“Incredible Curiosity”: 5 years ago Tarantino was supposed to make a sci-fi film related to the legendary saga

Paramount Pictures is still undecided about the future of the Star Trek franchise in cinema. It’s been nine years since Star Trek Unlimited was released in 2016 — the longest gap between two Star Trek films since the saga began with Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979 — and there are currently no new films scheduled to hit theaters.

However, earlier this year we got a new feature film, Section 31, a live-action film starring Michelle Yeoh – a project that was not unanimously applauded and which unfortunately received the worst reviews of the entire franchise.

Tarantino’s crazy project

A fourth movie set in the Kelvin Chronicles was mentioned on the big screen, but it appears to have been shelved. At one point, Quentin Tarantino planned an R-rated, gangster-themed Star Trek movie before eventually abandoning the project.

Tarantino and screenwriter Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) even wrote the screenplay, but the director later abandoned the idea, not wanting to complete his “ten film plan” with a franchise film. Simon Pegg, who plays lead engineer Montgomery Scott in the saga, obviously had a chance to hear the resume.

At Fan Expo in Boston earlier this month, Pegg said that JJ Abrams and producer Lindsey Webber once pitched him the plot of a Tarantino film.

“It was what we in the business call completely insane“- explained the actor Collider. “It was everything you’d expect from a Quentin Tarantino Star Trek script. I think it would be an incredible curiosity to see Star Trek through his eyes. I don’t know how the fans would receive it, but it would certainly be something interesting.“

The story seems to be set on an Earth-like planet steeped in a 1930s gangster atmosphere, such as the original Star Trek episode “Some Action” (Season 2, Episode 17), where the crew of the Enterprise lands on a planet (Sigma Iotia II) that lives in the 1920s Chicago atmosphere.

Screenwriter in 2021 Mark L. Smithwho worked on the project Quentin TarantinoCredited some elements of the film to the Bulletproof Screenplay podcast: “Kirk is, we put it. All the characters are there that we know. (…) It would almost be an episode, a very cool episode. There’s a bit of time travel, but also… well, it’s totally crazy.”

Why did Tarantino leave the project?

In 2023, the screenwriter raised the topic again and specified the reasons for abandoning the film Collider :”I wrote, Quentin and I hesitated, he wanted to do something. And then he started thinking about the number, the number of his unofficial films“- explained the screenwriter.

He added:I remember we were talking, and he said, “If I can get through the idea that ‘Star Trek’ is going to be my last movie, the last thing I do, do I really want it to end up like that? I think that’s an obstacle that he never got over, so the script is still on his desk. I know he said a lot of good things about it. I’d love to see it. It’s just one of those movies that I’ve never seen. But it would be Star Trek.” Best movie, not because of my script, but simply because of what Tarantino would have done with it. It was really stupid.“

Also during an interview with Collider, Mark L. Smith Briefly discussed the tone of Tarantino’s version of the Star Trek project, which he described as very close to the director’s first films.

“The film would have the same level of violence Pulp Fiction. (…) It was really this nervousness and this Tarantino style that he was going to bring. That would be great.“

Recently there was a rumor that the upcoming film Quentin Tarantino It was supposed to be shot in December, but this information has since been denied, as it seems that the director is still far from finalizing the script for his upcoming feature film.

To see most of the Star Trek projects, head over to Paramount+.