The writer of Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek movie has been discussing the proposed project, revealing that the sci-fi movie would have been a “hard R,” and comparing it to a beloved Marvel movie.
While we might yet see Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek movie happen at some later date, it sounds like QT won’t helm the movie, with The Movie Critic looking like it could be his 10th – and final – film.
Thought to be inspired by 1968 Star Trek episode ‘A Piece of the Action’, Tarantino’s take would have largely played out on earth, in a 1930s gangster setting.
And this week the movie’s writer – Mark L. Smith – has been revealing details of the style and tone of the feature, as well as what it might have meant for the Star Trek universe.
Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek compared to unexpected Marvel movie
Speaking to Collider about his work on the Star Trek movie, Mark L. Smith compares it to Thor: Ragnarok, a wild, colorful, and offbeat Marvel movie that shook things up in the MCU.
“I liked it because I think it’s different, but the way that Ragnarok changed things,” explains Smith. “It was like suddenly it had a different feel for the Marvel stuff. It was like, ‘That’s fun. That’s different.’ And I guess Guardians [of the Galaxy] to some level, but it was just like a different vibe and that’s what I thought that it could bring to Star Trek… just a different feel.”
The main stumbling block appears to be Tarantino not wanting to bow out with a Star Trek movie, with Smith stating: “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.
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“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.”
Tarantino’s Star Trek would have been “hard R”
Quentin Tarantino’s movies are known for their cursing and violence, and his Star Trek was shaping up to be no different.
“I think his vision was just to go hard. It was a hard R. It was going to be some Pulp Fiction violence,” Smith continues. “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 kind of that Tarantino flair that he was bringing to it. It would have been cool.”
As for whether the movie will ever get made, Smith says: “I would love for it to happen. It’s just one of those things 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.”
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