Back in December of 2017 came the rather surprising news that Quentin Tarantino had pitched an R-rated Star Trek movie to Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot, which he described as “Pulp Fiction in space.”
Fast forward three years and it’s looking increasingly unlikely that we’ll get to see Tarantino’s Trek, with Paramount still undecided as to how to proceed with the big screen franchise and Tarantino stating earlier this year that he doesn’t believe he’ll direct even if the studio did opt to move ahead with it.
However, during an interview with SFX to promote his new film The Midnight Sky, screenwriter Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) offered some comments on the project, and the fun he had working with Tarantino on the script.
“I wrote a Star Trek with Tarantino, and that was a sci-fi script on which I could have fun and lean into some bigger, broader things,” said Smith. “Kirk is always just so fun. Tarantino and I had so much fun with him, because Kirk is just William Shatner, y’know? It’s like: you’re not sure who is who, so you can kinda lean into that. Because you watch Chris Pine and he’s playing Kirk, but he’s also playing William Shatner a touch.”
Earlier this year, some details emerged on Tarantino’s plans for Kirk and company, with reports revealing that the story was inspired by ‘A Piece of the Action’, an episode from the second season of The Original Series where the Enterprise crew find themselves on the planet Sigma Iotia II, a remote world which has modelled itself on the mob setting of 1920s Chicago.
Will you be disappointed if we never get to see Tarantino’s Star Trek? How would you like to see Paramount proceeding with the movie franchise? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
