Spock actor Zachary Quinto is talking again about upcoming Star Trek feature films, this time on MTV’s Happy Sad Confused podcast. As we have been reporting, there are two Trek films currently in development at Paramount. Coming up first is the untitled Star Trek 4 project, which will be a follow-up to 2016’s Star Trek Beyond. The other film is based on an idea from Quentin Tarantino, being penned by The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith.
While some details about the Star Trek 4 project have emerged, the Tarantino Trek film, which is expected to follow Star Trek 4, has been shrouded in more mystery. It has been reported that it is something “separate” from the Kelvin movies, and could be the start of a new series of films. Actors from both the prime timeline and the Kelvin timeline have expressed interest in being involved, but now Quinto says he has some answers.
When asked by MTV if the Kelvin-era crew will be part of the Tarantino, Quinto responded:
My assumption is that it is with us. That is how it has been presented.
When pressed, Quinto offered some wiggle room on how one never knows due to the business of movies, however he stuck what he has apparently been told, that the Kelvin crew will be back after Star Trek 4 to make a Tarantino Star Trek movie:
You know, until deals are done and contracts are signed and schedules are cleared, nothing is set in stone, so anything can happen. My understanding is Quentin had this idea and they were shaping it and forming it and he is off to do his Manson movie. And it would be after that, that we would go maybe do one with him. Which is pretty exciting, pretty cool
Zachary Quinto with some of his Kelvin-era co-stars at the UK premiere of Star Trek Beyond
Has met with ‘Star Trek 4’ director, doesn’t know how Hemsworth fits in
While Quinto left some wiggle room on the Tarantino project, the more imminent Star Trek 4 film is much further along. A director has already been tapped, and financing partner Skydance are already on board. A release date has not yet been set, but Quinto did give an update on progress, revealing he has already met with the director:
There is stuff going on. I had dinner the other night with S.J. Clarkson. S.J. is amazing, we worked on Heroes together and we really hit it off.
The actor confirmed that the film involved the return of Chris Hemsworth – as was first announced by Paramount two years ago. However, how Hemsworth will return has been the subject of much speculation. The leading theory is that time travel would be the mechanism used to unite George Kirk with his son James T. Kirk, but Quinto was not able to confirm this, saying:
Well I don’t know, because I haven’t read the script, and I think it is still under construction, but yes, [Chris Hemsworth] is playing, yep, yep, all of it.
It has previously been reported that a draft for Star Trek 4, penned by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, has been completed. However, it is common for scripts to evolve during development and even into pre-production. Sometimes, as was the case with Star Trek Beyond, changes are even made during production.
When asked what he would like to do with the character of Spock, Quinto first joked about pon farr, but then got more serious, saying:
I do think that it is a character that is tricky. There is only a finite range of emotional landscape that can be traversed. So, I don’t know yet where we are going to do and I am excited to see. The bottom line is, I love the character, I love my fellow actors. I am really looking forward to the opportunity of going back and making another one.
Zachary Quinto as Spock in Star Trek Beyond
Listen to full podcast interview with Quinto
You can listen to the full Happy Sad Confused podcast with Zachary Quinto, which covers much of his career as well as more about his time with Trek, including his audition process and close relationship with Leonard Nimoy.
Zachary Quinto by Happy Sad Confused
Zachary Quinto talks “The Boys in the Band”, “Star Trek”, & more!
Keep up with all news on both Star Trek 4 and the Tarantino Trek project at TrekMovie’s upcoming films category.
Excellent! I love the cast and enjoyed ST09, Beyond, and 2/3s of Into Darkness. Looking forward to seeing the cast continue on.
I hope Quinto is wrong in this case.
Me too.
I was hoping for something new, fresh and totally unrelated to JJ-Trek.
Exactly my thoughts! I’m kinda bummed.
Me as well, but not surprised by the news. But yes I would’ve loved a new crew in a new time period completely. I don’t care if its set in prime, Kelvin or something else entirely. Just something, anything, completely new.
I have nothing against jj abrams but the kevin time line sucks and it divides the fan base. stick with the prime time line after the tng or before. cbs and paramount is destroying startrek just like Disney is destroying starwars. you look at discovery it has the startrek name but does not look like startrek.
The fans are who divide the fan base. But an adult can appreciate and enjoy new stories, lore, and what have you without being so grumpy.
I think a fan has a right to criticize the aspects of a Franchise that is dear to him/her in a respectful manner. The same thing is true for sports and other parts of life too. If I make a mistake I would want to be criticized and try to learn from my mistakes instead of doing the same mistakes over and over again. The fans can be passionate and this is normal, we just need to be more understanding of them and don’t give them any labels as long as they don’t resort to bullying or insulting. Criticism isn’t equal to bullying. If both sides can appreciate each other better, then we won’t have a divided fanbase.
Well look at it this way, we adults who liked the Star Trek of the past are allowed to have opinions, and if we are grumpy about them or not, it’s our business and if we take it upon ourselves to care enough about the misdirection we think the franchise is heading, we obviously think that’s a good thing.
Care, fine; obsessively post about how you hate the new direction, tiresome. Constructive criticism = good; ad hominem attacks on the makers, not good; suggestions that their product is shite, not constructive therefore not good.
I agree, Kirk Unit. Tired of the grumpiness, but I’ve learned to skip on down the threads, which, unfortunately, is necessary.
“I was hoping for something new, fresh and totally unrelated to JJ-Trek.”
In a feature film that would have been amazingly unlikely. I’ve always figured if there was a movie, it would be with Pine & Quinto unless there was a 10-15 year break between films.
Well, at some point someone will probably cut together a “Tarantino Trek” edit and post it to YouTube. That could be fun.
me too
How do these youngsters have time to listen to so many podcasts what with their binge-watching and food truck vlogging? Remember a little thing called productivity? Zed’s dead.
Young people are less likely to be married, have children, have a large home to clean, own a television, have disposable income or go out drinking. Podcasts are just the modern day radio.
Why don’t they just call them radio-shows then? I guess if they do that, then youngsters will not listen to them anymore at all :))
Probably a hangover from the iPod era.
I don’t even own a radio.
Time to buy a car
I have one, I just never use the radio in it.
I doubt most people even own a radio unless its in their cars. My phone has a FM radio which I listen to. I can’t even remember the last time I owned a radio.
You really should go out and buy a cheap one and a bunch of extra batteries for it, and stick it in a drawer somewhere. Natural disasters do happen. Radio keeps going even when cellular and wi-fi go kaput. I have family that lost all other comms in Hurricane Irma. Radio was all they had left.
Well that’s true but I guess because I live in L.A. and we have had everything from earthquakes to forest fires never in all that time did society ever completely break down lol.
But I get what you’re saying, precaution. It would be nice to have as a back up.
I have one of those wind up radios for just for emergencies.
ML31, I’ve been meaning to order one. What brand do you recommend?
Marja, it’s not the best one on the market but I bought the RunningSnail MD-090. It was inexpensive but it works. Pretty sure you could order it on Amazon. Fortunately for me I have yet to have an emergency dire enough that I needed it. But it’s here in case the next “big one” hits. (Earthquake is my biggest concern here on the CA coast)
A-yuh. I live in FL and have a radio I can use batteries in because hurricanes are not selective in what towers they hit.
During the last hurricane in FL, the shelter I was in had WiFi.
…. they don’t broadcast over the radio…..
Irony = non-tech savvy Trekkers
Getting ready for the 2020’s, I’m renaming podcasts ‘aural sex.’
Just because Quinto, Pine, Peg & co. are penned to star in Tarantino’s Star Trek does not necessarily mean they will be playing their Kelvin-verse roles. They could just as easily be playing their Prime-universe counterparts. We could actually get the chance to see how the two universes deviate from one another. I mean, they could conceivably play both roles in a story that meshes the two realities together.
Oh HEY… that’s not a half-bad idea!
I just don’t see that happening because of Discovery. I think CBS wants those movies to stay in the Kelvin universe so DIS can do whatever it wants to do.
Maybe if DIS was in a different era, I can see it possibly.
And why go through all the trouble of establishing the Kelvin universe just to stick them back in prime?
I think a more neutral take would be to have the current cast on a better looking Enterprise, with different uniforms and some other changes, and not address through the script at all whether the movie is in the Kelvin universe or not — let the fans’s decide and debate about it.
I definitely could see QT doing this.
To be honest its not like the films ever said what universe they are in themselves. We only know because thats what the writers and directors tell us. And yes which is part of the problem and leads to all the nerd fighting lol. And because it basically follows prime universe canon like how it used Enterprise elements with the MACOS and referenced the Xindi in Beyond which in turn I’m guessing most casual fans probably can’t tell the difference anyway. And probably the reason its all so vague now.
And sure he can do that. Even TOS and TNG films had new ships, uniforms, bridges, etc. And we already know they will be on a new Enterprise so I can see new uniforms added as well.
But I’m pretty sure no matter what you’re not going to ever see one direct tie in or crossover to the prime universe. Burnham or Picard will never show up. I’m guessing Nimoy will be the only actor from that universe that will ever appear. I think that will always be the definitive line.
“To be honest its not like the films ever said what universe they are in themselves. We only know because thats what the writers and directors tell us.”
In the first Fake Star Trek movie, Fake Uhura acknowledged that they were living in an “alternate reality.”
Yes but as this has been argued, that could simply mean a different timeline which is not necessarily a different universe. Now I personally think that was said to suggest a parallel universe but same time its sooooo vague its easy to argue the opposite. And people have.
And there hasn’t been any discussion about it since in the films. They don’t act like they live in a different timeline or ‘reality’. Because to them its just reality, period, so its pretty easy to suggest they could be in any universe (and why ‘resetting’ the timeline is just not necessary, because THIS is now their reality and has been for literally decades).
I don’t think QT film would be any different if he used the Kelvin characters because its pretty ambiguous now or people wouldn’t still be fighting about it a decade on.
This is basically CBS and Paramount trying to ‘out-Trek’ each other. It’s like the old WWF-WCW Monday night wars. Bring it on!
Actually, I’d LOVE to see Quinto do pon farr.
He pretty much pon-farred it up in the first two movies, beating up Kirk and then Khan and loving his babe Uhura. Why doesn’t his Spock wear shades and a leather jacket?
Yes, I much prefer Spock as a restrained and logical Vulcan scientist. Sadly, that’s not who the writers are giving us.
Though I do think they were headed in the right direction with Spock in Beyond, simply because he wasn’t a raging Hulk.
Yep. With the exception of the delirium scene, he was pretty much the regular Spock. And the delirium was okay with me.
I didn’t see anybody giving Pegg and Jung credit for how they got back to “restrained” Spock.
I’m sorry, it’s been awhile since I watched it. What was the delirium scene?
Anyway, yes, I agree. Pegg and Jung should get credit for bringing it back to TOS.
Spock laughs in Beyond, and McCoy takes that as evidence that Spock is delirious.
yeah but the fact that Spock is neither a virgin, nor asexual (in either reality, by the way) has nothing to do with pon farr. Even a frustrated DC Fontana explained that this whole idea that vulcans mate only once every seven years is silly and not what they ever wanted to imply. Vulcans can mate anytime they want to, what they said is that every seven years their biology goes insane as a reminder of how their race used to be back in the day before Surak tried to save them with the delusion of logic: violent, passionate, to the point they almost destroyed their own race.
This annoying habit fans have of taking one detail from an episode, spin it around, and completely blow it out of proportion. Trek fanboys do that with pon farr, the whole ‘vulcans have no feelings’, or even the ‘vulcan kiss’ crap in spite of Nimoy himself explaining that the Sarek/Amanda finger touching thing was NOT a kiss (not a kiss), but just the vulcan equivalent of a human couple holding hands in public. That’s all. When they are alone, Sarek and Amanda still french kiss and do the nasty like humans do.
I really want both films, regardless of casts or release dates, to be successful: “It’s better for you . . . it’s better for us . . . it’s better for them.” But its so hard to understand why there can be so much news around one film franchise at the same time that there’s no hard news about production timelines, let alone release dates. Why can’t they at least pretend to commit to something? What am I missing here?
I agree. I can understand the Tarantino film because it sounds like they are still writing the script and my guess is Tarantino doesn’t want to commit to anything until after that’s done and his other movie is shot. And it still sounds like that movie is not completely committed yet since Quinto has said no one (in terms of the actors) has signed to anything.
But in the other film’s case, its bizarre. They HAVE a director already committed. Everyone supposedly is signed on. They also have a script they have been working on at least two years now. And since that is the first one to be filmed why have they not at least given a starting date?
My ONLY guess is they are waiting for some schedules to clear up. Zoe Saldana is off in New Zealand shooting Avatar’s 2-13 so she could be one hold up in terms of her availability and who knows what Hemsworth and the others are doing as well. Maybe when they figure all that out they will make some announcements.
@Tiger2,
“Zoe Saldana is off in New Zealand shooting Avatar’s 2-13 so she could be one hold up in terms of her availability”
Fyi Deadline reported that during the Fox presentation at CineEurope on June 12 James Cameron said that Saldana has already finished her part in the two sequels.
==========================================
Per Deadline
He was standing in front of a giant water tank and noted water “plays a huge part” in the new movies which will travel to “never before seen parts of Pandora.” He said that Kate Winslet can hold her breath underwater for seven minutes and that Zoe Saldana wrapped her part last Friday. The early results on the movies “are beyond even our expectations,” Cameron concluded.
https://deadline.com/2018/06/james-cameron-avatar-sequels-update-fox-bohemian-rhapsody-stacey-snider-cineeurope-1202409053/
Oh OK, now we know its not her that’s holding anything up. I’m actually shocked she’s already done lol. The way Cameron schedules things I thought she would be filming for another year! I don’t mean completely but going back and forth during the shoot.
In the broader picture, you’re 100% correct. Paramount isn’t going to keep making pics that are at best ‘break even’ projects. When you consider that out of the last six movies, maybe two were box office winners, Trek really needs a win, even a modest one will do.
Despite the chatter, neither of these projects have been greenlit yet. Just in development, which can go on a long, long, long….long time.
Project hasn’t yet been green-lit by Paramount, so far as I’ve seen
There’s gotta be time travel in both movies. QT’s favorite episodes all involve time travel, so I’d bet his Trek movie will have it as well. And with Kirks Dad in the next movie, there’ll be time travel in that as well. They should just change the title to “Time Trek.”
I’m wondering if the next movie will set up Tarantino’s film. He’s spoke about how Yesterday’s Enterprise could be adapted for the big screen so maybe Star Trek 4 could be set over two time periods. We could have James T Kirk and co dealing with something that thematically links back to his father and this could be interspersed with sequences focusing on George Kirk in the days leading up to his fateful encounter with Nero. The movie could end with the Kelvin being pulled into the rift and being transported into the future sometime after Winona and baby Kirk have escaped the ship but before George could ram the Narada. Quintin Tarantino’s movie would open in the Kelvin universe with The USS Enterprise investigating an anomaly…
I think Hemsworth looks too old now to do that, but it’s a neat idea.
Thanks VZX and I do agree but that is the problem with most of the scenarios for bringing back Hemsworth. I guess you could have him playing an older version of George from an alternate universe or he could be playing a different character entirely like Sam Kirk. In the Kelvin timeline it doesnt necesarily follow that he became a farmer on Deneva, he might even have joined Starfleet.
Wouldn’t it be cool if George got sent via that wormhole into the 24th Century Prime universe for several years.
So far we have had Thirteen Star Trek movies. Which ones involve Time Travel ?
TMP : nope
TWOK : nope
TSFS : nope
FVH : yep
TFF : nope
TUC : nope
GEN : sort of. the film isn’t ABOUT time travel
FC : yep
Ins : nope
Nemesis : nope
2009 : yep but it’s more of an alt timeline than a time travel film
STID : nope
STB : nope
Yeah you’re right, but I think it’d be too much to have two movies in a row that have time travel.
I wonder if ST4 will cause the team to go back in time and then when they come back they are in another alternate universe (or maybe the prime timeline?) where George Kirk is still alive. They then have to go back again and Kirk has to change time so that his father is no longer alive to right the timeline, maybe has to watch him die to make sure it happens.
“…but yes, [Chris Hemsworth] is playing, yep, yep, all of it.”
Exactly — as I have been saying all along!
A couple of regular posters here grilled me on this and basically called me out for over-reaching to suggest that Hemsworth was locked in? So much for that nonsense from those two. LOL
To be fair, how many times did Simon Pegg say, ‘no, its not Khan” about “Into Darkness”?
So you would have me believe that now they are being directed to publicly lie about casting status? That seems like a huge stretch, and that Khan thing was done to preserve a plot surprise, not simple casting info. Apples and Oranges.
I’m suggesting we not believe everything that comes out of a Hollywood celebrity’s mouth. I didn’t say anything about anyone being “directed to publicly lie”. Pegg was not, but he lied through his teeth anyway. I like to think they’re telling the truth, but we know they choose not to from time to time.
Pegg was just trying to keep a plot detail secret so people can be surprised in the theater. What motive could Quinto have for making this up? Its not to convince anyone to put them in the movie if they are not in it.
I don’t think Quinto is lying, I’m responding to the point that BorgKlingon now is accepting Quinto’s word for it (George Kirk is in it) but forgetting that Pegg lied through his teeth (insisting Khan was not in Into Darkness.) What exactly is the difference?
Thorny, I think we are both confused about why you don’t understand the major and obvious difference. In the STID case, they were trying to protect a major plot point, but we did know that Benedict C. was signed on for the Villain.
If what you are saying is that Hemsworth might not be playing George Kirk (that all those reports are contrived lies controlled by JJ for misinformation), OK, I guess I can see where you are coming from…but we DO KNOW that Hemsworth is signed, and that Hemsworth already played Kirk’s father, so it would be really far-fetched to think he is playing anyone else besides Kirk’s father..EXTREMELY UNLIKELY.
This isn’t like the BC playing Khan “secret”, where many of us figured that out way ahead of the movie. That was pretty obvious, and a really poor secret and bad marketing move to keep it a secret…and JJ mentioned it was a mistake to do that, so it would be incredulous to think he is lying about Hemsworth’s part.
Please don’t go all “Curious Cadet” on me now! :-)
So much speculation. If Quinto was told the KU actors are in the QT project, then there really isn’t much to assume. I get that nothing is set in stone until the contracts are signed, but if Paramount likes the QT project, contracts will be signed, and Pine and Quinto get one more ride in the Trek saddle after the current project. If not, then they don’t. Interesting how QT is suddenly a hack if he stays in the Kelvin Universe. Bias much?
My only guess is nothing will get finalized until they approve of the script which sounds like its still being written. We alllll remembered what happened with Orci lol.
But yes if he was told the KU characters will be in it I’m not sure how that will suddenly change, especially if they are writing the script now. Clearly they know who is in it lol. Why would they lie to him if its not being written about them?
Nothing being finalized is key. Paramount is only invested in development up to this point, I suspect it’s sites like Trekmovie that are busy peddling a 2020 release date, which is nothing more then speculation at this point. We know that the MCU and DC franchises have resurrected Trevor and Gamora, so there is some competition for these actors time. There’s always that possibility that Paramount may decide to back burner both projects, too. The WWZ sequel is still, technically, ‘in development’ too….
It’s pretty obvious to me from what we know that this has momentum and yea, a 2020 release date is going to happen. They hired a director and have been working on the script for a long time, and signed up Hemsworth. Plus if this slips beyond that, then they will piss off QT on doing his Trek film.
I’d rate this as 90% solid.
And you have some inside source that this is, in fact, past ‘in development’? In previous years we had a writer and producer breathlessly teasing ‘almost done’ that dragged on for years while their production company was off on other projects. What we do know is that Bad Robot still has a full slate of other projects, as do Chris Pine with the Wonder Woman sequel (actually in production now), and Zoe Saldana with Avatar and at least one more GOTG sequel. If 2020 is going to happen, we are at the point where there will be more substantial news out there then actors ‘assuming’ they will be involved….as our Spray Tanned president likes to say, ‘we’ll see what happens’….
No inside source. But from what I’ve read, this sounds very solid and there are multiple reinforcing pieces of info that together provide some confidence in my statement on this.
Feel free to disagree, but I am comfortable with my personal estimated here of 90% solid.
Tiger2,
Re: sounds like its still being written
I’ll say. And one of the reasons for that is Skydance is one of those rare financing partners that has script approval. Does anyone know if Akiva is still running herd over that for them still?
Well look at that Disinvited…we finally agree on something. ;)
Its not exactly a secret they take forever writing these movies (well Beyond was a bit rushed lol). Of course you want them to get it right and take their time but then you watch the finished product and you kind of think why did it take so long if its almost the same film from before?
I think the first draft was put to bed a long time ago and now with a director selected, the writing team and the director are working on version 2 of the script.
Paramount has a history of frequently not letting the public now when development turns into pre-production and not announcing “green lighting,” which so many fans get hung up on.
It’s obvious that they are working on version 2 of the script, with a director selected and now involved. Financing is being worked behind the scenes. I’d be shocked if they don’t start filming by January.
Maybe the secret is that Quentin Tarantino himself is playing Q in his Star Trek film. When someone asks what Q stands for in the film, he would wink and say “Quentin” :))) I know its a bad idea.. but since we learned nothing new except for the confirmation of Chris Hemsworth, which was already known, then we might as well speculate as wildly as we can.
So much concrete information … they might as well put the tickets on pre-sale today! /s
A lot better than, “we all want to do another one, but I haven’t heard anything at all about it” a year ago.
Cadet is the kind of person who would tell us today that me might get a liberal judge nominated for the Supreme Court next week simply because there is no “official documented” word from the White House that it’s going to be another ultra-conservative. LOL
Great News. I love this cast and I want six films with them. Blah de Blah into Darkness Blah. That film had a few problems but IT WAS NOT A DISASTER. Secondly – it’s hardly the CASTS fault if the script makes no sense. So bring it on. Beyond was criminally under-rated and was easily the best of the 3.
Great news too, but what this cast needs is a great script, not sure if Kirks daddy can fulfil this.
Great news indeed,and I’m one of very few who loved all three movies I guess,lol! Looking forward to this.
And like I asked in a post yesterday which I can’t see here anymore btw,where’s the news about STD being in Hall H at Comic-Con this year? That’s actually a big step up. Good luck getting in,lol! I’m at the con again but don’t do panels anymore.
Not really sure I like any of Tarantino’s stylings for Trek. I’ll still go see the film.
So… Shat Kirk spent most of his films bitching about getting old. Now, Pine Kirk continues to have Daddy issues. Oh, how I miss TOS Kirk.
Prime Kirk had ONE movie about him talking about getting old, TWOK. Every movie after that it was just Kirk being Kirk. I don’t remember any others where age was in even brought up. It was kind of brought up in Generations but it was mostly him regretting retiring early.
Uhh how about TUC?
TUC? That movie had nothing to do with aging. It was about Kirk overcoming his personal prejudices and begin to trust a long time enemy. Kirk wasn’t in his quarters pining over lost years.
Actually it wasn’t specifically about aging, but you are forgetting Spock’s line to Kirk while he was meditating about both of them getting too old, so yes there was an underlying theme of aging, even if it wasn’t the main theme. It was obvious everyone was aging, the crew knew they were retiring with the Enterprise.
No I remember that line, but thats all it was, a line. The OP made it sound like it was Kirk facing his mortality or something. TUC was nothing like that, it was all about Kirk trying to get over the death of David and not look at the Klingons as animals.
Yes they threw in a few lines but nothing about Kirk came off like he was a guy heading for the grave. He was as virile as he’s ever been in that movie.
Oh, I know it wasn’t the main theme of the movie, but the idea of aging was definitely at the background of the movie as well. We shouldn’t wholly dismiss as not existing. I know he was still virile and didn’t he even hit on the changeling girl? I am just saying it’s there if people want to see it.
OK fine. I was really just saying it was only 1-2 films that it was a real point of the film. But yes it is brought up in TUC, even if casually.
Tiger2,
Re: TUC
I’m fairly sure TUC carried over the reason that David’s death hit Kirk so hard wasn’t merely the obvious, he’s his son, but that Kirk indeed was in TWOK, and still is, lamenting his lost years as a father that could have been even. He was looking forward to his new opportunity to be a father that he thought his career had stolen from him, until that Klingon bastard robbed him of it. I always felt we were meant to believe it was his extra bitterness over that specific theft which fueled his latent Klingon bigotry. Myself? I never felt TUC’s on screen premise ever connected with the bigotry revealed in THE DAY OF THE DOVE nor did it believably explain how Kirk regressed from the enlightened captain who learned lessons about said bigotry in resolving that encounter and the one with the Gorn in ARENA.
Would have been a more powerful drama if it showed something of Kirk’s fall from that into the hateful bigot its plot needed him to be.
But the line was also linked to them not being able to get beyond their own personal prejudices. (The movie’s running theme) And less so about them getting older, which they were.
Maybe it wasn’t age all the time, but in IMO it seemed like they were trying to hit us over the head too many times that Kirk had to lose his mojo, only to get it back by end of the movie.
TMP: 2-3 years away from command, no Kirk Mojo until halfway through the movie, ends on high note.
TWOK: Now it’s “Wah, Wah, look at me I’m old”. Has to get reminded on procedures, even as far as to be reminded that space has 3 dimensions (really?). Ends movie with feeling “young” and smiling at the view screen. Yay Kirk.
TSFS: Complete 180, and starts movie like sourpuss again – this is “oh poor me” Kirk. After the one on one Admiral talk, he’s like, screw my life, I have to do the right thing now. I have no problem with that, it’s very believable Kirk would sacrifice everything if there was a chance to save Spock. We do get TOS Kirk towards the end of this movie, but has to lose son and ship first.
TVH: TOS Kirk finally. Info gathering, weighs pros and cons, makes smart command decisions.
TFF: TOS Kirk, but over the top Laurel and Hardy TOS Kirk. Nothing else to say here.
TUC: This is almost Retired Kirk – couple more months and can go sip pina coladas on the beach. Age and getting older theme is big part of this movie. Which is fine, it’s the last for the TOS crew.
Don’t get me wrong – love the TOS movies, but personally I felt they needed to stop with the Kirk lost his Mojo idea after TMP. We can still have TOS Kirk with drama and action, and lessons learned. And maybe it’s valid to say Shatner overplayed the old Kirk theme, so some of it was his doing. So yeah, I missed the TOS Kirk too.
Well OK. I don’t have any issues with a lot of that though. I mean he WAS older, so he acted the part. He wasn’t the same Kirk that was making out with alien women every other scene or constantly punching out people. He was more introspective, which does happens as you mature. OK I guess Trump proves thats not ALWAYS the case lol.
But as you pointed out, he was still Kirk in most of the films. He still defied orders, outwitted the bad guys, did his karate chop moves, gave big speeches, etc.
But I don’t agree with you on TUC though. No one on that ship was moping around it was their final mission. Everyone was basically being themselves. It wasn’t until literally the last scene of the film they acknowledged they were at an end but it was mostly because we knew their time on the franchise was done. The movie didn’t really focus on any of that though outside of Kirk and Spock talking about their time together on the ship. And that was fitting being the last film.
But OK maybe you thought they changed him too much for the movies. People didn’t like Picard in the films because he acted the opposite as he did on the show and in many ways became a version of Kirk who was willing to defy orders, cracking jokes and getting his shirt ripped off lol. But they wanted to sex him up a bit for a mass audience where as Kirk I think they wanted to tone down the masculine stuff a bit. We have to remember TOS was made in a different time. By the time the 80s showed up it just wasn’t as cool to be as flippant about sex and relationships. I loved that he had a baby mama in TWOK lol. It showed his past had caught up with him.
Yeah, I was fine with him being out of sorts for one movie, but the same plot device was used several more times. You make a good point about TUC also being about him overcoming his prejudices, but it was also “hey were old let’s end this”, and like I said, I’m fine with that since they explained they were just months away from finishing their duty.
And yes, the studio wanted more action in the TNG movies, so we get John McClane Lite in space. I usually end up rewatching an old good episode before I rewatch one of their movies.
My personal hope was for the TOS movies to be the 2nd five year mission (Phase II in the theaters). I thought we were getting that at the end of TMP. I didn’t realize the “Human Adventure is Just Beginning” meant throwing “Space, the final frontier..” out the window.
I sometimes think the worse thing to happen to Star Trek was the success of Star Wars A New Hope. And the studio that didn’t know how to handle it.
I actually like Star Trek The Motion Picture very much because of its more purer science fiction aspects but the production of that film was very problematic. When Paramount and Harve Bennett got a young and energetic Nick Meyer for Star Trek 2, he could make the movies cheaper and more audience friendly that is why Paramount decided to go with his approach for the rest of the TOS movies except for Star Trek 5 which was Shatners vanity project. I think it would have been interesting seeing the remaining TOS movies in the mold of the Motion Picture, but I don’t think they would have been quite as successful as The Wrath of Khan and the more militaristic approach to the movies.
Yea, TMP is underated.
” But they wanted to sex him up a bit for a mass audience”
I had read some time ago that it was Stewart himself who wanted that for Picard. Not the studios. From what I could tell they would have been fine with Picard sitting in the chair while Riker went and punched alien bad guys.
I often agree with you, but not this time. TFF is very much about these guys growing old together.
If Tarantino do end up with the Kelvin crew I can’t see why people would be surprised over this? We knew literally from day one he was working on the idea with JJ Abrams. Abrams only tie to Trek IS the Kelvin universe so I always assumed if he’s working on it with him it was because he wanted him to direct a film with them in it.
Now that said, it was also rumored he may do a story set in a completely different universe from Kelvin and prime but my guess is Paramount probably wants to keep it with characters people already know. And if its a story involving TOS then I just didn’t see them doing a movie with YET another set of Kirk and Spock. With the Kelvin films, DIS already set around that period and now QT film it would feel like over kill, especially if they are literally being made around the same time.
The only way I could’ve seen yet ANOTHER TOS reboot movie is if Paramount had decided to just end the Kelvin movies and go with his idea. Now that we know that’s not the case it makes sense.
If I had it my way I would like QT to do a movie with a new crew post-Nemesis but that dream seems dead as well.
I think they won’t do post Nemesis stuff for the movies. They are probably keeping that for TV. They probably believe that time period is not popular enough with the general population to warrant a movie. I have a feeling they might test the waters with a TV show. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see some new stuff in that time period but I think for now its just wishful thinking. Let’s just wait and see what they do in the TV side of things.
I always say never say never about any of this stuff. I always hear how ‘so and so’ will never happen again just to show in time it does. I remember hearing for years we would never see the prime universe ever again. That was now all old hat, etc. The Kelvin universe was now taking over full time. Look where we are now. In that same argument few people thought there would ever be a TOS reboot because its no way anyone could ever replace Shatner and the gang. It took over forty years but it happened lol. People were also convinced we would never see the TNG crew again and they could be right but the fact Picard is even rumored to be coming back proves nothing truly stays dead in Trek. Or more specifically Hollywood.
You could be right but I believe no one should ever discount something once its proven it made money once. The fact is all the TNG films made money except Nemesis and thats because it sucked, it had nothing to do with the time period its in. And even that made money eventually. And I imagine there are a LOT of people who wants to do another Borg or a Q story on the big screen. You could do them in other time periods but they make the most sense in the 24th century.
Now all that said, I don’t think the QT film will focus on that period of course. I been pretty convinced it will take place around the TOS era and Quinto basically confirms that if he’s right.
“The fact is all the TNG films made money except Nemesis and thats because it sucked,”
I would disagree. I think it’s box office was more in line with why Enterprise was struggling on TV at the same time. And it’s not because they “sucked”. Insurrection sucked and it still did OK. Some do not think “franchise fatigue” is a thing but I really think it is. I love my Trek but when Enterprise stared on the heels of Voyager’s ending, even I was thinking the franchise needed a break. I thought Enterprise was a good idea for a series, I just thought the timing was good. Wait 3or 4 years THEN do it. To this day I think if they delayed Enterprise it would have been better received. And perhaps so would have Nemesis if they delayed a bit as well. But it was coming on the heels of Voyager, too. In fact, during the promotion tour the overall vibe was Nemesis was the final TNG feature. Stewart was even asked straight out if it was. His answer was something about it could be but if the audience is there it doesn’t need to be. It kinda felt like he knew it would be the end though.
Tiger2
Well, my thought (and I recall some other posters expressing something similar) was that, as QT tends to have full creative control over his films, his Trek film would represent his creative vision, with him solely calling the shots, and JJ’s role would be reduced to something like that of an executive producer. As I understand it, JJ is already contracted to make Trek films for Paramount, so he has to be involved on the business end. But, the creative content of QT’s film would not be tainted by JJ’s involvement. This was our hope, anyway. But, it also makes sense, given that QT is such a unique filmmaker. It’s easier to imagine a completely new Trek invention coming from QT than one that fits within an already established (and limiting) set of narrative premises. Asking QT to create a film that is consistent with JJ-Trek is a bit like asking The Beatles (if they were still a band) to write songs that fit with the rest of the material on a Justin Bieber album. There’s nothing about JJ-Trek that QT couldn’t improve upon with an original premise.
I hear you, I do. But the problem with that is Paramount isn’t going to be interested in creating an entire new cast and setting UNLESS they are thinking of a second franchise down the line.
And maybe they are, but we all know studios don’t think of one-off stories anymore, especially for their big brands like Star Trek. The point is to keep the machine running. The issue with Tarantino is everything you said is right BUT he usually just create his own stories and characters and the movies are complete standalones. There is a reason why we never got a Pulp Fiction 2 or a Django Unchained prequel. He is an independent filmmmaker in every sense of the word today.
But Star Trek is a completely new thing for him. These aren’t his characters. He has to write in a setting that has been set for decades. He’s already going to have more restrictions than he’s ever had although if rumors are right it will be rated R. Sure he’s going to have freedom like every director in a franchise but he can’t just do anything. Ask Rian Johnson about that lol.
I get what you’re saying though, if he doesn’t have the Kelvin characters he can have more freedom to shape his own characters. But I don’t see that happening because again he’s working in an entirely different format and Paramount wants his name to sell the movie but they still want it to feel familiar enough as the others. In other words they will probably want a movie starring Captain Kirk and not one introducing Captain Fisher who cusses like a sailor and dating a Romulan. I don’t see them just giving him a completely blank slate when A. They want familiar characters to sell and B. He can’t go off the range too far or the fans will revolt.
Yeah its cool he’s working on it, but he’s not bulletproof. If he screws it up or go TOO far with it he’s going to get a lot of push back like all the others. My feeling is they want him to be free to add his own voice but this is still a very brand focused corporate franchise that you can only do so much with those to keep fans happy. Everyone at Lucasfilm is starting to realize that.
But I would like that too and maybe they will surprise us. I seriously doubt it.
we all know studios don’t think of one-off stories anymore, especially for their big brands like Star Trek. The point is to keep the machine running.
(sigh) Sad but true. What Disney has done with ROGUE ONE and SOLO would be the exception to that rule, but something like for QT’s Trek movie seems remote in light of these recent comments by Quinto. The whole thing is kind of weird. Though, QT does have a penchant for low-grade genre movies, be they blaxploitation, kung-fu or whatnot. So, I can make sense of him wanting to do a JJ-Trek film on that basis, I guess. Oh, well.
I wouldn’t mind a one and done film like how SW have been doing it with their spin offs. Thats a good point actually. I just have a feeling they may not think Trek is strong enough for something like that and will only get just hardcore fans to watch. And after Solo I’m not sure if Lucasfilm feels that way any more either lol.
But maybe its possible if the budget is lower. If he can make something for $100 million or less then they may take a chance on something like that. But if its going to be a $150+ million film then its going to be tied familiar characters and everything else the Kelvin films do even if its not the Kelvin actors. But its also why I don’t know if they want to have another Captain Kirk when they already have one people know and (generally) like. I guess they could get a cheaper one though. ;)
What if it were a mirror universe movie?
Excellent! Let that horrible hack play with the franchise.
If he does something half as bad as The Hateful Eight, the Kelvin Timeline is over.
The title to this article is misleading.
It should say Kelvin verse Enterprise crew instead of Kelvin crew…I was expecting Robau and Thor as George Kirk.
If the QT film is to feature the KT crew, I don’t think it’s gonna happen. There’s such great difficulty just getting ST4 off the ground, and if they still intend to make another one after that, we’re talking shooting in like 2021 at the earliest. It’s just not happening. I’m pretty sure the actors and the moviegoers will have moved on at that point.
Why? Saldana’s the only one who really is booked heavily with a lot of hits (assuming the results of “Infinity War” are not permanent). I simply can’t imagine Pine, Quinto, Urban or Cho turning down a paycheck and a chance to work with Quentin Tarantino.
It’s soooo long from now and yes I imagine fitting it into everyone’s schedules is the biggest hurdle. Maybe though that’s the benefit in scheduling it so far in advance. I dunno, I just feel like this crew has one film left in it and that’s it. I’m sure even by then QT will have maybe moved on.
It’s three years.
This is just my theory but I’m actually guessing IF what Quinto says is true they may not want to green light both movies until they see how the next one performs first. Beyond was clearly a dud and while it wasn’t big enough to doom the franchise or anything they are clearly hesitant about moving too quickly with another one. I think they want to see if they can get the budget down enough for the next one to start and see just how much gas this series really has. If it does around STID numbers then they probably will make another one. If it falters like Beyond, even with a smaller budget then it may be it.
And making these movies so far inbetween just DOESN’T help. Star Trek isn’t like a lot of franchises, it doesn’t have the loyal casual fanbase like others like Star Wars (or should I say had?). The Kelvin films tried to break that and it did but the problem is a lot of them have just moved on as Beyond proved. It looks like the next film will be another four years and that’s once again just too long. If you were 12 years old when you saw the first one, it means you could be 23 or 24. Thats a long time for just four movies.
For hardcore fans like us it may not feel as long now that we have Star Trek back on TV and we’re clearly getting more of it but the movie series can still suffer.
Pine might be busy filming Wonder Woman 3, right now he’s doing Wonder Woman 2.
Marja,
Not just that, Wiig had to drop out of her previous fall AppleTV commitment because of Wonder Woman 2’s filming taking longer – probably for reasons similar to the first one’s long shoot. Pine’s not likely going in front of Trek’s cameras this year.
Not to sure how this myth keeps floating around that outside of Saldana, the rest of the cast is living from project to project. DC resurrected Pines Major Trevor (apparently), and the rest of the cast stays busy either in front of or behind the camera. Also, QT venturing into a franchise is uncharted territory for him. The likelihood of him doing a low budget Trek is the same as him doing a big budget extravaganza. It’s not a lock that everyone will just drop what they are doing for a chance to work with QT.
I’m hoping the Kelvin Enterprise encounters a spatial rift (or some anomaly) and gets sent back in time. Kirk meets his dad and they need to prevent rift that Nero created to travel back in time. Hence, preventing the Kelvin universe from ever occurring. Lots of crew die on this mission (Tarantino style), but at the end, George Kirk and Vulcan exist, and the Romulan sun does not go Nova.
A reset I would love.
I think you’re getting confused. The George Kirk story has NOTHING to do with Tarantino’s story. That one will be directed by someone else entirely, S.J. Clarkson Quinto mentioned.
Tarantino is apparently doing a completely different thing.
But I would HATE a reset. I don’t get people’s obsession with it frankly. They live in a different timeline from the Prime version. What people seem to miss (or maybe they don’t but just don’t care) the second you undo what Nero did EVERYTHING we seen before gets erased, including all the relationships the characters have built up together. Why would anyone want to just dismantle everything we seen? We already have the original TOS characters and their dynamics. Its interesting that these are different from those.
I’d much rather dismantle or disinvent the jjverse than even hint at the idea that the prime verse got overwritten or deleted.
And since I personally don’t embrace the multiverse notion – I like and embrace the notion that any potential time travel would only be able to affect your future from whence you set out, not actually changing what you know as history — I’m happy with anything that reinforces prime and does away with 09 (and that’s even with having enjoyed a lot of BEYOND, probably due to Abrams’ minimal involvement and the absence of his court of jesters.)
To elaborate on my single timeline notion, the idea is that what you do when you go back in time from 2250 to, say, stop CHALLENGER from blowing up, is that nothing you do keeps CHALLENGER from exploding, but things you do back in 1986 can change what you can find after you or your party go back to your future (or even if you can’t go back, the change can be found by others in the future going forward from your original time. So you could bury a much needed reactor and then your future self or tribe will be able to find it.)
I wrote a big hunk of a script along these lines in the late 80s, but had the usual problem with too much humor in the ‘back in the 80s’ part (plus there was the enormous issue of how you send somebody back up the line again, which always seems hokey to me.)
It wasn’t till TWELVE MONKEYS came along and basically threw away what I thought was a brilliant idea with one line from Bruce Willis that I gave the project up. he says something about how of course we’re not trying to change history, it already happened, we’re just trying to make a better future, and outside of loving the movie, that just killed me, because it ran roughshod over this idea in a big and yet classy elegant way.
Thank you Tiger2
Two Trek universe = twice the Trek fun!
Well I’m kind of excited.
Maybe Taratino has come up with a way to bring the Kelvin timeline crew (actors) back into the prime timeline in a way that doesn’t kill them all but rather merges them into the prime timeline and somehow retaining the Kelvin timeline experiences and where they are now in the prime timeline.
Question at this point: Would Chekov still be lost to us or would he simply just be there because he didn’t die in the prime timeline.
Besides I still do like these actors and each has grow into the characters we’ve come to know and love.
I know many of you simply brush that journey away for spiteful reasons.
Fascinating. Although, I thought the QT-helmed “Star Trek” movies would bring together a post-“Nemesis” Prime Timeline and a post-“Beyond” Kelvin Timeline. Either way, sounds like fun!
I want the characters to continue on no doubt. I don’t have the loyalty to this cast that I did to the original, but while the CAST can be the same, there’s no rule that these people can’t play the prime universe versions of these characters.
Quentin Tarantino makes violent movies. I’ve been a trekkie since the original series came out in the 60’s, but I doubt I will drop $35+ at the theatre for his version, regardless of the cast.
I wonder if “Kelvin crew” can mean Robau, George Kirk, Winona Kirk … hmmm. Because I notice in discussion there was no Kelvin “timeline” crew.
Marja,
Re: “Kelvin crew”
Nice catch. Why would TrekMovie’s crack staff repeat that phrase in the Title and body of two recent articles?
I love star trek that was a very good news both star trek movies one in 2019 if they get a title plus in 2020 for star trek 5 and will there be a star trek 6 in 2021 to be part of the trilogy for those three movies its need new villains new starships new storylines and this action pack star trek adventures thank you
/sigh