Back in 2018, the Oscar-winning writer/director Quentin Tarantino was working with J.J. Abrams on a very different kind of Star Trek movie. The film was based on an idea of Tarantino’s and it would have been R-rated. Paramount put the movie into development in parallel with a planned “Star Trek 4” followup to Star Trek Beyond. Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) was brought in to write a script, but by the end of 2019, Tarantino had backed away from the project. Now Smith is talking more about the movie and why it didn’t get made.
Tarantino’s Trek writers room
In an interview posted before Christmas on Collider, Mark L. Smith talked about working with Tarantino and why their Star Trek film ended up being shelved:
“Quentin and I went back and forth, he was gonna do some stuff on it, and then he started worrying about the number, his kind of unofficial number of films. I remember we were talking, and he goes, ‘If I can just wrap my head around the idea that Star Trek could be my last movie, the last thing I ever do. Is this how I want to end it?’ And I think that was the bump he could never get across, so the script is still sitting there on his desk.”
Tarantino had always said he would end his directing career with ten movies, which is the “number” Smith is referring to. At that time, Tarantino was working on his ninth film, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, which was released in 2019. Earlier this year, Tarantino announced his tenth and final film will be The Movie Critic.
Smith talked a bit more about the Trek film, adding it was “just a balls-out kind of thing.” He didn’t want to offer plot details for fear that Tarantino “would kill me,” but did confirm how different this would be from other franchise entries:
“I think his vision was just to go hard. It was a hard R. It was going to be some Pulp Fiction violence. Not a lot of the language, we saved a couple things for just special characters to kind of drop that into the Star Trek world, but it was just really the edginess and the kind of that Tarantino flair, man, that he was bringing to it. It would have been cool.”
In 2019, Tarantino said Smith delivered a “cool” script and also described it as “Pulp Fiction in space.” After the project fizzled out, Smith revealed the film would have included James T. Kirk as well as other familiar characters, and it would’ve involved “gangsters.”
Spock and Kirk get their gangster on in “A Piece of the Action”
Even though the script is finished, it’s understandable that Paramount would not be interested without Tarantino himself attached as director. Paramount has run through a number of potential Star Trek film projects with several writers and directors since the thirteenth film in the franchise, 2016’s Star Trek Beyond.
The studio is reportedly still actively developing a new follow-up set in the Kelvin universe. After the WGA strike ended in September, the studio was said to be hoping to get the project back into pre-production “soon,” but there have been no reports since, and just last month star Chris Pine said he still had not seen a script.
Find more news and analysis on upcoming Star Trek feature films.
We so dodged a bullet on this one. Thank god it didn’t happen.
Couldn’t have been any worse than Into Darkness. That should have never been made.
Exactly. Or Nemesis, or Insurrection.
or Beyond (we could’ve had a great anniversary/time travel movie with Orci’s ST3 starring Shatner instead of Guardians and the Furious)
“IT’S A SAAAAABOTAGE!!!!”
😁
Actually, Beyond was the best of the 3. It was the most Star Trek like. I actually quite enjoyed it.
Agreed. Beyond felt to me like the first time the Kelvin cast truly felt like their Prime counterparts.
I too enjoyed it.
Beyond is the film that is the most like the Original Series.
Most like a Gold Key comic more like :D
Go outside.
“we could’ve had a great anniversary/time travel movie with Orci’s ST3 starring Shatner”
When was Shatner ever attached to the Orci movie?
Orci’s vision for his movie was to have Pine’s Kirk either meet Shatner or show an aged Kelvin version of Kirk played by Shatner,
In his comments about the script he stated it was Kirk Prime and deaged slightly with CG therefore Shatner kirk would be somehow taken from before died in Generations (as to how is anyones guess, obviously something to do with the ancient timeline altering device)
Bill and Leonard reuniting on screen would have been awesome but it wasn’t meant to be, Leonard got sick and died.
I think it was still going ahead after Leonard died. until Paramount pulled the plug and brought in Pegg/Jung/Lin, with Pegg citing Orci’s ST3 as ‘too star trek’ (the villain wanting to change the timeline back to primeverse with some ancient device, Kirk&Spock encounter Shatner Kirk who helps them) .. apparently Paramount wanted it more Guardians of the Galaxy meets F&F (which had both become huge in the interim). and maybe they felt it was too similar to ST09?
The too Star Trekkie complaint is ridiculous. If they don’t want to make Star Trek they should sell the franchise. Its not Marvel and its not Star Wars. Beyond is one of the most disappointing things ever in my lifetime of watching science fiction films. To be fair i liked Jaylah, i liked the Franklin, i thought the space station was designed well. I liked Bones and Spock in it. But the motorcycle scene was dumb, destroying the Enterprise was dumb. The Beastie Boy music in space was idiotic.
Bones and Kirk drinking was just a reference to Star Trek II. Its like they can’t help themselves.
They also wasted Idris, but to be honest none of the villains in the KT is compelling, at least not like Montalban Khan. I don’t remember i single line they spoke. Other than maybe Nero, James T Kirk was a great man but that was another life.
I think some stuff in Beyond (like that Kirk Bones birthday scene) was most likely was from Orci’s ST3 (despite Pegg saying he’d never seen the script), id also hazard a guess at Krall being based in the villain from the orci script just giving a different ‘mcguffin’ to chase/obsess over instead of the timeline altering one (but his motivations will have been similar). Orci has said in TM comments that Bryan Cranston was being approached to play the villain, and that Alice Eve would’ve been back, and Shatner would’ve been ‘cgi deaged’ to Generations era for Kirk Prime.
Sounds like it would’ve been a cool Trek movie for the 50 anniversary. with big Trek events like potentially altering the timeline, Shatner Kirks return, maybe even Nero and the Kelvin – like a big Yesterdays Enterprise/City on The Edge style timetravel/timeline adventure (and maybe a commentary on how fans can’t let the old stuff they love so much go).
Beyond was a waste of a movie imo, a nothing movie like Insurrection, I don’t care if Spock/Bones had some banter and that Pine and the rest seemed more like their ToS counterparts, or that the Enterprise got destroyed. again (and judging by the box office neither did audiences). The only scene that was great was the Star Trek V photo (and I wouldn’t be surprised if that probably from the orci script)
It would have been great for the 50th Anniversary. The only problem was Paramount for whatever reason didn’t want to market it that way. i think that ties into the “Too trekky” thought process. They went with the Guardians of the Galaxy wave instead. Perhaps they can wake up and get it right for the 60th Anniversary. This would be the type of movie that could be an event. The problem is they want Marvel money. Even Marvel is struggling with their last few releases. They should give Orci a writing credit and work off this concept. Have whatever writing team make some tweaks to Paramount’s liking and make a freaking movie already.
Id LOVE to see Orcis ST3 reworked for ST4 for the 60th. Could still get Cranston, and have Alice Eve back and maybe even Shatner (at 95!). Just keep the budget in check so no exceed 150m (so long as it makes Marvel money. which is now in about the Beyond 300 millions range!)
Oh definitely Shatner.
Nemesis was bad. Insurrection had a great story but was messed up with the delivery.
In a way, I am harsher on Insurrection than Nemesis, because at least Nemesis, for all it’s bad faults, wasn’t boring.
The end of Nemesis is very good with the standoff between the Enterprise and Scimitar and i think Data’s death was poignant. The family aspect of the crew also felt real and not forced. I can’t hold it against Nemesis that Picard ruined it all. B4 was dumb though, just another Spock remember thing if they made TNG movie 5 to bring Data back.
I agree 100%. It would’ve been a disaster.
Agree! 👍
It sounded like an awful idea all around. But if they made it I would’ve checked it out. Someone else beat me to it, it still couldn’t have been worse than Star Trek Into Dumbness or Nemesis.
STID was the absolute worse to be sure my friend. The plot was just… WOW!
Agree as usual bro, Star Trek Into Drek will go down as one of the most ridiculous Trek movies ever made.
So your diabolical plan Admiral Marcus is to literally hand Fratboy Kirk all the illegal evidence and trying to kill off the augments by having the Enterprise shoot off 80 photon torpedoes with them in it in enemy territory just to take out one guy?
Can anyone tell me the last time a ship fired that many torpedoes at anything outside of fighting a war? Why doesn’t Marcus just take ten minutes out his day, fly his big ludicrous ship to the sun and just shoot the torpedoes into it and then go get lunch when he’s done?Wouldn’t that just been easier. He obviously knew Kirk had the IQ of a mockingbird but c’mon???? It’s amazing how dumb everyone is in that movie in order to make the plot work.
This is the kind of amateur plotting I would’ve wrote in a story…. when I was ten.
Sorry I’m ranting again lol.
LOL I’ll add to that. Admiral or no Admiral. How do you build a war ship with that many resources taken away from that many other ships AFTER the battle of Earth in ST ‘09 and justify it and say, oh, I’m just using an entire space port no one can use by myself. Not even Section 31, which was HILARIOUSLY misrepresented in this movie, has that kind of capability. And then you are going to sent the federation flagship into the heart of the enemy, intercept them, and just blow them up and not think you are going to get caught? I mean TNG had some DUMB admirals in its time and I know this is not TNG but WOW this takes the cake!
he wanted the enterprise to be caught, having sabotaged the warp drive
Bu why?? No pun intended, what is the endgame there? What was he going to accomplish that he could not have by like any other means?
And of course what’s more ridiculous is that he convinces Kirk to fire the ‘cloaked’ torpedoes from the edge of the neutral zone but the Enterprise itself isn’t cloaked??? Did these geniuses really think they can bombard one of the most militaristic and suspicious species in the Quadrant and they couldn’t figure out it was a Starfleet vessel that is lobbing dozens of missiles on their homeworld?? Hasn’t it been made clear multiple times that all advance races have the ability to identify ships from their warp signature?? Did no one bother to raise that issue the second the Enterprise warped back to Earth? And isn’t there surveillance all along the neutral zone so ships can’t just roll up unannounced and just start shooting at their planet??
It’s all good though, the torpedoes are cloaked and the Enterprise will just hide behind a comet or something as it’s doing it.No one would be the wiser. 🙄
And then Marcus rolls up disappointed his fool proof plan didn’t go as envisioned but decides to blow the Enterprise up to complete his dasterardly mission only this moron is now doing it on Earth’s doorstep with a ship that is illegal for him to even have.
And once more there isn’t any surveillance near the freaking moon?? He’s going to destroy a Starfleet vessel that hasn’t fired one photon at him but somehow suggests his actions were justified. Really the black Star Destroyer he’s riding in and five times the size of the Enterprise is going to somehow convince Starfleet brass it was the other ship that was the real threat although there isn’t a single scratch on the Vengeance (most ridiculous name ever) that he secretly built illegally off the books and took out the flagship killing everyone because they had Khan onboard? Sounds like that wouldn’t bring up any questions at the hearing.
But then when Scotty manages to knock out the power of the ship Kirk doesn’t come up with a plan to evacuate the ship with all the shuttle crafts and escape pods to send them to Earth or even the moon which is literally just fine minutes away at impulse speed. Noooope! Instead he does a space jump to the ship with just him and Khan to literally take out an armed ship full of men on their own hoping to take down the ship. Bro, use that time to get your crew out of danger using the shuttles to ride back to Earth and tell Starfleet what is going on.
It’s sooo ridiculous. If they were trapped in the middle of space with nowhere to go, that makes sense. But we have to believe they can’t send help of any kind when they are literally a few minutes away and have shuttles sitting there.
But then we can’t have the dramatic scene of them being pulled into Earth’s atmosphere even though they are literally hundreds of thousands of miles away from it.
These people couldn’t have written the script in more than just a few days with all the mountain size potholes in it. 🙄
LOL my friend I could keep going and going like the energizer bunny on this. At the end I will say this. There are a handful of truly great sequels in this world that surpass their original. Wrath of Khan is one of them. What is SO IRONIC here is that they tried to copy Khan sooooo badly here and they accomplished nothing but the exact opposite. To make a sequel SOOO BAD it killed the franchise, or at least that leg of the franchise and the franchise as a whole for a whole lot of years.
Yeah man, you know me I can go on forever! 😉
STID is just a total bleep show of a movie. It proves why Abrams was a true hck who never should’ve been anywhere near Star Trek and thankfully hasn’t been since. They praised this guy like he was the second coming and he destroyed the movie side after just the second one.
And I think the first one was even dumber than the second one, but it gets a pass because it looked like a masterpiece after Nemesis and it comes off super cool looking and shiney with a fun action story and decent characters. And there was no Khan in it or magic blood or WOK stuff.
I’m not saying JJ verse is the only dumb movies in Trek obviously, both TOS and TNG has a lot of dumb stuff too and Nemesis is still my worst Trek movie of all time. STID is my second worst though. It’s why I never really cared about the movies but the Kelvin movies are typical blockbuster movies dumb. Leave your brain on Risa and just enjoy the explosions dumb.
Getting back on topic maybe Tarantino would’ve just had a better written story but I really doubt it would’ve been a great Star Trek story based on everything we heard and probably why it didn’t get made.
I’m totally saying it. The JJ-verse movies were a bunch of dumb popcorn fun movies at best and pure racist at worst. I’m Indian and I AM PISSED OF THE WHITEST GUY ON THE PLANET got cast to play Khan. I know Ricardo Monoban wasn’t Indian, but at least he was a person of color. Cumberbatch is the perfect example of white washing I have ever seen!
Also, I’ll add when Tarantino was once about to make his Trek movie, he said he didn’t get the Kelvin universe and how it was different from Prime Trek. Jar Jar Abrams just told him I don’t get it either, who cares? Just make the movie you want. That is a douche and not someone that cares for the franchise in the slightest and I will NEVER watch anything associated with bad robot again!
he wanted the flagship of the Fed/starfleet to make the move to start the war he wanted against the klingons.
but the big mistake in the end was bringing back khan full stop
But why? At the end of the day, he may be an evil admiral in the grand tradition of all evil admirals of the TNG era… But why have Starfleet start the war? If he can be that manipulative, he can’t come up with a better scheme to make Starfleet look better in this?
It’s still better then Generations.
No, no it isn’t. And I think Generations suck too. Nothing about the Nexus makes a lick of sense. But everything about Star Trek Into Disaster is beyond stupid.
The movie starts off with the Enterprise being underwater for some strange reason and is never explained in a pre warp society that isn’t supposed to know they are even there. To this day I still try to wrap my head around how did Fratboy Kirk manage to secretly enter a ship that is half a mile long into the bleeping water without a local spoting it. Did they just wait for them to all go to sleep or something?
What’s crazy (but weirdly more impressive) is the movie manages to get even more dumb as it goes.
Probably just because it looks cool is why it was underwater. It reminded me of Space Battleship Yamato
The funny thing about what you just said is me and Amirami discussed this very thing on another website a few months ago. I literally used that as an example and said Abrams probably base most of his decisions on what goes into a movie if he thinks something looks cool or not, regardless how it impacts the story. TROS was filled with it.
I’m not getting on his case because he wants stuff to look cool and flashy, that’s the case with most $200 million movie. But at TRY to justify it in the story. He spent all that time and money for that scene but he couldn’t bother to come up with just TWO LINES to explain why it was down there? Two lines! I don’t think he ever even thought about it.
It’s all flash and no substance with that guy and people have finally realized that after the SW sequels
They were seen by a pre warp civilization and because of that the Enterprise became their new god. Pike wasn’t pleased. Nibiru fate was decided, the people were supposed to die and Spock played god, violating the prime directive. Jim made it worse by not letting Spock die. And being seen.
That’s what happens when you base an entire movie on paranoid Bob Orci’s conspiracy worldview. There is a reason that dude is no longer welcome in the industry, and why his former wife maced him and took a baseball bat to his door.
A truth be told I dunno anything about that stuff but I can’t disagree about the STID paranoid stuff.
The events of the 2009 film leading to a more hawkish starfleet arming for another potential attack by time of ITD made sense to me and not some product of a conspiracy theorist
Congrats!
That is literally why the Enterprise design is different and Starfleet is more militaristic. Nero’s incursion. It is why they woke Khan up early to build weapons for them. Why Space Seed never happened but we have Wrath of Khan early.
It can both make sense and also be the product of the mind of a paranoid weirdo. Because Orci *is* a paranoid weirdo.
Well, you didn’t offer up a citation for your more salacious observations, so I had to look it up. It seems your version of his personal issues isn’t supported by the court filings. Whether you like the guy or not, there’s no reason to slander him.
Yes, I don’t believe spousal abuse has ever been caused by a disagreement over the grassy knoll or some other conspiracy theorist nonsense. Deeper issues were at work there.
OK, I do admit that is not necessarily a causal relationship, and if anyone was offended by that remark, I apologize.
That being said, 911 Truthers to me are some of the lowest forms of life on this planet and deserve ridicule – my personal opinion.
(Orci) describes things getting so bad in the couple’s relationship that she “maced” him in the face in 2019…she took a baseball bat to their bedroom door…
Nope, this is what he himself said.
Next?
You’re yanking things out of context here to a degree that someone from the Trump campaign may just offer you a job. You’re ignoring other reported examples of erratic behavior on her part, that he declined to press charges, and he got the restraining order on her. This’ll get hashed out in court, but you’ve offered up nothing to suggest any conspiracy theory mongering fueled her alleged mental health issues. Nor that Orci has been blacklisted..
At this point you’re just being an @$$hole.
No, because I remember all of his 911, Truther BS (some of it mentioned by him in his posts on this very site) which was an awful slap to the face to both the people that died and the people that the difficult task of rescuing people and cleaning up — and all those people whose lives were forever changed by that disaster. But he kept doubling down and suggesting it was some sort of a “star chamber” ruse by an international cabal that really controls things globally.
Regarding his wife, I’m just saying that I’m not surprised at all that he could drive someone crazy — but that is my personal opinion only.
Regarding being blacklisted, of course I’m not claiming it’s as direct as that, but he’s done nothing in the several years since Hawaii Five-O wound up… Draw your own conclusions. Personally, I would be wary of hiring someone with nutjob views like that… Again, just my personal opinion, but I would certainly not be surprised if others in Hollywood would think twice
When you say you are trying to work on your tone and how you come across, this is the sort of vicious slander you should think twice about posting.
Please see my response to Phil
Furthermore, what I quoted was in news reports — not only that, that was his own quote
It was completely uncalled for to go after his marriage. The discussion was about Into Darkness and instead of just presenting Orci’s fringe beliefs to add color, you went nuclear and brought up your unsolicited opinion about his marriage.
Also, the blacklisting supposition is just that since Sony hired him to work on a Spider-Man universe film.
I apologize to anyone who was offended by my comments.
Regarding the Spider-Man project, I don’t think it’s happening. Please provide an update if you have any different information?
Thank you for apologizing. After reading the articles about what happened with his wife I just can’t condone using that as fodder to attack him.
The news about the Spider-Man movie made the rounds 3 years ago, there’s been nothing new since then either about it getting further along or being cancelled.
I don’t think Trekkies or Tarantino fans would have been happy. Hell, I’m both anyway, but I’m not really sure I need those two worlds to collide.
Exactly! I love both, and I’m all for a wacky mash-up, but this one just never felt right to me and I’m relieved it isn’t happening. It just sounded like such a gimmick to me.
Totally. I get this man has his movie making chops and so forth but he seems like the completely wrong person for any kind of Star Trek film.
That’s just what I was thinking — we’re so lucky this was never made!
If people are open to musicals and cartoon crossovers in Star Trek, then why not a Rated R Star Trek?
I’ve never seen the point of totally ejecting children from the potential audience of the franchise. I thought it was a big mistake for Discovery and even the older-skewing Picard to do it.
Non sequitur.
I must be an old fuddy duddy i thought those were the worst episodes of Trek in history. Especially those old scientists i don’t watch lower decks.
I think that Tarantino could have made a really interesting Star Trek film. The sequence in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood where Brad Pitt’s character goes to the Spahn Ranch to check on his friend and is surrounded by the menace of the Manson cult was set up like a classic TOS scenario.
Kelvin-verse’s A Piece of the Action.
Once more, with feeling: just as well that the thing never got made. But I’d give my right, uh, eyetooth, to read the script.
IDW, are you listening? Your adaptation of Harlan Ellison’s original teleplay for “The City on the Edge of Forever” was top notch. How about taking this on?
Probably being kept on ice in case Quentin changes his mind
I want to read all the unused Kelvin-verse scripts, going back to when Orci was supposed to direct.
Michael, are you on any sites that have a private message function? I have access to a different script you might enjoy reading or could at least cross off your bucket list.
I hated that idea (or rather oh-dear) from the start and I’m glad it didn’t happen. I dislike QT’s movies as well as most “hard R” movies in general. Trek should never go down that road. Icheb’s demise was bad enough.
Why do you dislike R-rated movies?
Simply because I can’t stand blood and guts? I think it’s a matter of upbringing. My father hated blood in movies and since his death, his preferences have grown on me. In death he has become more powerful than you could possibly imagine… Not that I had particilarly liked graphic bloodshed before that. but before his passing, I was able to tolerate it. Now I’m not…
How about soft X movies? Emmanuel? Room in Rome?
I never loved this idea, but can’t Tarantino just, like, make 11 movies?
I’m not really getting the whole 10 movies thing either. Is it like his lucky number or something?
He’s always said he only planned to make 10 films in his lifetime then he’d retire. This would be movie 10 I believe.
Sure I get what you mean but why 10? Why not 11 or 13 or 5?
He can always pull a Soderbergh and change his mind. Kinda wish Soderbergh hadn’t unretired though.
It’s seems wrapped up in his delusional “mad genius” ideas of his “Hollywood Legend.” Like, he pictures his The E! True Hollywood Story and revels at the thought of them trying to unravel why “the greatest director in HISTORY” stopped after “only TEN films.” It’s very egotistical to me. He probably will be a legend, but it just seems so contrived to set a nice round limit on the number of movies your going to create. I hope he enjoys being asked the same question for the next 40 years, “Is that really it for you Mr. Tarantino? I like QT’s movies, but he’s always been a bit of a knob.
Kind of a weird obsession with making 10 movies.
This is one of those times when I don’t exactly want this to be made, but I wouldn’t mind stepping into the alternate Blockbuster Video from Last Action Hero to see how strange, and probably bad, it would be. File it under morbid curiosity, I guess.
Man I so still want to see this. Make it so!
Make it now Quentin!
Pacino as Bela
De Niro as Krako
Michael Madsen as Kalo
Margot Robbie as Edith Keeler
If you truly embody ‘where no one has gone before’, you would support this wholeheartedly.
Sign me up!
I’m bummed, would’ve loved to have seen that. So instead we’ll just get nothing, awesome.
Yep. Trek fans don’t deserve a QT Trek movie.
lol That comment seems weirdly self-deprecating posted on a Trek site that only Trekkies frequent. You deserve it UpperDecks! Don’t be so hard on yourself ;-)
Every Star Trek movie has been hit or miss (mostly miss) so I can’t help wonder if the Key people at Paramount are in touch with reality or naturally half baked? All of the characters in Picard were excellent but the overall story content left much to be desired.
The prime woman character of the first season was sweet and overall convincing but when her twin was bedded by that villain I thought Why
is this show and her character portrayal with this pathetic Soap Opera?
If that wasn’t enough they brought back Data after he died and added
the Borg element – situation. Captain Rios was multifaceted and the best
new character of them all but they ditched him like moldy bread. 🤨
Picard went too far – too fast in the wrong direction. Keep it simple and
semi-predictable on the ship traveling to wayward planets – new worlds.
For a fanbase that prides itself on open-mindedness, the close mindedness against this film is truly mind-boggling. I’d love to see a different approach for a Trek movie and it doesn’t necessarily have to be “canon” as well. It could be something experimental like the standalone Joker film. My personal choice to direct a “different” kind of Trek movie though is more of a guy like David Cronenberg (who is actually involved in the franchise) rather than a guy like Tarantino. I’d be willing to see any and all forms of different interpretations of the Trek concept from auter directors.
Wow, so bringing the hardest of brutality to star trek is considered as “cool“. Honestly, don’t you think any random director wouldn’t be able to just bring as much brutality to a movie? This is considered as art??? Especially for adding some value to star trek??? Oh lord.
It’s like you didn’t even watch Pic season 3…lol
I watched it and since it has brutal elements, I still feel it’s serving the story. I think a star trek tarentino film would be like Picard season 1 episode where they pulling out the eye slowly
A JJ produced Tarantino a piece of the action isn’t a film i wanted. But it can’t be just that can it, there has to be some time travel hook or something like a dark alternate timeline or something. Something that makes it Star Trek and science fiction, because stylized violence in space isn’t Star Trek.
If a musical is acceptable, then a Tarantino take is fair play. Both aimed to do something never done before with the franchise. Both had strong resistors and a louder group of people shouting those people down. If it had happened, it would’ve meant that everybody would’ve gotten a turn at the bottom of the wheel, which is only logical, given the age of the franchise.
I don’t mind animation but it doesn’t need to be dumbed down or for kids, or insipid. Other franchises take animation seriously as another medium.
A shame that it didn’t happen. It would have been inglorious.
Sweet.
Some of you think that Tarantino would do a bad job? I remember a time when people were concerned about Nicholas Myers helming WOK, due to his interpretation of the STAR TREK franchise, and the fact that his resume/body of work was “light” when it came to sci-fi.
Personally, Tarantino should have took a crack at helming a movie. For one, it would have been an interesting experiment, since his field of expertise is the pop-culture side of cinema. For another, him helming a film might have been the thing to get other mainstream directors to consider doing a STAR TREK film. And, personally, I think Tarantino, regardless of his style of directing, would have respected the source material, given that he likes to deep-dive the subject matter. Heck, he might have used concepts that GR would have originally wanted, but couldn’t due to studio interference.
And while it is highly unlikely that Tarantino would want to helm a STAR TREK film at this point (I blame Paramount for this), I would like the script to still be produced, with him as the producer. If nothing else, I would like to read the script, just to see what ideas Tarantino and his scripter partner had in mind.
Still, can you imagine Sam Jackson as a Starfleet admiral that Captain Kirk has to report to? That’ll be an intense scene to be sure.
Agreed it feels like a huge missed opportunity, iconic director offering his services (much like he did with 007), and I would fully expect for him to have ‘deep dive’ into the material with extreme nostalgia for ToS (and maybe some of the movies) like he did with his other movies for their respective genres ..
As for what it could’ve been we obviously know it was something to do with gangsters/Piece of the Action, but Tarantino said in a podcast a few years back(before this movie was announced) that if he had the chance to do a Trek movie he’d make like a big version of City on the Edge of Forever or Yesterdays Enterprise (I can’t remember which but he proclaimed his love for both eps, so mightve been both of them),and the scriptwriter Mark Smith has said in a previous interview there was some timetravel in it, so maybe like a mashup of those 3 eps.
And id fully expect SLJ in there along with other QT alumni like Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Waltz, Madsen, Thurman maybe even Pitt or DiCaprio or MRobbie as gangsters, klingons, romulans, orions, corrupt starfleet captains/admirals etc and probably including Shatner somehow as he’s a huge fan of his and its not like Shatner would refuse a cameo in a Tarantino flick.
(posted again as stated it was Spam when tried to edit?).