Quentin Tarantino is one of the most distinguished auteurs that cinema has witnessed over the years. Despite his fairly small discography, in comparison to his contemporaries, the director enjoys widespread fame, drawing millions of viewers to his movies that have become cult classics now.
Apart from his ventures in classic noir drama indie thriller films, the director was once also associated with the Star Trek franchise, having written and potentially directed what would have been the ‘greatest’ movie in the franchise. Despite being a fan, the director later dropped out of the project, and it seems that the movie will never come about thanks to his one unbreakable rule of only directing 10 films.
Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Greatest’ Star Trek Movie Will Never Be Released
Back in 2017, it was announced Quentin Tarantino was working with Mark L. Smith to work on a new Star Trek movie that was apparently well-liked by Paramount. Inspired by A Piece of the Action episode from Star Trek: The Original Series, the plot would have been an amalgamation of the classic Tarantino style blended with the original Star Trek vibe (via Variety).
However, he later confirmed (via Deadline) that he won’t be directing the movie and that the studio might as well make it. Despite his earlier eagerness for the movie (via Deadline), the director seems to have given up altogether on the project. And the reason is his rule of only directing 10 movies.
After a long history of making original movies, the director had anticipation of directing a franchise film as his tenth film (his ninth one was Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood). Smith, who co-wrote the script, confirmed this fact in a recent interview, while also calling the movie the ‘greatest’ Star Trek movie. And so, not wanting to affect the rest of his critically acclaimed movies by risking to direct a franchise movie, Tarantino walked out of the project.
Mark L. Smith Confirms Director’s 10-Movie Rule Won’t Let Him Direct A Star Trek Movie
Quentin Tarantino has time and again maintained that he would only be directing 10 movies, since ‘Directors don’t get better as they get older’ (via The Hollywood Reporter). But since the director wanted to maintain his streak of original movies (via Consequence of Sound) his greatest Star Trek movie will never see the light of day.
The co-author of the movie, Mark L. Smith, recently reaffirmed this fact in an interview with Collider, stating that,
“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.”
He added how the movie would have been the best in the whole franchise,
“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.”
Not only did Smith praise the movie but he also remarked that it also had the potential to create a new tone for the franchise. Despite the praise and talk, there has been no announcement of its development and it seems highly unlikely that it would ever get made. And even if it does, without the unique touch of Tarantino the film will forever remain lacking.
Meanwhile, Tarantino’s last movie The Movie Critic is expected to release next year.
