quentin tarantino star trek movie

The Truth Behind Quentin Tarantino's Star Trek Movie

In 2009, J.J. Abrams gave us a rebooted, alternate timeline  Star Trek  feature that surprised all but the most optimistic observers by being really good (despite an overabundance of lens flares). The Enterprise crew of what would come to be known as the Kelvin Timeline — including a younger, even cockier James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Zachary Quinto's spot-on Mr Spock — have adventured on through two more well-received films, with another in the pipeline. A familiar yet unlikely name has also been rumored for the franchise: filmmaker Quentin Tarantino . 

At first glance, it may not seem like the most appropriate fit. The internet quickly chimed in with plenty of jokes about Kirk and Spock going medieval on some hapless alien, or Samuel L. Jackson going on a profanity-laced tirade about whether to engage with the Romulans. But it quickly became apparent that not only is Tarantino dead serious about the project, Paramount is too — and while it may take awhile to materialize, it's looking ever more likely that his  Trek will actually become a reality. Here's everything we know so far.

Tarantino's pitch wowed executives

After 2016's Star Trek Beyond became the rebooted series' third straight hit , it was a no-brainer to assume that Paramount would return to the well for further installments. But for the rest of that year and most of the next, there was no news aside from Zachary Quinto occasionally popping up to reassure fans that yes, as far as he knew,  Star Trek 4 was still happening. Then, in December 2017,  Deadline broke the rumor that Tarantino had visited with Paramount executives to share a "great idea" he had for a new  Trek  picture — and the execs were so floored by his pitch that they immediately started assembling a writers' room to flesh it out.

More rumors about the project continued to trickle out over the following months, suggesting that Abrams would produce and that screenwriter Mark L. Smith ( The Revenant ) was the front-runner to pen the script. It appeared to be full steam ahead for QT's  Trek , but it quickly became evident that fans excited about the prospect were probably going to have to wait for a little while. 

It won't be Star Trek 4

As details began to emerge about the next Trek  picture, one thing became apparent — it wasn't going to be Tarantino's. Simon Pegg (who co-wrote Beyond and has been a highlight of the rebooted series as its Scotty) confirmed in April 2018 that that as-yet untitled film is already in pre-production, and a director has already been tapped. That would be S.J. Clarkson, who helmed the pilot episode of the Netflix series  Marvel's Jessica Jones and is set to become the first female director in  Star Trek  history.

Paramount also revealed to fans at a Comic-Con panel that Chris Hemsworth, who appeared in the 2009 film as James Kirk's ill-fated father George, was supposed to return for the fourth installment. Given the series' time- and dimension-hopping aesthetic, it's not a huge shocker that George Kirk — who famously went down with his ship in the opening moments of the first film — would make a reappearance, especially with an actor as popular as Hemsworth in the role. Unfortunately, those plans may have hit a snag; more recently, it was reported that Hemsworth and Chris Pine — who plays James Kirk — have walked off the project after salary negotiations broke down.

It sounds like Abrams and company are still ironing out the details, but Tarantino's  Trek is still going to be on the back burner for awhile — in fact, the director is already knee-deep in an unrelated project.

It may not include the same cast

Tarantino is currently hard at work on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood , his retelling of the events surrounding the infamous crimes committed by Charles Manson and his murderous "family." While Paramount  confirmed  there were two new  Trek projects in the pipeline, the studio hasn't specified whether Tarantino's project is one of them — and to hear Simon Pegg tell it, there's a strong possibility that QT may not be available even for  Star Trek 5 .

Speaking with the  Edmonton Journal , Pegg opined that the current "Kelvin Timeline" cast might be out of the loop by the time Tarantino's  Trek makes its way into production. "Quentin's idea is another thing," he said. "He came in to Bad Robot and pitched it and it's been put in the bank. I think he had us in mind when he came up with the idea; he likes the new cast. But he's going to be so busy with  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood  that I can't see him doing it for five or six years, by which time we might be too old anyway." 

Yes, it might be R-rated

For his part, Quinto isn't convinced that the long production window necessarily means that the new cast will be excluded. The actor told USA Today that, while he didn't have any specifics, he was "thrilled that we might have the opportunity" to work with Tarantino, of whom he's been a longtime fan. In the same interview, he seemed to confirm a tidbit that fans had been speculating about since the project's announcement: the possibility that Tarantino's  Trek might carry an R rating.

"It's going to be an R-rated version of Star Trek," he stated flatly, "which would be the first [in] the movies, and that's exciting... I'm really inspired by his originality. Take that originality and mix it with this world full of incredible ideology and colorful characters, and the result could be pretty thrilling." Of course, Quinto may just be assuming along with all the rest of us that Tarantino is simply incapable of making a movie that's  not rated R, and Pegg — who doesn't seem to agree with Quinto on anything as far as this project is concerned — poured some water on the idea in an interview with  Hey U Guys . "I don't think he's written an R-rated Star Trek script," he said, before conceding, "I don't know much about it other than it's in the mix, so we'll see." 

It may adapt a Next Generation episode

Tarantino offered a bit of foreshadowing  in 2015 on the Nerdist podcast, recorded when  Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was awaiting release. Asked if he'd ever consider directing a  Star Wars film, he replied that  Trek  was more his speed, having been a lifelong fan of the original series — "in particular, a fan of William Shatner," he said. "That's my key into this series is William Shatner." He went on to opine that there were myriad episodes that could lend themselves to the feature film treatment, singling out the classic episode "City on the Edge of Forever" — but he saved his strongest endorsement not for an original series episode, but for a third-season installment of revival series  Star Trek: The Next Generation .

This would be "Yesterday's Enterprise," in which Jean-Luc Picard and his crew accidentally meddle with history during an excursion back in time, leading to war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Tarantino called the episode one of the best ever written, and it's worth pointing out that the time travel aspects of the story would mesh well with the reboot series. "I actually think that is one of the great... not only space stories, but the way it dealt with the mythology of the whole thing — that actually could bear a two-hour treatment," he said — and if the stars align correctly, there's even a chance that Picard himself could make an appearance.

Other captains are interested

Trek fans were given a gift for the ages in August 2018 when it was announced that Sir Patrick Stewart, who hadn't stepped into Captain Picard's shoes in any capacity since 2002, would be returning to reprise the role in a brand new  Trek series. This, however, was not the first time Stewart had teased the good Captain's return. Speaking with the  Hollywood Reporter in late 2017, Stewart said , "One of my dreams is to work with Tarantino. I admire his work so much, and to be in a Tarantino film would give me so much satisfaction. So, if he is going to direct something to do with  Star Trek  and there was the possibility of dear old Jean-Luc showing up again and doing that for Mr. Tarantino, I would embrace it."

As it turns out, he's not the only Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise who feels that way. William Shatner, for whom Tarantino has expressed so much fondness, also indicated a willingness to jump on board when asked directly about it by a fan on Twitter. Given Tarantino's penchant for skillfully utilizing classic stars in his films — not to mention his  Trek fandom — it actually seems possible that he might be the man to finally reunite the two most beloved Captains in the Enterprise's history.

The script is in good hands

Shortly after his involvement was rumored, Deadline  confirmed that Paramount had tapped Mark L. Smith to pen the script for Tarantino's Trek , which on the surface seems like a bit of an odd choice. Tarantino typically writes or co-writes his scripts himself, and they are always liberally peppered with rapid-fire dialogue and pop culture references. Smith, by contrast, displayed a remarkable knack for crafting a compelling narrative with a near-absence of dialogue in  The Revenant . It wasn't that script, however, that won Smith the job — it was his screenplay for 2018's  Overlord , an Abrams-produced, WWII-set thriller.

Smith took part in the writers' room convened after Tarantino's initial pitch, a panel that also included esteemed scribes Lindsey Beer (who is working on a huge slate of forthcoming reboots), Drew Pearce ( Iron Man 3 ) and Megan Anram ( The Good Place ). Smith won over Abrams and Paramount with his completed script for  Overlord , and he'll be hard at work on the Trek  screenplay while Tarantino completes  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood . Of course, we're not likely to have any plot details for months — but if Tarantino's comments are any indication, some significant plot elements of the current film series might be off the table.

Tarantino isn't a fan of alternate timelines

Tarantino picked Star Trek as the best film of 2009, but didn't care for sequel  Star Trek Into Darkness  for one reason: Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan. Not that he has anything against Cumberbatch, he just apparently has a tough time getting his head around the idea of alternate timelines, as he explained on the  Nerdist podcast. "I was really disturbed when I saw [ Star Trek Into Darkness ]," he said. "It really bothered me that [Cumberbatch] was playing Khan... The thing that I liked about the first one [was that] Chris Pine is playing William Shatner, and Zachary Quinto is playing Leonard Nimoy. So all those things that happened in the  Star Trek  universe will happen... thus, [Cumberbatch]  can't  be Khan."

Given the fact that Nimoy appears as "Spock Prime" in the 2009 film, and even shares screentime with Quinto, it seems as though Tarantino may have misinterpreted key elements of that film's story. But even though both of the episodes he cited as being ripe for cinematic adaptation feature time-travel elements, it's safe to say that Tarantino either isn't a fan of or doesn't understand the concept of alternate timelines, making it all but certain that his  Trek will diverge from the current films in this respect.

The idea has proven divisive

Since the project was announced, more than a few observers have expressed the opinion that this is a poor match of filmmaker with material. Tarantino is talented, but he has a pretty specific set of strengths, and not everyone is convinced that they'll play well in the Star Trek universe. Chris Taylor of  Mashable made a compelling case along these lines in his analysis, arguing, "If there is a mindset further opposite that of Gene Roddenberry, the man who created Star Trek , I can't think of it. Roddenberry was a profoundly hopeful believer in the essential goodness of man... Tarantino's self-interested anti-heroes are a galaxy away from the kind of idealism we miss in our movies."

On the other hand, some have pointed out that Tarantino's penchant for pushing boundaries and putting story above all could result in one of the more exciting Trek pictures. Some have even gone so far as to opine that with the  Star Wars franchise back in full swing, the writing could be on the wall for  Trek as a film franchise unless some risks are taken — and that an R-rated, Tarantino-directed  Trek would perfectly fit that bill. Strong arguments can be made either way, and there's no real precedent — Tarantino has never worked within an established franchise before. His take on  Trek  could be a chance to prove that he can offer up a fresh, compelling take on others' material — but it might also be his swan song.

It might be Tarantino's last movie

Love him or hate him, it can hardly be denied that Tarantino — particularly by way of his 1994 masterpiece  Pulp Fiction — has changed cinema forever. His style has spawned legions of imitators, his works have been endlessly referenced and parodied throughout pop culture, and his influence-quoting aesthetic will be dissected and debated by film students for generations. But all things must come to an end, and after hinting at it for years, he  confirmed in 2016 that he intends to retire after his tenth film.

After his involvement in the  Star Trek project was confirmed, observers across the internet were quick to do a bit of simple math. 2015's  The Hateful Eight was, appropriately enough, Tarantino's eighth movie. With  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in production, this would make  Trek  his tenth — and, if he remains true to his word, final — film. It would be a fittingly idiosyncratic ending to the distinguished career of a filmmaker who has never been interested in doing what anybody expects of him, always going wherever his muse takes him — and it also just somehow seems right that for his final act, he would take us on a mind-blowing trip to the Final Frontier.

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Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek Writer Explains Why the R-Rated Movie Fell Through

• Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

Screenwriter Mark L. Smith has opened up about why the Star Trek movie he developed with director Quentin Tarantino ended up on the shelf.

“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,” Smith told Collider . “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.”

Notably, Tarantino has always been very open about the fact that he planned to retire from filmmaking after making 10 movies — or after turning 60. The 60-year-old writer-director is currently working on his 10th and final film, The Movie Critic. Tarantino previously helmed Reservoir Dogs (1992); Pulp Fiction (1994); Jackie Brown (1997); Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), which he considers to be a single film; Death Proof (2007); Inglourious Basterds (2009); Django Unchained (2012); The Hateful Eight (2015); and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

Tarantino’s movie would have been the ‘greatest Star Trek film’

Smith added that Tarantino “said a lot of nice things” about his Star Trek script. “I would love for it to happen,” he continued. “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.”

The writer went on to discuss the tone of the unproduced sci-fi film. “But I think his vision was just to go hard,” Smith said. “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.”

The cinematic future of the Trek franchise

It’s currently unclear when Star Trek will return to the big screen. After all, Tarantino’s standalone film isn’t the only entry that may ultimately go unproduced. For years, Paramount Pictures has been developing a sequel to 2016’s Star Trek Beyond (the third film in the studio’s Star Trek reboot series). However, the project has had to contend with various roadblocks and behind-the-scenes changes. Most recently, director Matt Shakman exited Star Trek 4 in favor of helming Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four reboot.

That said, while the next big-screen entry may be some time off, a new feature film titled Star Trek: Section 31 is currently in active development for the Paramount+ streaming service. Starring Michelle Yeoh, the film spins out of the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Discovery. Principal photography is scheduled to begin next month .

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Quentin Tarantino Passed On Directing ‘Star Trek’ Film Because He Didn’t Want That Movie To Be His Last

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Quentin Tarantino was close to directing a bloodier Star Trek movie but opted out of making it because he didn’t want that to be his last film.

Writer Mark L. Smith is now opening up about the hesitation Tarantino had about directing the fourth installment of the film franchise that started with J.J. Abrams ‘ 2019 reboot.

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Smith continued, “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.”

Tarantino has been open about wanting to retire from directing after completing ten films with The Movie Critic set to potentially be his last . Smith noted that Tarantino’s take on Star Trek would’ve been rated with a “Hard R.”

“I think his vision was just to go hard. It was a hard R. It was going to be some Pulp Fiction violence,” Smith added. “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.”

News of a fourth Star Trek film date back to 2016 when it was announced that Paramount Pictures, Skydance and Bad Robot were going to continue collaborating on another installment ahead of the release of Star Trek: Beyond .

Tarantino’s involvement in the franchise would be reported the following year when it was announced a the director had an idea for the next installment. Reports also mentioned that Tarantino required the film to be rated R , as Smith confirmed in his recent interview.

“I liked it because I think it’s different, but the way that [Thor] Ragnarok changed things. It was like suddenly it had a different feel for the Marvel stuff,” he said. “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 was just a different feel.”

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Screenwriter Explains Why Quentin Tarantino Backed Away From His R-Rated Star Trek Movie

| December 28, 2023 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 104 comments so far

Back in 2018, the Oscar-winning writer/director Quentin Tarantino was working with J.J. Abrams on a very different kind of Star Trek movie. The film was based on an idea of Tarantino’s and it would have been R-rated. Paramount put the movie into development in parallel with a planned “Star Trek 4” followup to Star Trek Beyond . Mark L. Smith ( The Revenant ) was brought in to write a script, but by the end of 2019, Tarantino had backed away from the project. Now Smith is talking more about the movie and why it didn’t get made.

Tarantino’s Trek writers room

In an interview posted before Christmas on Collider , Mark L. Smith talked about working with Tarantino and why their Star Trek film ended up being shelved:

“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.”

Tarantino had always said he would end his directing career with ten movies, which is the “number” Smith is referring to. At that time, Tarantino was working on his ninth film, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood , which was released in 2019. Earlier this year, Tarantino announced his tenth and final film will be The Movie Critic .

Smith talked a bit more about the Trek film, adding it was “just a balls-out kind of thing.” He didn’t want to offer plot details for fear that Tarantino “would kill me,” but did confirm how different this would be from other franchise entries:

“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.”

In 2019, Tarantino said Smith delivered a “ cool ” script and also described it as “Pulp Fiction in space.” After the project fizzled out, Smith revealed the film would have included James T. Kirk as well as other familiar characters, and it would’ve involved “gangsters.”

Spock and Kirk get their gangster on in “A Piece of the Action”

Even though the script is finished, it’s understandable that Paramount would not be interested without Tarantino himself attached as director. Paramount has run through a number of potential Star Trek film projects with several writers and directors since the thirteenth film in the franchise, 2016’s Star Trek Beyond .

The studio is reportedly still actively developing a new follow-up set in the Kelvin universe. After the WGA strike ended in September, the studio was said to be hoping to get the project back into pre-production “ soon ,” but there have been no reports since, and just last month star Chris Pine said he still had not seen a script .

Find more news and analysis on upcoming Star Trek feature films .

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We so dodged a bullet on this one. Thank god it didn’t happen.

Couldn’t have been any worse than Into Darkness. That should have never been made.

Exactly. Or Nemesis, or Insurrection.

or Beyond (we could’ve had a great anniversary/time travel movie with Orci’s ST3 starring Shatner instead of Guardians and the Furious)

“IT’S A SAAAAABOTAGE!!!!”

Actually, Beyond was the best of the 3. It was the most Star Trek like. I actually quite enjoyed it.

Agreed. Beyond felt to me like the first time the Kelvin cast truly felt like their Prime counterparts.

I too enjoyed it.

Beyond is the film that is the most like the Original Series.

Most like a Gold Key comic more like :D

Go outside.

“we could’ve had a great anniversary/time travel movie with Orci’s ST3 starring Shatner”

When was Shatner ever attached to the Orci movie?

Orci’s vision for his movie was to have Pine’s Kirk either meet Shatner or show an aged Kelvin version of Kirk played by Shatner,

In his comments about the script he stated it was Kirk Prime and deaged slightly with CG therefore Shatner kirk would be somehow taken from before died in Generations (as to how is anyones guess, obviously something to do with the ancient timeline altering device)

Bill and Leonard reuniting on screen would have been awesome but it wasn’t meant to be, Leonard got sick and died.

I think it was still going ahead after Leonard died. until Paramount pulled the plug and brought in Pegg/Jung/Lin, with Pegg citing Orci’s ST3 as ‘too star trek’ (the villain wanting to change the timeline back to primeverse with some ancient device, Kirk&Spock encounter Shatner Kirk who helps them) .. apparently Paramount wanted it more Guardians of the Galaxy meets F&F (which had both become huge in the interim). and maybe they felt it was too similar to ST09?

The too Star Trekkie complaint is ridiculous. If they don’t want to make Star Trek they should sell the franchise. Its not Marvel and its not Star Wars. Beyond is one of the most disappointing things ever in my lifetime of watching science fiction films. To be fair i liked Jaylah, i liked the Franklin, i thought the space station was designed well. I liked Bones and Spock in it. But the motorcycle scene was dumb, destroying the Enterprise was dumb. The Beastie Boy music in space was idiotic.

Bones and Kirk drinking was just a reference to Star Trek II. Its like they can’t help themselves.

They also wasted Idris, but to be honest none of the villains in the KT is compelling, at least not like Montalban Khan. I don’t remember i single line they spoke. Other than maybe Nero, James T Kirk was a great man but that was another life.

I think some stuff in Beyond (like that Kirk Bones birthday scene) was most likely was from Orci’s ST3 (despite Pegg saying he’d never seen the script), id also hazard a guess at Krall being based in the villain from the orci script just giving a different ‘mcguffin’ to chase/obsess over instead of the timeline altering one (but his motivations will have been similar). Orci has said in TM comments that Bryan Cranston was being approached to play the villain, and that Alice Eve would’ve been back, and Shatner would’ve been ‘cgi deaged’ to Generations era for Kirk Prime.

Sounds like it would’ve been a cool Trek movie for the 50 anniversary. with big Trek events like potentially altering the timeline, Shatner Kirks return, maybe even Nero and the Kelvin – like a big Yesterdays Enterprise/City on The Edge style timetravel/timeline adventure (and maybe a commentary on how fans can’t let the old stuff they love so much go).

Beyond was a waste of a movie imo, a nothing movie like Insurrection, I don’t care if Spock/Bones had some banter and that Pine and the rest seemed more like their ToS counterparts, or that the Enterprise got destroyed. again (and judging by the box office neither did audiences). The only scene that was great was the Star Trek V photo (and I wouldn’t be surprised if that probably from the orci script)

It would have been great for the 50th Anniversary. The only problem was Paramount for whatever reason didn’t want to market it that way. i think that ties into the “Too trekky” thought process. They went with the Guardians of the Galaxy wave instead. Perhaps they can wake up and get it right for the 60th Anniversary. This would be the type of movie that could be an event. The problem is they want Marvel money. Even Marvel is struggling with their last few releases. They should give Orci a writing credit and work off this concept. Have whatever writing team make some tweaks to Paramount’s liking and make a freaking movie already.

Id LOVE to see Orcis ST3 reworked for ST4 for the 60th. Could still get Cranston, and have Alice Eve back and maybe even Shatner (at 95!). Just keep the budget in check so no exceed 150m (so long as it makes Marvel money. which is now in about the Beyond 300 millions range!)

Oh definitely Shatner.

Nemesis was bad. Insurrection had a great story but was messed up with the delivery.

In a way, I am harsher on Insurrection than Nemesis, because at least Nemesis, for all it’s bad faults, wasn’t boring.

The end of Nemesis is very good with the standoff between the Enterprise and Scimitar and i think Data’s death was poignant. The family aspect of the crew also felt real and not forced. I can’t hold it against Nemesis that Picard ruined it all. B4 was dumb though, just another Spock remember thing if they made TNG movie 5 to bring Data back.

I agree 100%. It would’ve been a disaster.

It sounded like an awful idea all around. But if they made it I would’ve checked it out. Someone else beat me to it, it still couldn’t have been worse than Star Trek Into Dumbness or Nemesis.

STID was the absolute worse to be sure my friend. The plot was just… WOW!

Agree as usual bro, Star Trek Into Drek will go down as one of the most ridiculous Trek movies ever made.

So your diabolical plan Admiral Marcus is to literally hand Fratboy Kirk all the illegal evidence and trying to kill off the augments by having the Enterprise shoot off 80 photon torpedoes with them in it in enemy territory just to take out one guy?

Can anyone tell me the last time a ship fired that many torpedoes at anything outside of fighting a war? Why doesn’t Marcus just take ten minutes out his day, fly his big ludicrous ship to the sun and just shoot the torpedoes into it and then go get lunch when he’s done?Wouldn’t that just been easier. He obviously knew Kirk had the IQ of a mockingbird but c’mon???? It’s amazing how dumb everyone is in that movie in order to make the plot work.

This is the kind of amateur plotting I would’ve wrote in a story…. when I was ten.

Sorry I’m ranting again lol.

LOL I’ll add to that. Admiral or no Admiral. How do you build a war ship with that many resources taken away from that many other ships AFTER the battle of Earth in ST ‘09 and justify it and say, oh, I’m just using an entire space port no one can use by myself. Not even Section 31, which was HILARIOUSLY misrepresented in this movie, has that kind of capability. And then you are going to sent the federation flagship into the heart of the enemy, intercept them, and just blow them up and not think you are going to get caught? I mean TNG had some DUMB admirals in its time and I know this is not TNG but WOW this takes the cake!

he wanted the enterprise to be caught, having sabotaged the warp drive

Bu why?? No pun intended, what is the endgame there? What was he going to accomplish that he could not have by like any other means?

And of course what’s more ridiculous is that he convinces Kirk to fire the ‘cloaked’ torpedoes from the edge of the neutral zone but the Enterprise itself isn’t cloaked??? Did these geniuses really think they can bombard one of the most militaristic and suspicious species in the Quadrant and they couldn’t figure out it was a Starfleet vessel that is lobbing dozens of missiles on their homeworld?? Hasn’t it been made clear multiple times that all advance races have the ability to identify ships from their warp signature?? Did no one bother to raise that issue the second the Enterprise warped back to Earth? And isn’t there surveillance all along the neutral zone so ships can’t just roll up unannounced and just start shooting at their planet??

It’s all good though, the torpedoes are cloaked and the Enterprise will just hide behind a comet or something as it’s doing it.No one would be the wiser. 🙄

And then Marcus rolls up disappointed his fool proof plan didn’t go as envisioned but decides to blow the Enterprise up to complete his dasterardly mission only this moron is now doing it on Earth’s doorstep with a ship that is illegal for him to even have.

And once more there isn’t any surveillance near the freaking moon?? He’s going to destroy a Starfleet vessel that hasn’t fired one photon at him but somehow suggests his actions were justified. Really the black Star Destroyer he’s riding in and five times the size of the Enterprise is going to somehow convince Starfleet brass it was the other ship that was the real threat although there isn’t a single scratch on the Vengeance (most ridiculous name ever) that he secretly built illegally off the books and took out the flagship killing everyone because they had Khan onboard? Sounds like that wouldn’t bring up any questions at the hearing.

But then when Scotty manages to knock out the power of the ship Kirk doesn’t come up with a plan to evacuate the ship with all the shuttle crafts and escape pods to send them to Earth or even the moon which is literally just fine minutes away at impulse speed. Noooope! Instead he does a space jump to the ship with just him and Khan to literally take out an armed ship full of men on their own hoping to take down the ship. Bro, use that time to get your crew out of danger using the shuttles to ride back to Earth and tell Starfleet what is going on.

It’s sooo ridiculous. If they were trapped in the middle of space with nowhere to go, that makes sense. But we have to believe they can’t send help of any kind when they are literally a few minutes away and have shuttles sitting there.

But then we can’t have the dramatic scene of them being pulled into Earth’s atmosphere even though they are literally hundreds of thousands of miles away from it.

These people couldn’t have written the script in more than just a few days with all the mountain size potholes in it. 🙄

LOL my friend I could keep going and going like the energizer bunny on this. At the end I will say this. There are a handful of truly great sequels in this world that surpass their original. Wrath of Khan is one of them. What is SO IRONIC here is that they tried to copy Khan sooooo badly here and they accomplished nothing but the exact opposite. To make a sequel SOOO BAD it killed the franchise, or at least that leg of the franchise and the franchise as a whole for a whole lot of years.

Yeah man, you know me I can go on forever! 😉

STID is just a total bleep show of a movie. It proves why Abrams was a true hck who never should’ve been anywhere near Star Trek and thankfully hasn’t been since. They praised this guy like he was the second coming and he destroyed the movie side after just the second one.

And I think the first one was even dumber than the second one, but it gets a pass because it looked like a masterpiece after Nemesis and it comes off super cool looking and shiney with a fun action story and decent characters. And there was no Khan in it or magic blood or WOK stuff.

I’m not saying JJ verse is the only dumb movies in Trek obviously, both TOS and TNG has a lot of dumb stuff too and Nemesis is still my worst Trek movie of all time. STID is my second worst though. It’s why I never really cared about the movies but the Kelvin movies are typical blockbuster movies dumb. Leave your brain on Risa and just enjoy the explosions dumb.

Getting back on topic maybe Tarantino would’ve just had a better written story but I really doubt it would’ve been a great Star Trek story based on everything we heard and probably why it didn’t get made.

I’m totally saying it. The JJ-verse movies were a bunch of dumb popcorn fun movies at best and pure racist at worst. I’m Indian and I AM PISSED OF THE WHITEST GUY ON THE PLANET got cast to play Khan. I know Ricardo Monoban wasn’t Indian, but at least he was a person of color. Cumberbatch is the perfect example of white washing I have ever seen!

Also, I’ll add when Tarantino was once about to make his Trek movie, he said he didn’t get the Kelvin universe and how it was different from Prime Trek. Jar Jar Abrams just told him I don’t get it either, who cares? Just make the movie you want. That is a douche and not someone that cares for the franchise in the slightest and I will NEVER watch anything associated with bad robot again!

he wanted the flagship of the Fed/starfleet to make the move to start the war he wanted against the klingons.

but the big mistake in the end was bringing back khan full stop

But why? At the end of the day, he may be an evil admiral in the grand tradition of all evil admirals of the TNG era… But why have Starfleet start the war? If he can be that manipulative, he can’t come up with a better scheme to make Starfleet look better in this?

It’s still better then Generations.

No, no it isn’t. And I think Generations suck too. Nothing about the Nexus makes a lick of sense. But everything about Star Trek Into Disaster is beyond stupid.

The movie starts off with the Enterprise being underwater for some strange reason and is never explained in a pre warp society that isn’t supposed to know they are even there. To this day I still try to wrap my head around how did Fratboy Kirk manage to secretly enter a ship that is half a mile long into the bleeping water without a local spoting it. Did they just wait for them to all go to sleep or something?

What’s crazy (but weirdly more impressive) is the movie manages to get even more dumb as it goes.

Probably just because it looks cool is why it was underwater. It reminded me of Space Battleship Yamato

The funny thing about what you just said is me and Amirami discussed this very thing on another website a few months ago. I literally used that as an example and said Abrams probably base most of his decisions on what goes into a movie if he thinks something looks cool or not, regardless how it impacts the story. TROS was filled with it.

I’m not getting on his case because he wants stuff to look cool and flashy, that’s the case with most $200 million movie. But at TRY to justify it in the story. He spent all that time and money for that scene but he couldn’t bother to come up with just TWO LINES to explain why it was down there? Two lines! I don’t think he ever even thought about it.

It’s all flash and no substance with that guy and people have finally realized that after the SW sequels

They were seen by a pre warp civilization and because of that the Enterprise became their new god. Pike wasn’t pleased. Nibiru fate was decided, the people were supposed to die and Spock played god, violating the prime directive. Jim made it worse by not letting Spock die. And being seen.

That’s what happens when you base an entire movie on paranoid Bob Orci’s conspiracy worldview. There is a reason that dude is no longer welcome in the industry, and why his former wife maced him and took a baseball bat to his door.

A truth be told I dunno anything about that stuff but I can’t disagree about the STID paranoid stuff.

The events of the 2009 film leading to a more hawkish starfleet arming for another potential attack by time of ITD made sense to me and not some product of a conspiracy theorist

That is literally why the Enterprise design is different and Starfleet is more militaristic. Nero’s incursion. It is why they woke Khan up early to build weapons for them. Why Space Seed never happened but we have Wrath of Khan early.

It can both make sense and also be the product of the mind of a paranoid weirdo. Because Orci *is* a paranoid weirdo.

Well, you didn’t offer up a citation for your more salacious observations, so I had to look it up. It seems your version of his personal issues isn’t supported by the court filings. Whether you like the guy or not, there’s no reason to slander him.

Yes, I don’t believe spousal abuse has ever been caused by a disagreement over the grassy knoll or some other conspiracy theorist nonsense. Deeper issues were at work there.

OK, I do admit that is not necessarily a causal relationship, and if anyone was offended by that remark, I apologize.

That being said, 911 Truthers to me are some of the lowest forms of life on this planet and deserve ridicule – my personal opinion.

(Orci) describes things getting so bad in the couple’s relationship that she “maced” him in the face in 2019…she took a baseball bat to their bedroom door…

Nope, this is what he himself said.

You’re yanking things out of context here to a degree that someone from the Trump campaign may just offer you a job. You’re ignoring other reported examples of erratic behavior on her part, that he declined to press charges, and he got the restraining order on her. This’ll get hashed out in court, but you’ve offered up nothing to suggest any conspiracy theory mongering fueled her alleged mental health issues. Nor that Orci has been blacklisted..

At this point you’re just being an @$$hole.

No, because I remember all of his 911, Truther BS (some of it mentioned by him in his posts on this very site) which was an awful slap to the face to both the people that died and the people that the difficult task of rescuing people and cleaning up — and all those people whose lives were forever changed by that disaster. But he kept doubling down and suggesting it was some sort of a “star chamber” ruse by an international cabal that really controls things globally.

Regarding his wife, I’m just saying that I’m not surprised at all that he could drive someone crazy — but that is my personal opinion only.

Regarding being blacklisted, of course I’m not claiming it’s as direct as that, but he’s done nothing in the several years since Hawaii Five-O wound up… Draw your own conclusions. Personally, I would be wary of hiring someone with nutjob views like that… Again, just my personal opinion, but I would certainly not be surprised if others in Hollywood would think twice

When you say you are trying to work on your tone and how you come across, this is the sort of vicious slander you should think twice about posting.

Please see my response to Phil

Furthermore, what I quoted was in news reports — not only that, that was his own quote

It was completely uncalled for to go after his marriage. The discussion was about Into Darkness and instead of just presenting Orci’s fringe beliefs to add color, you went nuclear and brought up your unsolicited opinion about his marriage.

Also, the blacklisting supposition is just that since Sony hired him to work on a Spider-Man universe film.

I apologize to anyone who was offended by my comments.

Regarding the Spider-Man project, I don’t think it’s happening. Please provide an update if you have any different information?

Thank you for apologizing. After reading the articles about what happened with his wife I just can’t condone using that as fodder to attack him.

The news about the Spider-Man movie made the rounds 3 years ago, there’s been nothing new since then either about it getting further along or being cancelled.

I don’t think Trekkies or Tarantino fans would have been happy. Hell, I’m both anyway, but I’m not really sure I need those two worlds to collide.

Exactly! I love both, and I’m all for a wacky mash-up, but this one just never felt right to me and I’m relieved it isn’t happening. It just sounded like such a gimmick to me.

Totally. I get this man has his movie making chops and so forth but he seems like the completely wrong person for any kind of Star Trek film.

That’s just what I was thinking — we’re so lucky this was never made!

If people are open to musicals and cartoon crossovers in Star Trek, then why not a Rated R Star Trek?

I’ve never seen the point of totally ejecting children from the potential audience of the franchise. I thought it was a big mistake for Discovery and even the older-skewing Picard to do it.

Non sequitur.

I must be an old fuddy duddy i thought those were the worst episodes of Trek in history. Especially those old scientists i don’t watch lower decks.

I think that Tarantino could have made a really interesting Star Trek film. The sequence in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood where Brad Pitt’s character goes to the Spahn Ranch to check on his friend and is surrounded by the menace of the Manson cult was set up like a classic TOS scenario.

Kelvin-verse’s A Piece of the Action.

Once more, with feeling: just as well that the thing never got made. But I’d give my right, uh, eyetooth, to read the script.

IDW, are you listening? Your adaptation of Harlan Ellison’s original teleplay for “The City on the Edge of Forever” was top notch. How about taking this on?

Probably being kept on ice in case Quentin changes his mind

I want to read all the unused Kelvin-verse scripts, going back to when Orci was supposed to direct.

Michael, are you on any sites that have a private message function? I have access to a different script you might enjoy reading or could at least cross off your bucket list.

I hated that idea (or rather oh-dear) from the start and I’m glad it didn’t happen. I dislike QT’s movies as well as most “hard R” movies in general. Trek should never go down that road. Icheb’s demise was bad enough.

Why do you dislike R-rated movies?

Simply because I can’t stand blood and guts? I think it’s a matter of upbringing. My father hated blood in movies and since his death, his preferences have grown on me. In death he has become more powerful than you could possibly imagine… Not that I had particilarly liked graphic bloodshed before that. but before his passing, I was able to tolerate it. Now I’m not…

How about soft X movies? Emmanuel? Room in Rome?

I never loved this idea, but can’t Tarantino just, like, make 11 movies?

I’m not really getting the whole 10 movies thing either. Is it like his lucky number or something?

He’s always said he only planned to make 10 films in his lifetime then he’d retire. This would be movie 10 I believe.

Sure I get what you mean but why 10? Why not 11 or 13 or 5?

He can always pull a Soderbergh and change his mind. Kinda wish Soderbergh hadn’t unretired though.

It’s seems wrapped up in his delusional “mad genius” ideas of his “Hollywood Legend.” Like, he pictures his The E! True Hollywood Story and revels at the thought of them trying to unravel why “the greatest director in HISTORY” stopped after “only TEN films.” It’s very egotistical to me. He probably will be a legend, but it just seems so contrived to set a nice round limit on the number of movies your going to create. I hope he enjoys being asked the same question for the next 40 years, “Is that really it for you Mr. Tarantino? I like QT’s movies, but he’s always been a bit of a knob.

Kind of a weird obsession with making 10 movies.

This is one of those times when I don’t exactly want this to be made, but I wouldn’t mind stepping into the alternate Blockbuster Video from Last Action Hero to see how strange, and probably bad, it would be. File it under morbid curiosity, I guess.

Man I so still want to see this. Make it so!

Make it now Quentin!

Pacino as Bela De Niro as Krako Michael Madsen as Kalo Margot Robbie as Edith Keeler

If you truly embody ‘where no one has gone before’, you would support this wholeheartedly.

Sign me up!

I’m bummed, would’ve loved to have seen that. So instead we’ll just get nothing, awesome.

Yep. Trek fans don’t deserve a QT Trek movie.

lol That comment seems weirdly self-deprecating posted on a Trek site that only Trekkies frequent. You deserve it UpperDecks! Don’t be so hard on yourself ;-)

Every Star Trek movie has been hit or miss (mostly miss) so I can’t help wonder if the Key people at Paramount are in touch with reality or naturally half baked? All of the characters in Picard were excellent but the overall story content left much to be desired. The prime woman character of the first season was sweet and overall convincing but when her twin was bedded by that villain I thought Why is this show and her character portrayal with this pathetic Soap Opera? If that wasn’t enough they brought back Data after he died and added the Borg element – situation. Captain Rios was multifaceted and the best new character of them all but they ditched him like moldy bread. 🤨 Picard went too far – too fast in the wrong direction. Keep it simple and semi-predictable on the ship traveling to wayward planets – new worlds.

For a fanbase that prides itself on open-mindedness, the close mindedness against this film is truly mind-boggling. I’d love to see a different approach for a Trek movie and it doesn’t necessarily have to be “canon” as well. It could be something experimental like the standalone Joker film. My personal choice to direct a “different” kind of Trek movie though is more of a guy like David Cronenberg (who is actually involved in the franchise) rather than a guy like Tarantino. I’d be willing to see any and all forms of different interpretations of the Trek concept from auter directors.

Wow, so bringing the hardest of brutality to star trek is considered as “cool“. Honestly, don’t you think any random director wouldn’t be able to just bring as much brutality to a movie? This is considered as art??? Especially for adding some value to star trek??? Oh lord.

It’s like you didn’t even watch Pic season 3…lol

I watched it and since it has brutal elements, I still feel it’s serving the story. I think a star trek tarentino film would be like Picard season 1 episode where they pulling out the eye slowly

A JJ produced Tarantino a piece of the action isn’t a film i wanted. But it can’t be just that can it, there has to be some time travel hook or something like a dark alternate timeline or something. Something that makes it Star Trek and science fiction, because stylized violence in space isn’t Star Trek.

If a musical is acceptable, then a Tarantino take is fair play. Both aimed to do something never done before with the franchise. Both had strong resistors and a louder group of people shouting those people down. If it had happened, it would’ve meant that everybody would’ve gotten a turn at the bottom of the wheel, which is only logical, given the age of the franchise.

I don’t mind animation but it doesn’t need to be dumbed down or for kids, or insipid. Other franchises take animation seriously as another medium.

A shame that it didn’t happen. It would have been inglorious.

Some of you think that Tarantino would do a bad job? I remember a time when people were concerned about Nicholas Myers helming WOK, due to his interpretation of the STAR TREK franchise, and the fact that his resume/body of work was “light” when it came to sci-fi.

Personally, Tarantino should have took a crack at helming a movie. For one, it would have been an interesting experiment, since his field of expertise is the pop-culture side of cinema. For another, him helming a film might have been the thing to get other mainstream directors to consider doing a STAR TREK film. And, personally, I think Tarantino, regardless of his style of directing, would have respected the source material, given that he likes to deep-dive the subject matter. Heck, he might have used concepts that GR would have originally wanted, but couldn’t due to studio interference.

And while it is highly unlikely that Tarantino would want to helm a STAR TREK film at this point (I blame Paramount for this), I would like the script to still be produced, with him as the producer. If nothing else, I would like to read the script, just to see what ideas Tarantino and his scripter partner had in mind.

Still, can you imagine Sam Jackson as a Starfleet admiral that Captain Kirk has to report to? That’ll be an intense scene to be sure.

Agreed it feels like a huge missed opportunity, iconic director offering his services (much like he did with 007), and I would fully expect for him to have ‘deep dive’ into the material with extreme nostalgia for ToS (and maybe some of the movies) like he did with his other movies for their respective genres ..

As for what it could’ve been we obviously know it was something to do with gangsters/Piece of the Action, but Tarantino said in a podcast a few years back(before this movie was announced) that if he had the chance to do a Trek movie he’d make like a big version of City on the Edge of Forever or Yesterdays Enterprise (I can’t remember which but he proclaimed his love for both eps, so mightve been both of them),and the scriptwriter Mark Smith has said in a previous interview there was some timetravel in it, so maybe like a mashup of those 3 eps.

And id fully expect SLJ in there along with other QT alumni like Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Waltz, Madsen, Thurman maybe even Pitt or DiCaprio or MRobbie as gangsters, klingons, romulans, orions, corrupt starfleet captains/admirals etc and probably including Shatner somehow as he’s a huge fan of his and its not like Shatner would refuse a cameo in a Tarantino flick.

(posted again as stated it was Spam when tried to edit?). 

Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek: What happened?

Fans of Quentin Tarantino have been living the roller coaster ride that is his journey in the Star Trek franchise.

In 2017, the news broke that Tarantino, one of the best directors working in the industry, had an idea for an R-rated Star Trek movie, and Paramount was moving on it. By 2020, news hit that Tarantino was out.

Quentin Tarantino pitched his Star Trek idea to J.J. Abrams

When one thinks of Quentin Tarantino movies, they see the ultra-violent films with some of the best dialogue in cinema. However, what they all have in common is that they are R-rated films as Tarantino makes his movies for adult audiences.

When one thinks of Star Trek, the ideas and ideals of the Federation are adult-oriented, but the series was aimed for fans of all ages. It may not be as kid-friendly as Star Wars, but it isn’t R-rated.

That made the news that hit in 2017 that Tarantino was planning to make an R-rated Star Trek movie surprising.

That is what happened, though.

Deadline reported in December 2017 that Tarantino pitched his Star Trek idea to J.J. Abrams, who brought Star Trek to a new generation on the big screen. Abrams liked it and planned to put together a writer’s room, and if it worked out, Tarantino would direct the movie.

This would have been the first Quentin Tarantino movie that he did not create on his own, although he did direct an adaptation of an Elmore Leonard book in the past (Jackie Brown).

However, the announcement also said that it would be a Tarantino movie, which means violence and language, and Tarantino gets final cut on most of his films.

Tarantino’s Star Trek would not be part of ongoing series

The one thing that he guaranteed was that the Quentin Tarantino Star Trek movie would not be part of the ongoing Star Trek movie universe.

Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in Star Trek, said that the fourth movie was still in the works (as of May 2018) and it had nothing to do with the Tarantino movie, and a director had already been chosen for Star Trek 4 at the time (S.J. Clarkson).

“Quentin’s idea is another thing,” Pegg said . “He came into Bad Robot and pitched it, and it’s been put in the bank. I think he had us in mind when he came up with the idea; he likes the new cast. But he’s going to be so busy with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood that I can’t see him doing it for five or six years, by which time we might be too old anyway.”

Also, it should be known that Tarantino is not a fan of the Kelvin Timeline (the new movie series), so using the cast from those movies made little sense anyway.

Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek had a script

By June 2018, a script was turned in for the Quentin Tarantino Star Trek movie. This was also very unusual for Tarantino, who wrote all his films. Screenwriting was Tarantino’s strongest point in his career.

The team put in place included Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) as the writer. However, Smith wrote the script based on Tarantino’s story treatment.

At the time, Paramount president Wyck Godfrey said that the Tarantino Star Trek movie was a priority.

“Imagine, for instance, Paramount giving ‘Star Trek’ to Quentin Tarantino. Suddenly people’s eyes light up,” Godfrey said . “Yours just did.”

Tarantino talks his Star Trek film

A year later, Quentin Tarantino was talking about his Star Trek film. The director had finally released his ninth movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and had time to look at his next project.

However, this has fans worried. Tarantino has said that he planned only to make 10 movies and retire. Would Star Trek be his final movie and not an original film? Or would Star Trek not count since it was not a Tarantino original idea?

In July 2019, Tarantino talked in the Happy Sad Confused podcast about his Star Trek movie, proving it was still in development.

Tarantino said that the movie would take place in the Star Trek world that he grew up watching because he didn’t understand the new Kelvin Timeline. He said Abrams explained it to him, and he still didn’t get it.

“I don’t buy that. I don’t like it. I don’t appreciate it. F–k that. I don’t like that. I want the whole series to have happened! It just hasn’t happened yet,” Tarantino said about wiping the slate clean in the new movies.

He said he told Abrams this and was told: “Do whatever you want! If you want to do it the exact way it happened in the [original series], it can.”

He did mention in the same podcast that he loved the cast of Abrams’ movies, saying that Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto “nailed it” as Kirk and Spock.

Tarantino backs out of Star Trek

Exactly two years after Deadline reported that Quentin Tarantino wanted to make a Star Trek movie, Consequences of Sounds interviewed the director, who said he wasn’t likely making the movie anymore.

So, what happened?

“I think I’m steering away from Star Trek, but I haven’t had an official conversation with those guys yet,” Tarantino said.

Tarantino said that, as much as he said he would finish with 10 movies, he finished Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and thought it could be his last movie. He said, if he makes another movie, he has no idea what it would be at that time.

He then also said that he had an idea that maybe his last film would be a small one, for a smaller audience, almost like “an author’s note.”

That would not be Star Trek.

However, Tarantino then said in that interview Paramount still planned to make his Star Trek movie, but he would not be the director.

“It’s a good idea. They should definitely do it, and I’ll be happy to come in and give them some notes on the first rough cut,” Tarantino said

Furthermore, it would still be separate from the main franchise, which has now brought in Noah Hawley (Legion) to direct Star Trek 4.

Meanwhile, Tarantino fans are just waiting to see what is next for the acclaimed director, if he even plans to make his 10th movie.

Tarantino is a great writer, but I don’t want to see his paw-prints on a new Star Trek movie. I enjoyed the Kelvin Timeline movies and hope there’ll be another at some point.

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Angela Watercutter

A Few Things Any Quentin Tarantino Star Trek Movie Is Gonna Need

Look, the news is hardly ever “normal” anymore. If we all got a CNN alert in the middle of the night that militarized guppies had taken over the southern tip of Florida, it probably wouldn’t even warrant sitting up in bed. That said, hearing that Quentin Tarantino has reportedly successfully pitched a new Star Trek movie that J.J. Abrams might produce is still a record-skip, halt-the-dancefloor moment. And yet, here we are, with Deadline reporting that the two are assembling a writers’ room to work out a script for Tarantino’s brainchild, proving once again that like a teen goth, 2017 will never stop looking for new ways to shock.

But give it a little bit of thought, and the collaboration might turn out to be a stellar idea. Tarantino knows from nerd, and he likes to make things from the 1960s cool all over again. Win-win. Details of his pitch or what his Trek story might be are still under wraps, but if Paramount is really going to go all-in on a QT ST there are a few things this movie is gonna have to have.

No one is saying we need surf rock or K-Billy’s Super Sounds of the ‘70s in space, but considering the soundtrack to the last Star Trek movie had the Beastie Boys and a bunch of stuff no one remembers, it’s time to up the ante. Get Quentin in a room with Giorgio Moroder and see if he can pull some futuristic Ennio Morricone jams out of him. Maybe a little Spockabilly?

No disrespect to LeVar Burton, I just really want to see Sam Jackson in a visor, TBH.

The stuntwoman and actress came to prominence on the hood of a car in Tarantino’s Death Proof . More recently she was Cate Blanchett’s stunt double on Thor: Ragnarok . But when she’s not risking her life for the sake of a movie, she’s emanating quietly badass charm—she’d make a helluva ship captain. She’s been a Tarantino muse for a while now (she also showed up briefly in The Hateful Eight ), it’s time she got another high-profile gig. (The same goes for Bell’s Kill Bill counterpart Uma Thurman, but she might be busy helping take down Harvey Weinstein.)

OK, maybe it doesn’t have to be Klingon, but Tarantino is known for doing big bloody shootouts and while setting your phasers to “stun” can keep things from escalating—and keep it PG-13—maybe it’s time things got a little more heated, Tarantino style. It doesn't even have to be Klingons—when's the last time a Trek movie caught up with the Cardassians?

Hear me out: Gene Roddenberry’s vision was always to show diversity with Trek . Recently, this extended to the movie-verse when Star Trek Beyond revealed that Sulu (John Cho) had a male partner, but it was the briefest of scenes. Meanwhile, the closest Tarantino has come to LGBTQ representation in a movie is Zed in Pulp Fiction , which is ... well, it's not a great look. It’s time he did better. There’s already a gay couple prominently featured in Star Trek: Discovery on CBS All Access. It’s time.

Because, come on. Tribbles. They don’t do or say much, but they reproduce faster than bunnies and if they slowly start to take over some world or spaceship they could be a serious problem. And in the hands of Tarantino, surely there would be an epithet for them that would be oft-repeated, sensitivity be damned.

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Pulp Enterprise? What Tarantino's Star Trek movie could be

Rumor has it filmmaker Quentin Tarantino wants to make a Star Trek film. Here are our ideas on what Tarantino should do with the Enterprise and its crew.

What kind of hijinks would Captain Kirk, Spock and the rest of the U.S.S. Enterprise get into with Quentin Tarantino at the helm?

If rumors are true, the Enterprise crew may be boldly going where no Star Trek film has gone before -- into the hands of Quentin Tarantino. 

Star Trek's modern-day movie reboot kicked off with the 2009 " Star Trek " film directed by J.J. Abrams and penned by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and continued with the same director-screenwriting team for the 2013 film " Star Trek: Into Darkness ." In 2016, Justin Lin directed " Star Trek: Beyond " with a script from Simon Pegg and Doug Jung.

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Now it looks like indie movie director and screenwriter Tarantino wants to put his own spin on the crew of the Enterprise.

Tarantino has come up with a great idea for a Star Trek movie at Paramount, according to reports Monday night from  Deadline  and  Variety , and  Abrams  plans to assemble a writers room to possibly make a movie based on the idea.

Paramount declined to comment on any specifics of the idea, but we have a few suggestions on what a Tarantino Star Trek might look like. 

Reservoir cadets

Why do students at Starfleet Academy have to be so goody-goody? What if a handful of cadets went off the rails and decided to be very, very bad? In the " Star Trek: The Next Generation " episode " The First Duty ," we finally see Wesley Crusher go down a dark path by keeping the truth about a fellow student's accidental death secret to prevent expulsion from the Academy.

In the end, Wesley does the right thing and speaks up. But what would happen if members of Starfleet Academy decided to go rogue and turn into thieves? It would be fun to see a Tarantino-style heist story (especially one gone bad) happen in the Star Trek universe. 

We love Worf, but not all Klingons drink prune juice. 

Klingons unchained

In the entire cinematic history of Star Trek, we've never seen the Klingons go completely violent. Klingons have performed intense rituals and fought battles against infringing Enterprise crew members. But with Tarantino's darker influence, maybe we'll finally get a very bloody version of the kind of violence Klingons can be capable off. 

They are a race of fearless warriors, so why not show fans the kind of brute savagery that lurks inside of every Klingon? Imagine a " Kill Bill " or " Django Unchained " revenge film where a wronged Klingon decides to murder everyone who betrayed him.

True Vulcan romance

Tarantino isn't just known for foul-mouthed characters who kill each other while spouting a litany of pop culture references. He also has a knack for showing both the bonding and destructive power of love.

" True Romance " is an unconventional love story about a guy who gets visions from Elvis and the call girl who loves him. But what if we finally saw a movie completely about a Vulcan love story? 

Spock in love? We demand an entire film dedicated to unhinged Vulcan romance.

Vulcans are known for suppressing their emotions. Vulcans strive to live by logic and reason with as little emotion as possible -- following Surak's code of emotional control. 

Yet when Vulcans can no longer manage their emotions they suffer extreme cases of rage and passion. Imagine what Tarantino could do with a Vulcan who can no longer control his or her emotions. Better yet, what would a Tarantino-style mind meld or pon farr ritual look like?

Pulp Enterprise

Tarantino is a very talented storyteller, especially when it comes to weaving separate stories into a larger, connected narrative. " Pulp Fiction " showed what happens when a multitude of quirky characters collide into each other, in a tale that is anything but linear. 

What if Tarantino showed us multiple perspectives from everyone living on the Enterprise including a warp core engineer, a bartender working in lounge, a medical officer or the person in charge of the holodeck ? 

There's no way that every single person working on the Enterprise has a strong moral compass, and Tarantino knows how to exploit those weaknesses in characters best on a big screen. 

What would you like to see Tarantino do with the Star Trek universe?

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The Tense, Trippy 'Sin City' Scene That's Covered in Quentin Tarantino's Fingerprints

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The Big Picture

• Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino collaborated on Sin City .
• Tarantino's standout scene in Sin City featured his unique style and a postmodern twist.
• Rodriguez and Tarantino's collaboration produced a harmonious final product, showcasing friendship and teamwork in filmmaking.

Filmmaking is an inherently collaborative process, and even films made by distinct auteurs are only successful if an entire team of artists is on the same page and locked into a singular vision. That by itself can be a near miraculous accomplishment, so imagine the potential headache of one auteur inviting another to play in his sandbox, as that could invite a clashing of minds that could derail a whole project. But mastermind Robert Rodriguez trusted his good friend Quentin Tarantino enough that, when in the middle of production on his masterpiece Sin City , he invited Quentin to direct an important scene in his pulp noir exercise . That scene would become the oddest highlight in a film packed with gonzo visual ideas and a baroque approach to an ancient genre, reinvigorating the tropes in a way nobody had seen before, courtesy of the bold prowess of Rodriguez and Tarantino.

What Is 'Sin City' About?

Sin City is a devoted adaptation of Frank Miller 's iconic graphic novel series, tying a number of stories together that take place alongside each other in the titular Sin City. Using cutting edge green screen technology and Rodriguez' mastery of lighting and technical camerawork, Sin City entrenches the audience in a starkly drawn world of noble criminals and unrepentant scum, the strict binary of the black and white color scheme broken up by the fleeting flashes of sharp color, most prominently red. The film's guiding principle was perfectly matching Miller's visuals and putting them onto screen, but amplifying them with the kinetic rush that cinema can supply, embodying the ideal of "style is substance," where the plots are an excuse to explore the world.

In one particular storyline, Dwight ( Clive Owen ) seeks to protect his lover, Shellie ( Brittany Murphy ), from the threatening advances of her abusive ex-partner, Jackie Boy ( Benicio del Toro ). When Dwight tracks Jackie down and prevents Jackie from messing with a sex worker named Becky ( Alexis Bledel ), Jackie threatens Dwight with a gun, but then Jackie is murdered in self-defense by another sex worker named Miho ( Devon Aoki ). In order to keep the peace between the sex workers and the Mob who own the section of Sin City they operate in, Dwight must dispose of Jackie's body and cover-up any sign of trouble , which sets up the climactic scene in question.

Quentin Tarantino Directed the Entire "Dead Jackie" Scene

Dwight is driving his car out of Sin City to a tar wasteland, with Jackie's dead body slumped in the passenger seat next to him. Dwight is sweating bullets, praying that the cops won't catch up with him, and suddenly, Jackie's body wakes up and starts talking to him . With a gun barrel sticking out of his forehead and a deep gash smiling across his throat, Jackie croaks out every insecurity and anxiety that Dwight is thinking, with Del Toro contorting his voice to Tom Waits -level growls in one of the most eccentric and downright wacky performances of his illustrious career. Due to the deep neck wound, he can barely keep his head straight, and the way it bobbles and snaps up and down every time he moves adds an intensely macabre humor to his basic existence . The mismatch in Jackie's refusal to shut up and Dwight's refusal to engage becomes an unwilling dance, with Dwight preferring to monologue to himself about how screwed he is and planning his next move, even acknowledging that he knows he's just imagining Jackie talking to him. With a cop on their tail and Jackie using as many pop culture lingo phrases as he can think of to irritate Dwight, it's a moment of rare vulnerability for Dwight, with Owen channeling his inner Humphrey Bogart (fitting, since he'd later play Sam Spade ).

With the film taking place entirely in a speeding car, it's primarily filmed with medium close-ups of Owen and del Toro, with occasional extreme close-ups of their faces and an exterior shot of the car going down the road. When Dwight or Jackie hold the floor with their dialogue, the camera will slowly zoom in on them, often to a point of flagrant discomfort, to the point that their faces are practically filling the entire screen. When Dwight gets his monologue about what to do, the camera roves around him at a crawl, both fixing you onto Dwight's perspective and priming the audience for when the cop will pull up next to the car. In moments of surprise and spikes of tension, the camera will do a whip zoom onto a point of interest that feels ripped out of exploitation films of the 1970s.

Strong primary colors of red, blue, green, and yellow splash across the characters' faces, totally unmotivated by the lighting in a way that takes the material out of the bleakness of pulp noir and into the kitsch of acid-influenced comic books a la Jack Kirby . All of these stylistic choices are a far cry from Rodriguez' approach to the material, which is much more panel-emulating static shots married with crazy camera movements and a relish for the motions of the characters. Everything in this one scene is a hallmark of Quentin Tarantino's style : the focus on making dialogue exchange feel "cinematic," (like the tavern scene in Inglorious Basterds ), the casual use of pop culture references, criminals acting like ordinarily vulnerable people, and investing the tropes of classic storytelling with a postmodern twist that simultaneously pokes holes in and valorizes the fantasy of the genre.

Tarantino loves making whole scenes out of what would normally be cutting room floor material in any other movie, like the foot massage discussion in Pulp Fiction or most of the film discussions in Death Proof , and the Jackie Boy scene is Tarantino steroiding a transitional moment into a seminal expression of the film's soul. Plus, even though the whole scene is two men stuck in a car, Tarantino still included his love for unique gunplay, with Jackie's head hitting the dashboard and the gun barrel in his forehead getting shoved through his skull. Granted, he was already dead, but it makes for a punchy little button at the end of the scene, another staple of Tarantino's style of storytelling.

How Did Quentin Tarantino Get Involved With 'Sin City'?

Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have had a long history of helping each other out with their projects: they collaborated as directors on Four Rooms , Rodriguez got Tarantino to act in Desperado and write From Dusk Till Dawn , Tarantino had Rodriguez do the score for Kill Bill: Volume 2 , etc. Therefore, it was not that abnormal when Rodriguez told Tarantino about Sin City and asked if he could direct one scene from the film, choosing that scene because he wanted a completely different tone for it . Rodriguez assured him that there was no pressure for him to do anything especially bizarre, and he attested that he "let [Tarantino] just direct the actors," with little to no interference.

But Tarantino was still nervous about the idea of venturing into his friend's world, so he storyboarded the entire scene out before arriving on set , which is something he claims he rarely does for his own movies. Tarantino spoke about what he loved most about doing that scene, most notably how a "strange kind of camaraderie starts to develop between the two of them that's funny," paired with how the "unflappable" Dwight starts to "little by little by little lose it." Frank Miller, who was on set for the production as a third co-director, said he was shocked at how "harmonious" the teamwork between Rodriguez and Tarantino wound up being , given how huge both of their egos were.

Quentin Tarantino’s Favorite John Wayne Western Influenced His Entire Career

The Oscar-winning filmmaker sure does love a hangout movie.

That harmony between two of the living embodiments of succeeding as rebels within the studio system is the secret sauce as to why this sequence works so well. Despite barely being involved in the production, Tarantino had such a sharp sense of what his partner-in-crime Rodriguez needed from him , while still sticking to his guns on what he knew he needed from himself. It produced a moment that perfectly fulfills the promise of what Sin City was supposed to be, a masterclass in embracing artifice to elevate material far past the potboiler potential it had on the page. Rodriguez himself pointed out that "people will know" that Tarantino directed that scene, and yet the seamlessness with which it fits while surrounded by a Rodriguez-directed film is remarkable. It shows that, for all of Tarantino's bluster about how much he knows about cinema , that hasn't gone so much to his head that he shuts out anyone else's insight . Sometimes the power of friendship really does pay off in a big way.

Sin City is available to watch on Pluto TV in the U.S.

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Den of Geek

Let’s Rank the Quentin Tarantino Knockoffs of the ’90s

Thirty years ago, Pulp Fiction changed the movie world, prompting lots of knock off crime movies... some better than others.

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Quentin Tarantino ‘s 1994 sophomore feature Pulp Fiction wasn’t just a major break out hit. It changed the face of cinema in the 1990s, both by helping bring attention to indie and foreign films, and by inspiring a host imitators. When audiences lined up to watch Tarantino’s bloody, whip-smart movie, studios rushed to fill theaters and video stores with more stories about loquacious hitmen, monologuing bank robbers, and foul-mouthed gun molls.

In most cases, these knockoffs provided cheap thrills, heavy on the violence and pop-cultural references but low on Tarantino’s sense of composition and ear for unique dialogue. In the best cases, Pulp Fiction ‘s success made way for other great movies to get made, oddball films ignored by the studios until Tarantino convinced them that they could make money.

Here are the fifteen best Pulp Fiction influenced movies of the 1990s, those that stand on their own and those that deserve to break free of Tarantino’s shadow.

15. The Boondocks Saints (1999)

Make no mistake, Tarantino thinks the killers in his movies are cool. But he also manages to make them feel like full people with foibles and shortcomings and mistakes. The Boondocks Saints director Troy Duffy cannot fathom such limitations on his heroes, twin brothers Connor and Murphy MacManus (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus). His camera worships the duo, giving them hero shot after hero shot as they gun their way through Boston.

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Duffy’s cinema of excess makes for a sometimes thrilling watch, which accounts for The Boondocks Saints ‘ cult status. That’s doubly true of the scenes involving Willem Dafoe ‘s FBI agent Paul Smecker, a character who somehow pushes the movie’s threadbare concessions toward good taste out the window. The Boondocks Saints gets exhausting long before it reaches the end of its 108-minute runtime. The movie would be so much stronger with an occasional breather, if only Duffy could stop praising his baddies long enough to take a break.

14. Flypaper (1998)

“Slippery characters on the loose, in one sticky situation.” So says the voiceover in the trailer for Flypaper , a tiny indie crime film from writer/director Klaus Hoch, in his sole filmmaking project. Cheesy as the line might be, it’s an apt description of a movie that deals with mistaken identities and embarrassing situations, centered around dim-witted crooks Bobby Ray (Craig Sheffer) and Leon (Sal Lopez).

Flypaper has more than its share of the shocking dialogue and sudden violence common in its era of filmmaking, including a surprising amount of conversation about sex with farm animals. It also has its more sitcom plot lines, namely a spat between engaged couple Joe (John C. McGinley) and Laura (Illeana Douglas). The sitcom stuff, which also features Bram Stoker’s Dracula ‘s Sadie Frost, works much better than the cool crime stuff, thanks in part to the skills of the cast in those scenes. The cool crime stuff, not so much, due to the forced dialogue, dull performances, and general unpleasantness.

13. The Way of the Gun (2000)

These days, Christopher McQuarrie is known as a vessel for Tom Cruise’s auteurist intentions, having helmed Jack Reacher and the last three (and next) Mission: Impossible movies. After working on The Usual Suspects with Bryan Singer (a movie just a bit too early for this list), McQuarrie directed his own script for The Way of the Gun , starring the always watchable Benicio del Toro and the never watchable Ryan Phillippe.

McQuarrie starts the movie with some Tarantino-esque dialogue and shocking violence, which goes heavy on the misogyny. From there, the film only gets more unpleasant, even as the dialogue stops trying to be witty and goes for heavy. In the end, The Way of the Gun feels like a dirty slog, the exact opposite of the movies McQuarrie went on to make later in life.

12. 8 Heads in a Duffle Bag (1997)

8 Heads in a Duffle Bag understands the most important quality a 1990s crime movie needs in order to stand out from the crowd: a memorable title. 8 Heads in a Duffle Bag also benefits from a clever plot in which lowlife Tommy Spinelli ( Joe Pesci ) gets hired to transport, you guessed it, eight heads in a duffle bag across country to prove a successful contract killing. The duffle bag gets switched at the airport, forcing Tommy to follow the friendly American with his heads, played b Andy Comeau.

Unfortunately, writer/director Tom Schulman has no idea what to do with that premise. Instead of just accepting that he had a crazy enough idea, Schulman overdoes the humor and wackiness. Comeau and Kristy Swanson, who plays the American’s nervous wife, go too broad with the material. And then David Spade shows up. The key aspect to a good Tarantino knockoff is being cool, and 8 Heads in a Duffle Bag is anything but that.

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11. Suicide Kings (1997)

Christopher Walken has always been a great actor, a man who knew how to use his unique features and delivery to make even the most banal character feel unique. But in the 1990s, he got typecast as sinister villains thanks to strong performances in True Romance , The King of New York , and, yes, A View to a Kill . Post True Romance (and also Pulp Fiction , come to think of it) casting Walken became an easy way to signify hip and gain entry to the cool film school kids’ table.

Suicide Kings proves the limitations of such thinking. Directed by Peter O’Fallon, Suicide Kings follows a group of twentysomethings who kidnap a gangster (Walken) in hopes of extorting some cash and fame. O’Fallon tries to borrow a bit of Swingers energy for his Tarantino knockoff, filling the movie with unlikable, self-pleased jerks played by Henry Thomas and Johnny Galecki. None of it works, but Walken is still fun to watch, even if he’s carrying the entire show on his back.

10. Freeway (1996)

The opening credits of Freeway feature illustrations of a wolf chasing sexy ladies in various states of undress. And in those moments, viewers realize that they’re watching n edgy take on Little Red Riding Hood . No one asked for an edgy take on Little Red Riding Hood , not even in 1996. Somehow though Freeway manages to overcome that ill-advised concept, thanks to a strong cast.

Written and directed by Matthew Bright, the man who would gift the world the Oscar bait awfulness that is Tip Toes , Freeway stars Reese Witherspoon as an illiterate teen who becomes a target for serial killer ( Kiefer Sutherland ). Bright turns in a truly hateful script, which sometimes more anticipates Rob Zombie than it does rip off Tarantino with its extended scenes of white trash arguing. But Witherspoon and Sutherland elevate the awful material, as do co-stars Amanda Plummer, Bokeem Woodbine, and others, at least to the level of watchable. I cannot yet speak to the quality of the sequel Freeway II: Confessions of a Trick Baby .

9. Truth or Consequences, N.M (1997)

Truth or Consequences, N.M. doesn’t begin like a Tarantino style film. Kiefer Sutherland, in his directoral debut, opens the film with sequences of Raymond Lembecke (Vincent Gallo) leaving prison to meet up with his lady love Addy (Kim Dickens), all set to earnest folk music. But rest assured, the movie does explode into moments of hyper-violence whenever Lembecke reunites with his volatile best pal Curtis (Sutherland).

Sutherland tries to find a balance between the over-the-top mayhem and the love between its central characters. As a consequence, the movie works in installments. Dickens remains as marvelous as ever, even in a somewhat thankless role, and Gallo has a certain charm, at least when viewers forget about his personal life. But the two tones never synthesize in the same way that Wild at Heart or True Romance work, resulting in an uneven and sometimes clanging work.

8. Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead (1995)

“It’s buckwheats,” Jimmy the Saint (Andy Garcia) tells his band of misfits in Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead , a group of hoods that includes Pieces Polymeros ( Christopher Lloyd ) and Easy Wind Denton (Bill Nunn). We viewers don’t know what buckwheats means, but the misfits all respond with horror and anger, a reaction that only makes us want to chuckle more. Finally, after we watch the misfits’ handwriting for a few minutes, voiceover from an elderly mobster (Jack Warden) describes what buckwheats means in great detail.

The buckwheats moment illustrates how badly writer Scott Rosenberg’s script yearns for a sense of cool. Director Gary Fleder, in his debut, matches the idiosyncratic dialogue with an almost Gothic visual sense. Jimmy the Saint has an intense stand-off with Christopher Walken’s wheelchair-bound villain The Man With The Plan (yes, that is how he’s credited) in front of a stained glass window while beams of light are diffused by the smoke surrounding them. The pair are also, of course, tlaking about buckwheats and misfits. Yet the mishmash somehow works, not because it reaches a level of cool or seriousness that the filmmakers intend, but because it feels like a parody of the post-Tarantino craze.

7. U-Turn (1997)

Given the fact that his career was over two decades old by the time U-Turn hit theaters, director Oliver Stone is more of an influence on Tarantino than a hip young filmmaker trying to ride on his coattails. But given that it has a lot more in common with Natural Born Killers , based on a story by Tarantino, than it does his other films of the era, U-Turn certainly fits among the post- Pulp Fiction group.

Based on the novel Stray Dogs by John Ridley, who also wrote the screenplay, U-Turn stars Sean Penn as a drifter who gets caught up in local crime and doublecrosses after his car breaks down in an Arizona town. Stone goes for a comically overheated version of neo-noir, with Jennifer Lopez as a femme fetale, Nick Nolte as her dangerous and older husband, and Joaquin Phoenix as a would-be killer who calls himself “T.N.T.” Is it good? No, not at all. But Stone pushes the material so far into ridiculousness that it entertains.

6. 2 Days in the Valley (1996)

2 Days in the Valley draws its inspiration less from Tarantino or even the ’70s crime movies that inspired Pulp Fiction and more from the noir films of the ’40s and ’50s. That distinction helps writer and director John Herzfeld dodge the “rip-off” tag, even if Pulp Fiction clearly helped the flick get produced. Instead of the hyperactive style that so many Tarantino followers employ, Herzfeld goes for mood, employing long shots to capture the characters’ malaise in the California heat. Furthermore, the ensemble cast has more in common with Short Cuts a few years earlier, or Magnolia a few years later.

All that said, 2 Days in the Valley could perhaps benefit from pulling more from Tarantino. Herzfeld’s gathered an impressive group of actors, including Danny Aiello, Jeff Daniels, Glenne Headly, Charlize Theron, and James Spader. These performers are always fun to watch, but their characters aren’t nearly as interesting as the performers playing them.

5. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)

Guy Ritchie isn’t just borrowing from Tarantino. He’s also riffing on fellow Englishman Danny Boyle , whose debut Shallow Grave also released in 1994. In Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels , Ritchie digs into the British underworld, portraying baddies played by Jason Stratham and Vinnie Jones with oodles of slick style.

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels a quartet of small-timers who go into debt with gangster Hatchet Harry (P. H. Moriarty) after playing in a rigged, high-stakes card game. To pay off the debt, the friends plan to rob the criminals operating in a nearby apartment, leading to all manner bloody shenanigans. Lock, Stock is a cut above most of the Tarantino copies, thanks to Ritchie’s over-the-top style and his gang of cockney crooks.

4. Love and a .45 (1994)

Given that it released just a few months after Pulp Fiction , Love and a .45 might not seem like a Tarantino knock off. But any benefit of the doubt falls away in a sequence in which hoodlum Dinosaur Bob (Jeffrey Combs), in his dark suit and skinny tie, orders his partner Creepy Cody (Jace Alexander) to turn up the rock music to torture rube Billy Mack Black (Rory Cochrane). Love and .45 writer and director C.M. Talkington didn’t see Pulp Fiction beforehand, but he sure did see Reservoir Dogs .

So why is Love and a .45 ranked so high? Well, look back at that description and notice the name of the actor playing Dinosaur Bob. Jeffrey Combs is so much fun as a Southern-fried baddie that he transcends any complaints about being a Tarantino cast-off and makes Reservoir Dogs look bad for not casting him. The actual leads Gil Bellows and Renée Zellweger don’t have the most interesting arc as star-crossed lovers caught in a life of crime, but Combs carries the movie on his back to make it a fun watch.

3. Go (1999)

With its ensemble cast, fractured narrative style, and crime story, Go fits among the others on this list. But where everything preceding Go on this list just uses a style similar to Tarantino, director Doug Liman and writer John August translate it, bringing the approach to a group of partying twentysomethings instead of the thieves and mobsters of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction .

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Part of the distinction comes from Liman building on his previous film, the breakout Swingers . The quartet of young men on their way to Vegas would fit right alongside Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau from that movie. However, Liman and August expand the model to include some compelling characters that one wouldn’t find in Swingers or in Tarantino’s early ouevre, including Sarah Polley as a supermarket clerk over her head, William Fichtner as a unsettlingly earnest detective, and Timothy Olyphant as the world’s most laid back scary drug dealer.

2. Get Shorty (1995)

One good side to the wealth of Tarantino rip-offs was increased attention for writer Elmore Leonard. In books such as Rum Punch and Out of Sight , Leonard set the standard for the smart, character-driven crime stories that Tarantino and others rightly love. That said, it wouldn’t be accurate to call Get Shorty a full Tarantino rip off, as it comes from director Barry Sonnenfeld , who already served as the cinematographer for the first few Coen Bros. movies and made the successful Addams Family films.

However, it’s hard to believe that Tarantino’s success didn’t help get a greenlight for Get Shorty , a Hollywood satire starring John Travolta as gangster Chili Palmer and Gene Hackman as movie producer Harry Zimm. Palmer follows Zimm to retrieve a gambling debt but when he finds out that the man is a movie producer, he can’t help but pitch his life story. The film that follows has lots of crime, violence, and wit. But Sonnenfield’s wiz-bang direction makes it stand out from others on this list.

1. Grosse Pointe Blank (1997)

In the opening of Grosse Pointe Blank , hitman Martin Blank ( John Cusack ), dressed in black, argues with his handler Marcella (Joan Cusack) about his existential crisis and his upcoming high school reunion while assassinating a target, all set to the ironic tones of “I Can See Clearly Now.” In other words, it sounds like the worst possible Pulp Fiction knockoff. But somehow, director George Armitage, working from a script by Tom Jankiewicz, as well as Cusack and his frequent collaborators D. V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink, craft a movie funny and moving and, believe it or not, real.

Blank gives Cusack his ideal role, a man who buries his insecurities behind a veneer of cool. When he returns to his Michigan hometown Grosse Pointe and faces the girlfriend (Minnie Driver) he abandoned a decade earlier, that exterior breaks. It also features Dan Aykroyd as a rival contract killer who wants the hitmen to unionize. At once thoughtful and funny and, yes, very cool, Grosse Pointe Blank is what the post- Pulp Fiction crime movie movement promised, but rarely achieved.

Joe George | @jageorgeii

Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!

Section 31: Everything We Know About Star Treks First Streaming Movie

• Michelle Yeoh stars in Star Trek: Section 31, a first-of-its-kind movie for the Star Trek franchise on Paramount+.
• Section 31, a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery, delves into secret ops agency history in a unique storyline.
• Set in the early 24th century, Section 31 features a diverse cast and promises a mysterious plot with time travel elements.

Academy Award-winner Michelle Yeoh stars in Star Trek: Section 31 , and here's everything we know about Star Trek 's first made-for-streaming movie. Section 31 is written by Craig Sweeny and directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. A spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery , Yeoh reprises her role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou , the former ruler of the Mirror Universe's Terran Empire who joined Section 31 in Star Trek: Discovery season 2.

Star Trek: Section 31 was originally planned as an ongoing series spinning off from Star Trek: Discovery , from a suggestion by Michelle Yeoh. In January 2019, development began on a Star Trek: Section 31 series, which was scheduled to film from May to November 2020. Yeoh's character, Emperor Georgiou, was written out of Star Trek: Discovery season 3, to segue her into Section 31 . However, the COVID-19 pandemic halted Section 31 's production. Yeoh's availability also impacted Section 31 , especially when she won the Best Actress Academy Award for Everything Everywhere All At Once . However, Yeoh used her Oscar clout to put Section 31 into production, this time as a feature film to stream on Paramount+.

Im Excited About Whats Next For Star Trek

Star Trek: Discovery is over, and soon Lower Decks will end, but even with fewer shows, there is still lots of exciting stuff ahead for Star Trek.

Section 31 Is Star Treks First Streaming Movie

Star trek movies enter the streaming era.

Star Trek: Section 31 is Star Trek' s first movie made-for-streaming on Paramount+. Section 31 is also the first Star Trek movie made since Star Trek Beyond premiered in theaters in 2016 . Section 31 is also said to be a very different type of Star Trek story, which is fitting since there's no indication it will be set on a Starfleet starship or space station, and will delve into the murky history of the United Federation of Planets' top secret black ops agency,

If Star Trek: Section 31 is a success on Paramount+, it opens the door for a sequel continuing the adventures of Emperor Georgiou. Section 31 becoming a hit also means the two-hour format for Star Trek on Paramount+ becomes a viable option for future projects. New Star Trek concepts or perhaps other Star Trek fans want, like the Star Trek: Picard continuation dubbed Star Trek: Legacy , could become made-for-streaming movies on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Section 31s Cast & Story

Section 31 includes new faces and star trek legacy characters.

Fittingly, Star Trek: Section 31 's story is shrouded in mystery. It has been revealed, however, that at least part of Section 31 takes place in Star Trek 's "lost era" of the early 24th century before the events of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Section 31 also involves time travel since Emperor Georgiou jumps back 800 years from Star Trek: Discovery' s 32nd century. The official synopsis of Star Trek: Section 31 is as follows:

In Star Trek: Section 31 , Emperor Philippa Georgiou, joins a secret division of Starfleet tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets and faces the sins of her past.

Joining Michelle Yeoh in Star Trek: Section 31 's cast are Sam Richardson, Omari Hardwick, Kacey Rohl, Rob Kazinsky, Sven Ruygrok, Humberly Gonzalez, James Hiroyuki Liao, Joe Pingue, Miku Martineau, and Augusto Bitter. Although no details about the characters they play have been released, one intriguing aspect that has been revealed is that Rohl plays the younger version of Rachell Garrett. Garrett is the doomed future Captain of the USS Enterprise-C , who was played by Tricia O'Neill in the Star Trek: The Next Generation classic, "Yesterday's Enterprise".

When Star Trek: Section 31 Will Premiere

Section 31 is awaiting a release date from paramount+.

Star Trek: Section 31 does not yet have a release date from Paramount+. Section 31 will likely premiere in 2025, although there's a chance it could also drop late in 2024 after the final season of Star Trek: Lower Decks ends. Section 31 wrapped filming in March, with cast members from Star Trek: Strange New World s joining Section 31 's actors at their wrap party in Toronto. The status of Star Trek: Section 31 's post-production is not known, but the movie will be locked for its eventual premiere on Paramount+.

A lot is riding on Star Trek: Section 31 as Star Trek's first streaming movie.

Star Trek: Section 31 not premiering until 2025 makes since Paramount+ lacks Star Trek content next year. The only other wrapped Star Trek project is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3, which will likely also premiere on Paramount+ in 2025. Star Trek 's next series, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy , doesn't start filming until fall 2024 for a potential 2026 release. This means a lot is riding on Star Trek: Section 31 as Star Trek 's first streaming movie, but fans have already learned never to underestimate Michelle Yeoh's Emperor Georgiou.

Star Trek: Section 31

Director Olatunde Osunsanmi

Studio(s) CBS

Writers Craig Sweeney

Cast Humberly Gonzlez, Joe Pingue, Sam Richardson, Omari Hardwick, Robert Kazinsky, Michelle Yeoh, Kacey Rohl

Franchise(s) Star Trek

Screen Rant

Quentin tarantino confirms his star trek movie will be r-rated, full of profanity.

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Star trek’s starfleet uniform colors: what they mean & why they changed, every star trek character killed by ron moore.

Quentin Tarantino confirms his  Star Trek movie will be R-rated and contain lots of profanity. Many were surprised when it was announced the fan-favorite auteur was developing a new film in the iconic sci-fi franchise, which typically looks to appeal to a wider, more general audience ( on the movie side, anyway ). Tarantino is one of the most popular big-name directors working today, but his films tend to be heavy on bloody violence, colorful language, and other hallmarks that wouldn't necessarily jive with  Star Trek on the surface. But it's also those unique sensibilities that have some believing Tarantino could give  Star Trek the shot in the arm it desperately needs .

Ten years ago,  Star Trek reached a new level of viability when the first of the J.J. Abrams reboots made its way into theaters. Sadly, just a handful of years later, the Kelvin Timeline is basically defunct. After 2016's  Star Trek Beyond underwhelmed at the box office (despite earning positive reviews), a fourth film never came into fruition. Paramount pulled the plug on the project earlier this year , but Tarantino's  Trek remains on the table for the time being. And the director is already teasing it'll fit right in line with the rest of his filmography.

Related:  Every Star Trek Movie Ranked (From Worst To Best)

Speaking with  Empire , Tarantino provided updates on his  Star Trek movie. He enthusiastically responded,  "Oh yeah!" when asked if it would feature profanity. Confirming what's already been reported , Tarantino also stated the movie will be gunning for an R rating:

“It’s an R-rated movie. If I do it, it’ll be R-rated... There’s a script that exists for it now. I need to weigh in on it, but I haven’t been able to do that yet.”

The Revenant screenwriter Mark L. Smith was hired to pen the script for the new  Star Trek back in December 2017. Tarantino has been busy working on his  Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (due in theaters this July), so he hasn't had much time to dedicate to  Trek . Once  Hollywood is in the rearview mirror, Tarantino can then hop aboard the  Enterprise and start ironing out is first sci-fi feature. If Tarantino does call the shots on  Star Trek , it would mark his tenth directorial effort, and in the past he's talked about retiring after making 10 films. He has indicated he would extend his career by one movie specifically for  Star Trek , so perhaps he would direct another original movie as a career sendoff.

As exciting a proposition this is, there are still a lot of factors that need to be determined. Namely, there's some confusion over whether or not it would feature the main Kelvin Timeline cast. Reports indicated Tarantino's movie would be a standalone feature free from any pre-established continuity, but Zachary Quinto (who played Spock in the Kelvin films) said the Abrams cast would be returning . It's worth mentioning those actors are game to return for another ride on the  Enterprise , and the ensemble is one of the most-praised elements of the Kelvin Timeline. If the Original Series crew is part of Tarantino's script, then they should be brought back for one more  Star Trek movie.

More:  Star Trek Future: Upcoming Movies & TV Shows

Source: Empire

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Chris Pine is looking forward to playing an older James T. Kirk in the next Star Trek movie

Captain Kirk will command the Enterprise again. At least if Chris Pine has anything to say about it.

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The Star Trek Universe is thriving. There are currently three different ongoing Star Trek television series, Lower Decks , Strange New Worlds , and Prodigy . Plus, there are several Star Trek films in development. Star Trek fans are feasting.

The only thing missing is James T. Kirk. Chris Pine hasn’t played the character since the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond . With all the various Star Trek projects in development, is it possible that Pine might make a return? The actor is certainly up for it.

During a spotlight panel at ACE Superhero Comic Con 2024, Pine spoke about returning as Kirk.

“In terms of the next phase of [Star Trek], obviously you’re all fans, so I’m sure you’ve read it,” Pine said. This is a reference to reports that Pine and his castmates would return for an untitled Star Trek sequel set in the franchise’s Kelvin Timeline. The project has been in development hell for years, and Pine’s involvement has shifted depending on various factors.However, the star said he really wants to work with his Trek castmates again.

“We all like one another a lot. I’m good friends with everybody I’ve worked with. We have a great time doing it. I’m a lot older now, so I would be curious where that next story lands us in terms of what it would be and what we’ve said in the press.”

On that age question, Chris Pine was 29 when his first Star Trek film was released. He's currently 43 - just five years younger than the other James T. Kirk, William Shatner was, when he filmed the first Star Trek movie.

Will Pine return to Star Trek? Even if Star Trek 4 falls through, I think it’s only a matter of time before we see him in one project or another.

Space may be the final frontier, but there's no end to Popverse's love of the Star Trek universe. Hop aboard the starship Enterprise with our Star Trek watch order , explore strange new worlds with our upcoming Star Trek TV shows and movies list , seek out the new life of the franchise , and boldly go where no Star TRek film has ever gone before - with Quentin Tarantino ?

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Support From Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch and Celine Sciamma Brings New Dawn to Historic Paris Cinema La Clef

By Ben Croll

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Paris’ historic La Clef cinema can turn the page on a five-year fight for survival thanks in no small part to donations from filmmakers Quentin Tarantino , David Lynch, and Celine Sciamma , among several more.

The no-strings-attached donations will allow the community-run rep house to purchase the location’s physical property through parent organization Cinema Revival, first precluding any further threats of eviction and then funding substantial construction and administrative improvements.

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Sciamma is also a member of the Cinema Revival board of administrators.

“We don’t just want to protect a local cinema,” says the La Clef board. “We must also defend the value of an institution measured less in square meters than by the opportunities for interaction and creativity. We believe such institutions should exist right at the heart of a major metropolis, and not on the outskirts once the market pushes them back.” 

If for nothing else, this happy announcement should help lift the spirits of a film community rattled by the country’s impending parliamentary elections, which could very likely bring to power France’s first far-right government since the Second World War.

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