In December 2017, Quentin Tarantino pitched an idea to J.J. Abrams for an R-rated ‘Star Trek’ movie. Tarantino had a completely different timeline from Abrams’ Star Trek movies, with Patrick Stewart and William Shatner both eyed to return for their respective roles.
In May 2019, Tarantino confirmed that his ‘Star Trek’ script had been written and that he intended to direct the film after 2019’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”.
However, what happened the following year is that Tarantino decided he was going to direct one more movie before retiring, one that wouldn’t have anything to do with Trek. He officially exited the project in January 2020.
Speaking with THR, screenwriter Lindsey Anderson Beer revealed that she was in the writer’s room for Tarantino’s Star Trek movie and that it was a wild experience.
According to Beer, not only was it “the most fun writers room” that she’s ever been a part of, but Tarantino had so many “passionate ideas” about what to do with the Star Trek brand.
We got in there and [Tarantino] started with, ‘So what are your guys’ ideas for a movie?’ and I think I went first. So he listened to us patiently and just kind of nodded his head, and then he took out his notebook and started talking for 20 minutes with lines of dialogue and passionate ideas that he’d already written.
It wasn’t really a story yet; they were just random thoughts he had on a movie, but it was so passionate and so wonderful. And I laughed to myself and thought, ‘Well, why didn’t we start with that?’ There was a funny moment where he just stopped in the middle of that room and turned to me and said, ‘Lindsey, you’re really good at this.’ And getting that compliment from somebody whose career I admire so much meant a lot, obviously.
This whole notion of retiring after 10 movies comes from the Tarantino’s theory that a director’s quality of work only worsens as he or she gets older. Tarantino wants his filmography to be perfect or, as he puts it, “without a misfire.” I also know some might disagree that he’s had no misfire.
Regardless, Tarantino’s ‘Star Trek’ movie is one of many projects that the filmmaker has shelved over the years. Off the top of my head, they include “Kill Bill: Volume 3,” “The Vega Brothers,” “Kung-Fu,” “Django/Zorro” and “Westworld.”