Ehren Kruger,
Becoming a producer Orci's first credit solely as a producer came with the film
Eagle Eye, where he worked once again alongside Kurtzman. He said in an interview with the magazine
Extra that he had previously been involved in productions where the producers had writing backgrounds and had looked to them for help, and he was happy to provide that same support to the writers on
Eagle Eye. Following their work on
Eagle Eye, they were executive producers on the
Sandra Bullock film,
The Proposal. and it was picked up by
Fox. Orci took five years to bring the series
Matador to television, with it originating from a conversation with his cousin Andrew. It was created for
Robert Rodriguez's
El Rey Network, and Rodriguez's one demand of the show was that he could direct the pilot episode. Orci later explained in an interview that it was an easy decision, and he needed to pretend to consider it. Orci and Kurtzman also worked together as executive producers on the animated television series,
Transformers: Prime, due to their involvement with the live action movies. Following the end of the series they were hopeful to be involved in a future animated series based on the premise, which Orci saw less like a reboot of the show and more of a continuation in a different guise. He felt that while
Prime was sophisticated, there were concerns that it was leaving younger viewers behind because of its complexity and intensity. and adding the return of
Leonard Nimoy as
Spock from
Star Trek: The Original Series. Orci felt that the relationship between the
James T. Kirk and the younger Spock was reflective of the partnership of himself and Kurtzman, he said that "We didn't even realize we were writing about ourselves until we were halfway through the script-that was a little embarrassing.” The studio set aside a larger budget for the sequel, which was revealed by Orci in an interview with TrekMovie.com. Orci ruled out the "hero quitting" staple of a second movie, which had featured in the
Transformers sequel, saying that the crew of the
Enterprise were committed and that type of story does not have to apply to all sequels. During the buildup to the film, called
Star Trek Into Darkness, Orci was one of the production team who did not give much away about the villain in the film and denied that
Benedict Cumberbatch was to play
Khan Noonian Singh.
Breakup of the partnership In April 2014, Orci and Kurtzman confirmed to
Variety that they were no longer going to work together on film projects but will still collaborate on television. Kurtzman wanted to work on the
Spider-Man film franchise, while Orci was linked to the directorial role for
Star Trek 3. Orci and Kurtzman's K/O Paper Products continues to operate as a production company within
CBS Television Studios, and has created the series
Scorpion inspired by the life of
Walter O'Brien for the 2014–15 season and
Limitless was created for the 2015–16 season from the 2011
film. Prior to the split of Kurtzman and Orci, the duo were lined up to write the
third film in the new
Star Trek series. In May 2014, Skydance and
Paramount Pictures announced that Orci was to direct the third installment of the
Star Trek reboot franchise, after Abrams moved on to direct
Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This would have marked Orci's directorial debut, and he was to write the script alongside co-writers JD Payne and
Patrick McKay. Due to his commitment to
Star Trek 3, he dropped out of a new
Power Rangers film, for which he would have been executive producer. But on December 5, it was announced he would no longer be directing the
Star Trek film. He remains credited as a producer on the film, and was replaced by
Doug Jung and cast member Simon Pegg as the script writers after Orci's initial script was dropped. Orci was replaced as director by
Justin Lin, who had previously directed films in
The Fast and the Furious franchise. Orci created
Matador with the idea that the main character would be a "soccer player by day who is a spy by night", and called him a "Latin
James Bond". The series was broadcast on the
El Rey Network created by
Robert Rodriguez. It was renewed for a second season shortly before the pilot was broadcast, In March 2020, it was reported that Roberto Orci was hired by Sony to write a script for an untitled
Marvel film that would be set in
Sony's Spider-Man Universe. ==Personal life and death==