Quentin Tarantinois one of the pickiest directors in Hollywood when it comes to which movies he chooses to put his name to. While we now know that his final film will beThe Movie Critic, at one point it seemed possible thatan R-ratedStar Trekoffering could be his curtain call. However, screenwriter Mark L. Smith has revealed Tarantino simply did not want his legacy to be remembered as ending with big franchise movie likeStar Trek.
Tarantino has often spoken abouthis desire to make just 10 good moviesas a director. While many directors have gone on to work behind the camera on many more than this, Tarantino’s view is that the more movies he makes, the more likely it is that he will start making movies that are not that great. For this reason,The Movie Criticwill be his tenth and final directorial effort before he packs up that side of his role in Hollywood for good.
In a new interview withCollider,The Boys in the Boatscreenwriter Smith, explained that he produced a script with Tarantino for a “balls-out”Star Trekmovie, but the director abandoned it because he wanted something more meaningful as his final film. Smith said:
“It was a different thing, but this was such a particular different type of story that Quentin wanted to tell with it that it fit my kind of sensibilities. So I wrote that, Quentin and I went back and forth, he was gonna do some stuff on it, and then he started worrying about the number, his kind of unofficial number of films. I remember we were talking, and he goes, ‘If I can just wrap my head around the idea that Star Trek could be my last movie, the last thing I ever do. Is this how I want to end it?’ And I think that was the bump he could never get across, so the script is still sitting there on his desk. I know he said a lot of nice things about it. I would love for it to happen. It’s just one of those that I can’t ever see happening. But it would be the greatest Star Trek film, not for my writing, but just for what Tarantino was gonna do with it. It was just a balls-out kind of thing.”
Related:What Happened to Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek Movie?
Would an R-Rated Star Trek Movie Work?
In recent years, many franchises that were previously pitched in the PG-13 zone have branched out to cater exclusively to more mature audiences. Rather than “destroying” a franchise as some feared, they have instead become some of the most popular and profitable releases thanks to their clear vision and uncompromising approach to the source material.
This has includedJoker, Logan, andDeadpool, all of which outperformed most Marvel and DC movies of the last several years. WhileStar Trekmovies have all sat within the same kind “family-friendly” category that the MCU and DCEU have been occupying, there could certainly be an audience out there for something a little more mature. Expanding on why Tarantino’sStar Trekmovie would have been R-rated, Smith added:
“But I think his vision was just to go hard. It was a hard R. It was going to be some Pulp Fiction violence. Not a lot of the language, we saved a couple things for just special characters to kind of drop that into the Star Trek world, but it was just really the edginess and the kind of that Tarantino flair, man, that he was bringing to it. It would have been cool.”
Most recently, theStar Trekfranchise was brought back to life on the big screen by J.J. Abrams but following the mediocre response toStar Trek Beyondin 2016,the Chris Pine-led series has stalled. While there have been several rumors of a fourth movie being in development, any movement continues to be elusive. Instead, the main future of theStar Trekfranchise appears to be back in the medium it began, with several TV shows such asLower Decks, Starfleet AcademyandSection 31currently in production. Quentin Tarantino’sThe Movie Criticis currently expected to be released sometime late in 2024 or early 2025.
