The news that filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was planning to direct a Star Trek movie was met with surprise and excitement in equal measure by Trekkies. Star Trek 4 had completely stalled at the time, and his R-rated take on the franchise was bound to be unlike anything seen before.
The project never came to fruition, with Paramount Pictures shifting focus to a new prequel movie with Andor filmmaker Toby Haynes attached to direct from a screenplay by Dark Shadows writer Seth Grahame-Smith.
The studio reportedly still intends to make the "final chapter" of the Chris Pine-led era of Star Trek movies, with Steve Yockey (The Flight Attendant) attached to write a new draft of that screenplay. As for Tarantino's scrapped plans, it reportedly boiled down to his desire to helm 10, and only 10, movies (and for whatever reason, he didn't want to conclude his career with Star Trek).
Appearing at the Fan Expo Boston on Saturday, Scotty actor Simon Pegg confirmed that he was given a breakdown of Tarantino's plans by producers J.J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber, and described it as "batshit crazy."
"That was what we call in the business batshit crazy," the actor said (via SFFGazette.com). "It was everything you would expect a Quentin Tarantino 'Star Trek' script to be. I think it would have been such an incredible sort of curio to see 'Star Trek' through his lens."
Pegg added, "I don’t know how it would have gone over with the fans, but it certainly would have been an interesting thing."
It's previously been reported that the movie would have taken place mostly on Earth in a 1930s gangster setting (likely taking inspiration from the seventeenth episode of Star Trek: The Original Series season 2, "A Piece of the Action").
In 2023, screenwriter Mark L. Smith confirmed that he'd penned a script based on Tarantino's story ideas and revealed that the filmmaker "started worrying about the number, his kind of unofficial number of films."
He continued, "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."
It's not clear what Tarantino's final movie will be, as he also scrapped plans to direct The Movie Critic. If and when his tenth and final movie does happen, it will follow Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Tarantino has never tackled a big-budget blockbuster, so it was hard to picture him taking charge of a property as beloved as Star Trek. The franchise has found great success on television in recent years, but hasn't been seen in theaters since 2016.
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