I'm so sure about Roberto Orci, but I'm pretty sure that Alex Kurtzman has cloned himself. The screenwriting and producing team are attached to at least one new project weekly, to the point that I encouraged them to take a vacation for god's sake, but Kurtzman-- even as he hammers out the Star Trek 2 script and a dozen other things-- is undaunted. In fact, he's moving on to the next stage of his career. Vulture reports that the benevolent Mr. Steven Spielberg has convinced DreamWorks to back Kurtzman's directorial debut, the small-scale drama Welcome to People.

The plot description sounds far more like a Sundance indie than the usual Kurtzman/Orci efforts like Eagle Eye and Transformers, and Vulture says Kurtzman specifically wanted the job to prove he's more than just an action guy. Kurtzman co-wrote the script with Orci and Jody Lambert, about a twentysomething who learns upon his father's death that he has an alcoholic sister and a troubled 12-year-old nephew he never knew about. Charged with bringing the two a $150,000 inheritance, the guy decides to keep the money but slip into the lives of his sister and nephew, without revealing who he actually is.

Vulture expects the project to come together quickly because the three lead roles are practically screaming "Oscar clip reel," but I seriously cannot figure out when he's going to have the time to do this. Do I really need to link back to Jordan Hoffman's hilarious rant to remind you that Kurtzman, Orci and Damon Lindelof need to focus on Star Trek 2 and chill out on everything else for a minute? I totally support Kurtzman pursuing a new angle of his career and bringing us a small-scale film, but I have to assume that one of his 50 projects already in the hopper is going to suffer as a result.