You may be used to seeing Roberto Orci‘s name paired with the name of his writing and production partner, Alex Kurtzman. They created Sleepy Hollow, and with J.J. Abrams, Fringe. They co-wrote, amongst many other movies, Transformers, Star Trek, and Star Trek Into Darkness. While their TV production company continues, they have amicably split from their filmmaking partnership, and Orci is writing Star Trek 3 with J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay.

Variety is now reporting that Orci will be taking on another role with that production, as he slides into J.J. Abrams‘s shoes as director of the third installment of the Enterprise reboot. Orci has been campaigning hard for the position, since Abrams stepped back to focus on the new Star Wars movie.

It’s quite the big “get” for a first-time director, but his history with the franchise, with Abrams, and as an executive producer gives me great confidence that Star Trek 3 will be in great hands. No word yet on whether he’s a lens flare fan…

No date has yet been set for Star Trek 3 (working title), which is expected to star Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Pegg, and Anton Yelchin.