Quentin Tarantino’s forbidden country, or perhaps his final frontier, is playing in an established movie franchise. But speaking at Fan Expo in Boston earlier this month, Montgomery “Scotty” Scott actor Simon Pegg spoke to Collider and reminded us that we nearly got a Tarantino take on Star Trek. It’s an idea, “That was what we call in the business bats*** crazy,” Pegg told the outlet.
Boldly Going, Going, Gone
As Deadline reported in 2017, Tarantino pitched a Star Trek story idea to Paramount while he was still busy preparing for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood at rival Sony. At the time, JJ Abrams still held the reins to Star Trek and was apparently receptive enough to the idea to suggest assembling a writers room and moving forward with the idea. The speculation was that Tarantino would direct and Abrams produce.
Captain Pike on Star Trek Strange New Worlds – Paramount Plus
In 2019, Tarantino seemed to be hedging his bets, telling Empire, “If I do it, it’ll be R-rated.” While he claimed that a script was finished, he had yet to look at it. Later, it was revealed that The Revenant scribe Mark L. Smith had penned the screenplay, but Tarantino no longer planned to direct. In an interview with Deadline, Tarantino said, “I think they might make that movie, but I just don’t think I’m going to direct it. It’s a good idea. They should definitely do it and I’ll be happy to come in and give them some notes on the first rough cut.”
James T. Kirk on Star Trek Strange New Worlds – Paramount Plus
While no details were officially given, Smith told the Indie Film Hustle podcast that it involved time travel and gangsters, leading to speculation that it would echo the season two episode of the original series, “A Piece of the Action.”
All Pegg, who admitted he hasn’t read the script, could add at the recent Fan Expo, is that “It was everything you would expect a Quentin Tarantino Star Trek script to be,” adding, “I don’t know how it would have gone over with the fans, but it certainly would have been an interesting thing.”
Star Trek Beyond and The Wrath of the Box Office
Simon Pegg knows firsthand that “interesting” doesn’t always mean successful. While the original series was often described as Wagon Train in space, 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, co-written by Pegg and Doug Jung, was called The Fast and the Furious in space from the time the first trailer dropped. Director Justin Lin (who has directed four installments of The Fast and the Furious), responded to the criticism, telling /Film, “…The one thing I wanted to make sure is that it [the trailer] hopefully represents that we are trying to be bold and take risks, whether we are successful or not, I don’t know.”
Quentin Tarantino sits for an interview – YouTube, Channel 4 News
Given that Star Trek Beyond earned the least at the box office of the three Kelvin Timeline films, ultimately it underperformed. The question may have lingered in the minds at Paramount if an R-rated Tarantino Pulp Fiction in space Star Trek would receive an even worse reception.
The Movie on the Edge of Forever
For now, fans of Star Trek and/or Quentin Tarantino can only speculate what his Star Trek movie might have been. Perhaps some enterprising (sorry!) person, or even Tarantino himself, will adapt it into a novel.
Zachary Quinto as Spcok and Chris Pine as Captain Kirk in Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), Paramount Pictures
Because while the recent Paramount-Skydance merger is breathing new life into the old franchise, that may not be a gamble they want to take.
Were you interested in a Quentin Tarantino Star Trek movie? Let us know in the comments!
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