News has been circulating on the internet this month about much ballyhooed director Quentin Tarantino pitching a Star Trek movie to J.J. Abrams (who rebooted the franchise in 2009) — an R-rated tome in a franchise that hasn’t exactly been known for its “edginess” in recent years.
But this is 2017. Welcome to the brave, new era where we get R-rated X-Men movies (Logan and Deadpool) and R-rated Star Trek movies. Let’s hope Pixar doesn’t join the trend.
The Tarantino news isn’t that surprising. He has admitted in interviews that he is a long-time fan of 1960s Trek. And I had read in the past that Tarantino owns an original print of 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan that he screens periodically.
Tarantino also named J.J Abrams’s Star Trek reboot as one of his top films of 2009.
Deadline reports that “The Revenant” scribe Mark L. Smith is going to write the screenplay for Tarantino’s Star Trek movie. One can only imagine what sort of bear-like creatures Captain Kirk will find himself wrestling in the wilderness.
If you want some insight into the direction Tarantino’s movie will take, he talks about his vision for a Star Trek movie in this interview from earlier in the year:
In the interview he mentions his fondness for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (with its time-travel changing narrative), but I’m guessing he’ll be tackling the current Chris Pine-era crew.
Be that as it may, Patrick Stewart (who played Captain Picard on TNG) has expressed interest in the project.
You might be asking yourself why this is all happening. At last check, Paramount was focused on developing a Star Trek prequel movie that would focus on Chris Hemsworth’s George Kirk character (seen briefly in the prologue of 2009’s Star Trek).
But the Star Trek franchise — in an era where big-budget science fiction spectacles are ubiquitous — has been a somewhat tougher sell to audiences.
Yet the recent success of Star Trek: Discovery (read my review) on CBS’s streaming platform has shown that the fan base is willing to dive into something a bit more edgy.
Back in the 1990s, I remember hearing that Sean Connery suggested Quentin Tarantino reboot the James Bond franchise. That was during the heyday of Pulp Fiction.
Others have suggested that Quentin Tarantino should move beyond the esoteric “art house” fare he is fond of producing, and use his talents in more mainstream franchises.
You can’t get much more mainstream than Star Trek.
It’s very possible that Tarantino’s non-linear storytelling would suit Star Trek well, and create something bold and compelling.
On the other hand, we’ve recently seen the uproar caused when a director/screenwriter takes a popular franchise in a different direction — as is the case with Rian Johnnson’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Regardless of the outcome of Tarantino’s Star Trek project, the mere mention of the unlikely cinematic marriage has breathed new life into the franchise.
With Tarantino at the helm, the franchise will definitely "go where no man has gone before..."
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