Kurtzman and Orci’s deal with DreamWorks is due to expire at the end of the year, and the split from DreamWorks is “said to be a friendly one.”

The duo is in negotiations to move K.O. Paper Products from DreamWorks to David Ellison‘s Skydance Productions. Sources claim that the deal will be “more than a basic production pact,” but details are not yet available.

Ellison, Kurtzman and Orci will produce the thriller Without Remorse, based on the Tom Clancy book of the same name, with Skydance Productions. Star Trek 2 will also be co-produced through Skydance.

Appearing on the My Geek Time radio show, the two revealed that they are seriously investigating the possibility of making the animated Star Trek. “We have asked about [an animated Star Trek series],” said Orci. “We have asked what the rights are and who owns it and what are the possibilities. It is a very early – kind of ‘is this a possibility?’ and we are waiting to hear back. But we would love to do it.”

“We just had the experience of doing Transformers: Prime on The Hub,” said Kurtzman. “We learned a lot from that experience and it would be cool to do something like that from Trek.”

Neither a start date nor a release date has been settled yet. “We’re still in open conversation,” said Kurtzman.

“I’ve heard so many things mentioned, but we have so much… it’s a matter of someone putting the date on paper and saying, ‘We’re starting,’ said Orci. “‘Is it a good date? ‘How much post schedule does the production really want?’ ‘Is it better to rush for a date we want?’”

Setting a date and then trying to rush to complete the movie “can be a very bad idea,” said Kurtzman. “Especially on Trek.”

With Star Trek movies having many special effects, it’s necessary to leave the proper amount of time to get them done right. “It’s just so effects-heavy,” said Orci. “You go, ‘Oh, we only need so many weeks for ILM to [finish] that.’ Then you get there, and you’re like, ‘Oh, maybe we didn’t give them enough time…’”

“You just don’t want to do that,” said Kurtzman, “especially on a movie that we all love so much and has high expectations.”

“Rushing means more expensive, and that’s a question for our benefactors, who have to decide how bad they want it in terms of that kind of stuff,” said Orci. “You can finish stuff [quickly], but it means more people working simultaneously. So those are, in a way, production things that aren’t just based on time.”

The characters in Star Trek XI weren’t quite what fans expected, but that was due to their youth. “Well, Spock, he’s pretty emotional in this one,” said Roberto Orci. “That’s because he’s younger.”

As for Kirk? “Well he’s known as this bookworm on legs who really understood the chain of command,” said Orci. “Well, He’s not quite there yet.”

In Star Trek 2, the characters will get “closer to what you know,” said Orci. “It was all about earning what you know and earning the fact that hopefully when you’ve seen them now, they’ve been through a couple of adventures, but they don’t know each other completely either. So there is still discovery, but there is also a little more familiarity and so hopefully, like the first one, it’ll feel like Trek but it will also uncover new ground.”

The writers, fans of Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, were especially drawn to the relationship between Kirk and Spock. For Star Trek IX, said Kurtzman, “Our first instinct was that Kirk and Spock should not get along.”

“There was a moment, where right after Vulcan was destroyed, we knew there would be a big fight scene between Kirk and Spock over how to proceed,” said Kurtzman. Trying to pen that scene gave the writers insight into why they cared so much about the characters.

“It was getting really heated and suddenly we realized that this was ‘the scene,’” said Kurtzman. “That was the moment in some ways we realized that we were kind of writing about oddly our partnership because Kirk and Spock had been such an inspiration to us. And so that was a nice moment of “Oh wow, this is…” feeling and now we realized why we were so connected to the material. And that was a great moment of revelation.”

IDW Publishing received permission from 20th Century Fox TV, the pilot’s producer, to show the pilot.

Locke & Key will be screened on July 22 at 10:30 A.M. in Room 8, and will be followed by a panel discussion in Room 9. The panel will include Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez, Josh Friedman, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.

According to an IDW ad, “This one-time-only screening of the entire pilot will show you just what a void there will be on your TVs this fall.”

TrekMovie.com spoke recently with writers Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who explained why it would be best to delay rather than put out an inferior product.

“We feel pretty strongly that the best version of this movie is directed by J.J. [Abrams],” said Lindelof. “And therefore we totally defer to his availability and when he wants to direct. This isn’t us passing the buck, but it is us passing the buck. Is it possible to start shooting the movie in September? Absolutely, we would totally be ready to go. But that doesn’t mean we are going to start in September, that is a question only J.J. can answer.”

“We made the commitment to each other on the first movie not to put that movie out unless we felt it was going to be the best version of the movie,” said Kurtzman. “And that meant taking our collective time. The first Trek had a release date of Christmas originally and we had to move it to the summer because it wasn’t going to be the best version, it was going to be rushed and it would have never been the movie that we put out there. Part of our responsibility to Trek is to make sure it isn’t rushed, that we take our time and do it right.’

Orci explained that a deadline for finishing the movie has not even been set. “Deadlines are great,” he said. “We haven’t had a deadline yet, and that is why we keep not finishing it. Give us a deadline and we’ll finish it. We only closed our deal with Paramount two or three months ago. So it is not just doing other things, it is ‘let’s find out when we are really going to go and then we will really get to work.’”

The writers admitted that the movie could be finished by June 29, 2012, but see no reason to rush it just to make that release date.

The trio updated the audience on the progress of the sequel. “As of right now, there is kind of a seventy-five or eighty page half script, half…I don’t know what it is,” said Lindelof.

“It is in a state of quantum flux,” said Orci.

The writers spoke about where the characters have gone and where the writers want them to go next. “The first one was about, ‘Spock is pretty emotional,’” explained Orci. “Well, he is younger And ‘Kirk, he is not a bookworm with legs who really understands the chain of command.’ Well he is not quite there yet. So you can get closer to what you know. It is all about earning what you know and learning that when we see them now they have been through a couple of adventures, but they don’t know each other either. There is still discovery, but there is also more familiarity. So, like the first one, it will feel like Trek, but it will also chart new ground.”

Star Trek 2 will also refer back to the destruction of Vulcan, and its impact of the Trek-verse. “We often referred to the destruction of Vulcan as the 9/11 moment of [Star Trek 2009],” said Lindelof. “There had to be an event that was so significant that it allows you to change the Trek universe, not just for the purposes of the first movie, but moving forward. The idea of saying, if you did something that huge, what would be the effect of that rippling outwards?”

The team admitted that there was a great deal of debate over destroying Vulcan, and it was not just done to show that “it’s our Star Trek now.”

Other topics of the discussion included blazing their own trail, researching old episodes for new ideas, time travel and villains.

From the three big networks, first up is CBS, which announced that William Shatner‘s $#*! My Dad Says has been cancelled after airing eighteen episodes.

Shatner reacted to the cancellation, thanking his fans on Twitter for their support. “Thank you to all for the outpouring of love you have shown $#*! My Dad Says,” he said. “I thank all of you for watching. My best, Bill.”

Not all the news at CBS was bad news though. Person of Interest, the J.J. Abrams crime drama, was picked up by the network and will air this fall, and ATV Today is reporting that Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci‘s Hawaii Five-O will get a second series. In addition to those shows, Chuck, directed by Robert Duncan McNeill, was renewed for a fifth season.

Next up is ABC, which renewed Jeri Ryan‘s Body of Proof and also picked up The River, in which Star Trek XI‘s Bruce Greenwood will appear.

Finally, NBC rejected 17th Precinct, Ronald D. Moore‘s futuristic police drama pilot, choosing instead to pick up another police drama, Grimm.

Alcatraz joins three other new shows: The New Girl, I Hate My Daughter, and Finder, which will air this fall.  Other shows which will appear on Fox include Terra Nova, Glee, Fringe and House.

But Locke & Key, executive produced by Star Trek XI‘s Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, and written by Josh Friedman, will not be appearing on Fox, who passed on the novel adaptation.

Other Fox shows that were axed include: Human Target, Lie to Me, The Chicago Code, Breaking In, and Traffic Light.

Locke & Key may yet find a home on another network.

Meyer will be a director’s cut of the 1982 Wrath of Khan to the festival. Kurtzman, Orci and Lindelof will take the stage together and the topic of conversation will be Star Trek XI‘s success and the trio’s plans for Star Trek 2.

The 2011 Hero Complex Film Festival will take place June 9-12 at the Mann Chinese 6 in Hollywood. Tickets can be obtained here.