The Curious Case ofQuentin Tarantino’sStar TrekMoviekeeps getting weirder and weirder. The news itself was the first off-the-wall idea, with word breaking earlier this week that Tarantino had pitched an idea for aStar Trekmovie to producerJ.J. Abrams,who sparked to the pitchand quickly made this official. A writers room was assembled incredibly quickly, and Tarantino spent hours with scribesMark L. Smith(The Revenant),Lindsey Beer(Chaos Walking), andDrew Pearce(Iron Man 3) to kick around ideas on how to tackle Tarantino’s approach.
Per Deadline, Smith is currently the frontrunner to land the job, but the bigger news is that thisStar Trekmovie will be R-rated. This was a condition of Tarantino being involved, and one that both Abrams and Paramount agreed to. It’s a first for the franchise, but Paramount is in something of a bind as the series has yet to really take off the way it had hoped at the box office, so clearly they’ve sparked to this left-field idea of having Quentin Freaking Tarantino direct it.
There’s no guarantee Tarantinowilldirect this movie, but the idea is for the winning scribe to work on the screenplay while theInglourious Basterdsfilmmaker shootshis next movienext summer. If the script is to Tarantino’s liking, he’ll direct thisStar Trekmovie.
Now, Tarantino has been pretty adamant about the fact that he’s only making 10 films and then he’s retiring. His 1969-set Manson Murders drama that he’s shooting next summer is #9, which would makeStar Trek#10 if he indeed makes it. Would he stick to his retirement plan? Would Quentin Tarantino really go out directing a blockbuster written by someone other than himself? I have a hard time believing it, so my guess is A. Tarantino simply produces and/or gets a “Story By” credit and someone else directs this movie or B. Tarantino makes one more original movie afterTrek.
Regardless, this whole thing is kind of insane and it’s movingreallyfast. Tarantino usually takes quite a bit of time between projects, but thus far everything about thisStar Trekmovie has been atypical for the Oscar-winning writer/director. We’ll likely hear more soon, but what do you think about an R-ratedStar Trekmovie folks?
