The Curious Case of Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek Movie keeps getting weirder and weirder. The news itself was the first off-the-wall idea, with word breaking earlier this week that Tarantino had pitched an idea for a Star Trek movie to producer J.J. Abrams, who sparked to the pitch and quickly made this official. A writers room was assembled incredibly quickly, and Tarantino spent hours with scribes Mark L. Smith (The Revenant), Lindsey Beer (Chaos Walking), and Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) to kick around ideas on how to tackle Tarantino’s approach.
Per Deadline, Smith is currently the frontrunner to land the job, but the bigger news is that this Star Trek movie will be R-rated. This was a condition of Tarantino being involved, and one that both Abrams and Paramount agreed to. It’s a first for the franchise, but Paramount is in something of a bind as the series has yet to really take off the way it had hoped at the box office, so clearly they’ve sparked to this left-field idea of having Quentin Freaking Tarantino direct it.
There’s no guarantee Tarantino will direct this movie, but the idea is for the winning scribe to work on the screenplay while the Inglourious Basterds filmmaker shoots his next movie next summer. If the script is to Tarantino’s liking, he’ll direct this Star Trek movie.
Now, Tarantino has been pretty adamant about the fact that he’s only making 10 films and then he’s retiring. His 1969-set Manson Murders drama that he’s shooting next summer is #9, which would make Star Trek #10 if he indeed makes it. Would he stick to his retirement plan? Would Quentin Tarantino really go out directing a blockbuster written by someone other than himself? I have a hard time believing it, so my guess is A. Tarantino simply produces and/or gets a “Story By” credit and someone else directs this movie or B. Tarantino makes one more original movie after Trek.
Regardless, this whole thing is kind of insane and it’s moving really fast. Tarantino usually takes quite a bit of time between projects, but thus far everything about this Star Trek movie has been atypical for the Oscar-winning writer/director. We’ll likely hear more soon, but what do you think about an R-rated Star Trek movie folks? [Reply]
Originally Posted by AdolfOliverBush:
I hope he reconsiders retiring, as long as he can improve upon "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", which was by far his worst movie IMO. I think this is the interview you mentioned:
I thought I was the only one who hated "Once Upon a Time..."
That deserved none of the love it got nor did Pitt deserve the Oscar, though he was very good in the film. QT has put out significantly better movies over the years.
Jackie Brown was 10x the movie that "Once Upon a Time..." was and never got remotely the same attention. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Baby Lee:
I think time will be kind to OUaTiH. It's the first movie in a long time that brought the same assessment energy that The Big Lebowski did, where people go into the movie with expectations and are disappointed, and then when they think back on what the movie actually was instead of what they expected, they appreciate it more and more.
I was disappointed immediately after watching it the first time, but a lot of it stuck with me and when I rewatched it calibrated to what he was actually trying to do it rose exponentially in my assessment. I'd put it in my favorites of his, and I'm a certified fan of ALL his stuff and have been since the jump.
Over time, The H8ful Eight will be his worst movie, because it's basically a stage play in a cinematic setting, just talking and talking and telling stories of stuff that happened elsewhere in a room.
Hateful 8 was great until that disaster of an ending. Don't what was going on there. Everything after Sam Jackson lines them up against the wall was stupid. [Reply]
Originally Posted by mkp785:
I thought I was the only one who hated "Once Upon a Time..."
I feel like i enjoyed it quite a bit more on the 2nd watch. Admittedly teh 1st watch left me feeling a bit disappointed. I found a lot more value in it the 2nd time around. [Reply]
Tarantino does realistic absurdity better than anyone, but my favorites tend to be his straight ahead, no frills crime dramas
Jackie Brown is my personal #1, probably maybe followed by Once Upon a Time but it gets muddy after that... and yeah, those scripts for Natural Born Killers and True Romance were amazeballs
Imdb the casts for those early scripts of his, its a damn who's who's jumping in on Taratinos characters
Gary Oldman
Dennis Hopper
James Gandolfini
Pitt
Arquette
Slater
A 53 man roster of every recognizable character actor ever
-
Woody Harrelson
Juliet Lewis
Tommy Lee Jones
Downey Jr
Rodney Dangerfield
And yet another huge cast slam full of recognizable faces
Both well directed by someone else, they didn't muck up the golden goose... but those movies are all about Tarantinos written characters and story arcs [Reply]
Originally Posted by Mephistopheles Janx:
QT makes a specific kind of film and I just don't see how the tone of his films can ever possibly work in Trek.
It will, more than likely, turn into some overly bloody and ultra violent romp through space and I just couldn't possibly care less for it. Use a franchise that lends itself to that type of writing... like Alien or Predator.
I just don't want him to teabag Trek... and that is exactly what I expect he would do.
---
I would love to be wrong though because I love Trek and if he were to make a worthy entry into the cannon I wouldn't hold it against him.
I had the same kneejerk reaction, but I came around. Because it would work as long as they stayed true to the characters. Don't make the crew into Tarantino characters, drop them into a Tarantino movie (via time travel or other sci-fi means) and let them be fish out of water playing against that. There have been a ton of Trek episodes that did versions of that, not to mention Star Trek IV. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Easy 6:
Tarantino does realistic absurdity better than anyone, but my favorites tend to be his straight ahead, no frills crime dramas
Jackie Brown is my personal #1, probably maybe followed by Once Upon a Time but it gets muddy after that... and yeah, those scripts for Natural Born Killers and True Romance were amazeballs
Imdb the casts for those early scripts of his, its a damn who's who's jumping in on Taratinos characters
Gary Oldman
Dennis Hopper
James Gandolfini
Pitt
Arquette
Slater
A 53 man roster of every recognizable character actor ever
-
Woody Harrelson
Juliet Lewis
Tommy Lee Jones
Downey Jr
Rodney Dangerfield
And yet another huge cast slam full of recognizable faces
Both well directed by someone else, they didn't muck up the golden goose... but those movies are all about Tarantinos written characters and story arcs
Once again....I thought I was the only one who felt this way.
Jackie Brown was his most complete story that he told that could actually take place with people you can picture walking around. Like normal folk. Its his most grounded film. Pam Grier should've gotten an Oscar for that one. Robert Forester was really good as was Micheal Keaton.
Originally Posted by Baby Lee:
I think time will be kind to OUaTiH. It's the first movie in a long time that brought the same assessment energy that The Big Lebowski did, where people go into the movie with expectations and are disappointed, and then when they think back on what the movie actually was instead of what they expected, they appreciate it more and more.
I was disappointed immediately after watching it the first time, but a lot of it stuck with me and when I rewatched it calibrated to what he was actually trying to do it rose exponentially in my assessment. I'd put it in my favorites of his, and I'm a certified fan of ALL his stuff and have been since the jump.
Over time, The H8ful Eight will be his worst movie, because it's basically a stage play in a cinematic setting, just talking and talking and telling stories of stuff that happened elsewhere in a room.
I went into Once with no expectations and really enjoyed it.
Still haven't been able to watch all of Hateful 8. [Reply]