Quentin Tarantino's R-Rated Star Trek Movie Would've Had Pulp Fiction-Level Violence
It's hard to say how he would have worked in a discussion between Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock about a Royale with Cheese, but there's no question that if Quentin Tarantino had directed a "Star Trek" film, if would have felt like his crime classic "Pulp Fiction" in other ways.
In all likelihood, that means that the phasers carried by the crew of the Starship Enterprise would have been set on something far more powerful than "stun." "I think his vision was just to go hard. It was a hard R. It was going to be some 'Pulp Fiction' violence," screenwriter Mark L. Smith explained in an interview with Collider. "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."
While Smith revealed some details about the "Star Trek" script he wrote for Tarantino and its darker tone — for a movie that ultimately never took flight — he wouldn't go into specifics about the plot. "I can't say anything about the story. He would kill me," the writer said.
Tarantino struggled with Star Trek being his last film
Quentin Tarantino's "Star Trek" film was unusual in that instead of writing the script, he left those duties up to Mark L. Smith. During his interview with Collider, Smith said that Tarantino was naturally trying to make the film in conjunction with filmmaker J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company. Bad Robot produced the first three "Star Trek" reboot films that began in 2009, starring Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock.
One of the hangups during the process, Smith explained, was Tarantino's insistence that he was going to retire after making 10 feature films. As far back as 2012, Tarantino said that he wanted to stop at a certain point, suggesting that 10 films may be his limit. Following his ninth feature, 2019's "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood," Tarantino appeared to be keeping his promise, skipping the "Star Trek" sequel in favor of his upcoming swan song, "The Movie Critic."
After writing the script, Smith said that Tarantino began contemplating his rule of 10 and whether he wanted the "Star Trek" feature to be his last. "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?'" Smith told Collider. "And I think that was the bump he could never get across, so the script is still sitting there on his desk."
Tarantino could use a loophole to make the Star Trek movie
Since Quentin Tarantino still has Mark L. Smith's script for a "Pulp Fiction"-style version of "Star Trek," could that mean the two-time Oscar winner is still contemplating making it? The answer, technically, could be "maybe."
After all, in 2019, Tarantino admitted that there was a loophole that might exclude "Star Trek" from his 10-movie rule. The filmmaker said at the time that the sequel could be left out of his official 10-movie count since it's not part of his body of original work.
In the meantime, while Smith knows Tarantino is fond of his "Star Trek" script, he's not holding his breath for the director to miraculously pull the trigger on the sequel. "I know he said a lot of nice things about it. I would love for it to happen," Smith told Collider. "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."
Meanwhile, "The Movie Critic" remains in development with no release date attached to it.