Since he first pitched it to producer J.J. Abrams back in late 2017, Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek movie concept has been shrouded in mystery, which included the question of who would direct the film.
In April, Tarantino himself noted that the project is still a “big possibility“, and last month he confirmed a script has been written and would be R-rated. Having Tarantino attached to direct would certainly raise the film’s profile and is something Paramount would probably prefer. However, Tarantino has always said he will be retiring from directing after his 10th film, and his 9th film – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – comes out later this month. So would he want to end his career with a sci-fi/franchise film?
Cinemablend asked the auteur writer/director if he might make a Star Trek movie his 10th and final film. Tarantino pondered the various possibilities, showing that he is still considering directing the Star Trek movie, and giving himself an out in case he doesn’t want it to count as his tenth and final film:
I guess I do have a loophole, [if] the idea was to throw a loophole into it. Which would be [to go], ‘Uhhh, I guess Star Trek doesn’t count. I can do Star Trek … but naturally I would end on an original.’ But the idea of doing 10 isn’t to come up with a loophole. I actually think, if I was going to do Star Trek, I should commit to it. It’s my last movie. There should be nothing left handed about it. I don’t know if I’m going to do that, but that might happen.
He also said that he is open to making Star Trek his 10th and final film. You can listen to the full exchange with Cinamblend’s Reel Talk podcast below:
With the follow-up to Star Trek: Beyond in potential permanent limbo, Tarantino’s Star Trek project would be the next film in the franchise. The project has been touted as such recently as this year by Paramount, but no serious movement has been reported about the film moving forward.
Keep up with all the news on upcoming Trek films at TrekMovie.com.
Ugh I don’t care anymore. There’s been *so* much back and forth with the 4th KU movie and this that it’s like. Whatever. If it comes out i’ll go see it.
Same with the new TOOL album – if it ever comes out i’ll listen to it of course but i’m not holding my breath.
Tool hasn’t been good since… what, 1996?
Disagree – I don’t think they started to slip until their 2006 album
No album after Aenima is worth a darn if you ask me. Maynard got distracted by the Tool wannabe band “Perfect Circle” and it was downhill from there. So instead of one all-time great band, we’re stuck with TWO awful bands that wish they were as good as early Tool.
That you guys are talking about Tool is showing how much you care about a New trek movie *lol*
Yeah, it’s all hemming and hawing. Just tell me when there’s a decision, one way or the other.
The real story here is that this great filmmaker is arbitrarily ending his career in his mid-50s. Why? Is he tired of gotcha journalists trying to brand him as an enemy of social justice due to the violence in his films? In any case, what’s he going to do for the rest of his life?
I think part of it maybe because of that, but he did also say that he was gonna retire after his 10th film long before all this “gotcha” journalism was there, so I think it was something he decided long time ago. I think he just wants to make films in his prime and doesn’t want to churn out subpar films at old age like some other legendary names in the business. Ridley Scott and De Palma come to mind.
alphantrion
That would be a good reason, if it’s true. But names like Scorcese, Eastwood, Altman and Kubrick also come to mind. They all made great films in their 60s, 70s and 80s (in the case of Eastwood). Directing doesn’t seem to be like music, where there’s almost always a significant decline in creativity after age 34 or thereabouts. But, if QT believes that his best days are behind him, then that is a good reason to hang up his spurs, sad as I will be about it.
According to the coverage of the film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” in the Australian edition of GQ, he says “I see myself writing film books and starting to write theatre, so I’ll still be creative. I just think I’ve given all I have to give to movies.”
For any of you who have spent your time working in the theatre arts, I’m sure you can understand the appeal :)
Chuck Abernathy
Sounds to me like his retirement from filmmaking will be temporary. Eventually he’ll want to adapt a stage play into a movie. He’ll be like Daniel Day-Lewis, who has been officially retired for two decades, but still turns in a great performance once every few years.
Which of course explains why you are reading this article and taking the time to comment on how this is so unimportant to you.
LOL
I feel like this guy is going to have 3 or 4 ‘last’ movies, but in any event I’d like to see his vision, and story for Trek. Go forth, Sir.
Steven Soderbergh went through the same phase saying that he was retiring from film to take up painting. When he got bored with that he went back to film.
Yep, like Barbra Streisand’s Farewell Tour(s).
Yeah – I went to The Who’s first “farewell” tour in 1982. I think they are currently on tour.
hahahahaha. Just before I saw your post I was thinking about The Who…..
I saw them in April, god they need to retire
I don’t see the point in limiting the number of movies you make. If you want to make it, then make it. Art can be spontaneous and messy. It ain’t accounting.
Says someone who is most probably not a successful artist and constantly in the public eye of fame.
Somehow Tarantino doesn’t strike me as the kind who is overly cautious.
By they way, are you having a bad day? Your comments here are a bit harsh.
No, sorry if I came across that way. It’s just seems like a lot of people here feel entitled to complain about QT. Others are saying he’s indecisive on this, which has never been the case — he’s said all along that he would make a decision after Once Upon a Time in CA, and that’s still on track.
I wish they would ask him who he intends to cast in his Star Trek film. The Kelvin crew minus Pine or with Pine. A New Cast?
https://twitter.com/ViewerAnon/status/1139736003881492481
Include Bakula as a more sweary Admiral “Knock ya on yer f–kin’ ass” Archer, and he’s got a deal.
that tweet is exciting….would love to see it.
I like that tweet.. its exciting
Summer 2021 – Batman, Indiana Jones, Jurassic 3, M:I7, JohnWick4, Thor 4, Suicide Squad 2, and Tarantinos Star Trek
“IF… and that’s a big if” Tarantino directs Star Trek it will not be out in 2021. Maybe 2023.
And by then it will be time for a new cast. The world has moved on from JJ Trek. I agree, I don’t think we’ll see another Trek movie till 22 at the earliest
the rumours are it will be the JJ cast interacting with Shatner and Stewart
why? if he gets the greenlight in the next couple months it could quite easily be out summer 21. none of those listed have started shooting yet either but are due for then.
‘Star ..’ 10th movie syndrome?
10th Star Trek movie: Nemesis
10th Star Wars movie: Solo
10th Tarantino movie: Star Trek?
10th 007 movie- ‘spy who loved me’
10th MCU movie -‘guardians/galaxy’
10th Pixar movie – Up
Tarantino’s “The Star Trek” would feature an older more haggard cast.
Kirk = Josh Brolin
Spock = John Malkovich
Bones = Nicholas Cage
Scotty = Samuel L Jackson
YES to Samuel L Jackson. Gotta throw in Leo DiCaprio as Uhura too
The ones i have heard fans say is Sam Jackson as Captain Sisko,and Leo DiCaprio as Captain Kirk.
I think he should just do what the hell he wants. If he changes his mind about making ten films, well so what. It’s his life and his career. If he does do Star Trek… that could be very interesting!
QT would do more if he gets the chance to make a Trek movie & it all works out.
I can see him continuing for as long as he wants. QT is now back in the studio system away from Miramax so he might find Hollywood welcomes him as long as he plays the studio system game his movies make money for everyone then he can have a lengthy career.
I wanna puke. The arrogance of this guy and his frigging movie list. It’s a hack, an ideas thief. It would be like having Mudd in command of the Enterprise.
Don’t mince words, Bones. Tell me what you really think.
shut up foolio
I’m really cautious about this. Not so sure an R-rated Trek will work. I’ll be there if they want to try, of course as I’m a fan. But I think if QT were going to do a franchise film I think his talents would work better in an MCU film.
Is the KU really that much different from the MCU? I see the KU fitting in the MCU quite nicely.
Yes. It absolutely is. KU is Star Trek. The MCU is the MCU.
I’ve gone back and forth on the idea of a QT helmed Star Trek as it seems like such an odd mix. Though in the end it’ll either be an entertaining mess, or the “Logan” of Star Trek movies. We’ve had enough bad Star trek that one oddball movie isn’t going to tank the franchise.
Exactly. At this point, what can it hurt? Make the film.
At this point, i’m more excited to see it than I have been since it was announced. I’ve loved his latest films (Django, Hateful, Inglorius) and would love to see a Trek film in that style. I would even love to see him remake one of those three, but in the Trek universe:
Star Trek: Django Unchained.
Two years before the Klingon War, Django– an Andorian held captive aboard a Klingon warship– finds himself rescued by an unorthodox Starfleet Commander named Schultz, on a mission to stop a pair of vicious Klingon marauders wreaking havoc along the Federation border. Their mission successful, the duo hunt the quadrant’s most-wanted criminals. Their travels take them to the infamous prison planet Rura Penthe, where Django’s long-lost wife is still in captivity.
Star Trek: The Hateful Eight.
While racing toward Starbase Red Rock shortly after the Klingon War, Starfleet Captain John Ruth and his fugitive Klingon prisoner encounter a bounty hunter and a man who claims to be the new incoming Commander of Starbase Red Rock. Hoping to find shelter from a coming plasma storm, the group takes shelter at a remote outpost located on the edges of a dangerous nebula. Greeted there by four strangers, the eight travelers soon learn that not all is as it seems– and they may not all make it to their destination alive.
Star Trek: Inglorious Bas****
In the midst of Cardassia’s occupation of Bajor, Starfleet officer and Section 31 operative Lt. Aldo Raine assembles a team of Bajoran civilians to commit violent acts of retribution against the Cardassians, including the taking of their foreheads. He and his men join forces with a resistance sympathizer, to bring down the Central Command. Their fates converge with a Barjoran theater owner, who seeks to avenge the execution of her family at the hands of the Obsidian Order.
Regarding your last idea: technically, there ARE “Space Nazis”…literally (see: “Patterns of Force”, TOS)
Yes, one of the worst hours of Trek ever filmed.
If Star Trek was his final film, it would elevate it to a level that’s kind of unheard of BUT it would shift the focus from it being Trek to it being all about Tarantino. I still think if he does it, it would be very 60s feeling and would look much more 60s than anything else. The aesthetic at least, would be in line with what some classic fans have been begging for.
maybe hes planning to go 80s II-IV era.. or even late 70s TMP era
If he does it, the focus should be on him rather than it being yet another ST. With a few exceptions, we’ve been getting another ST ever since Generations. When a premise and setting are announced, fans are immediately going to want to know how it fits into their canon. But the point of someone like Tarantino making ST is not to make a new ST. It’s to make a new version of ST.
I think a fun thing that could work would be to do something one off derived from the *original* Star Trek right down to the sets, uniforms etc (not worrying about continuity or treating it as part of the ‘real’ Star Trek). Only some of the effects would be updated – arguably much like the Star Trek Phase II production but on a grander scale. Then play in that world.
I hope he does it…I think it would be an awesome flick. He would stick to Star Trek lore. If it’s going to be Rated R that will be because of violence (Mirror Mirror anyone?), not nudity or anything like that.
some harder Trek violence would be nice. think stuff involving the transporter. e.g Kirk fighting some bad guy in the transporter room and dropkicks them onto the transporter pads, the bad guy grabs a phaser that he has on him or had been knocked on there and fires at kirk who ducks behind the transporter console.. bad guy is about to fire again but kirk quickly presses emergency energize and half their body is beamed away leaving half with insides/organs falling out collapsing into a bloody heap. and as Kirk does that relieved look he did in TOS Bones & scotty come in and Bones is like ‘jesus! I think hes dead jim’ and scotty is like ‘oh thanks very much captain!’
I don’t think a transporter where you can easily beam away half a body would be approved for use by Starfleet. That seems like the most basic equipment safety requirement.
which is why I had Kirk press the emergency energize button for use in emergency only 😊
For emergencies when you need to only transport half a person :P
for when u need to beam something anything out asap
Oh please just get on with it already! Make it DS9 based just to be different.
And hopefully, everyone dies at the end of his vision so that we don’t have to suffer through 2 lesser sequels…
Brad Pitt for the role of Kirk
I’d just assume his last movie be something else.
(Hopefully this one doesn’t get deleted)
Geez Paramount…I don’t care if you go throw a uniform on William Shatner and film him being grumpy for an hour and a half, just give us a freaking Star Trek movie already!
It won’t get a lot of audience. Whatever movie he worked on currently might as well be his last movie.
I do hope he does it, but I do hope it won’t be defined as his “last” film.
yes he (and the audience) could see it like that CSI (tv movie?) he directed just on a much larger scale . not really part of his ‘official’ series of 10 QT films (which are all sort of interconnected almost like a loose MCU right?)
or maybe hed consider OUATIH his ‘final’ QT type personal movie (it looks to be his most ‘Tarantino’ movie yet)and then retiring with Trek as the 10th movie but in a non personal way/not part of the QTverse (finally doing a big studio picture in a blockbuster/popcorn franchise like he tried to with 007)
Nothing to see here. Move along…
I suppose there will be nothing to see in today’s article either. That’s right, Tarantino hasn’t even seen let alone read the “draft” that Mark Smith wrote, if I remember correctly.
…and yet here you are…
Let’s be clear about one thing – QT has already written/directed 11 feature films (including Once Upon a Time…) There are ALREADY loopholes so this whole 10 films thing is already full of caveats. He’s either gonna want to make this film or not.
The Kelvin stuff was fun, but I think we’ve moved on. Let it go.