Latest news with #LindseyWeber
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Simon Pegg calls Tarantino's unreleased R-rated film ‘batsh*t crazy'
Turns out we almost got a Quentin Tarantino-directed Star Trek movie, and according to one of the franchise's stars, Simon Pegg, it was exactly as bonkers as you'd expect. Pegg has revealed just how off-the-wall Tarantino's abandoned Star Trek script really was, and according to him, it was exactly the kind of chaos you'd expect from the filmmaker behind Pulp Fiction (1994) and Kill Bill (2003-4). Appearing at a fan expo in Boston over the weekend, the actor who plays Scotty in the rebooted franchise, said he was given a breakdown of Tarantino's vision by producers J.J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber. Pegg told fans the screenplay Tarantino pitched to J.J. back in December 2017 was 'what we call in the business batsh*t crazy.' 'It was everything you would expect a Quentin Tarantino Star Trek script to be,' he said. 'I think it would have been such an incredible sort of curio to see Star Trek through his lens. 'I don't know how it would have gone over with the fans, but it certainly would have been an interesting thing.' The project was separate from the planned sequel to Star Trek Beyond, and Paramount quickly launched development on it. The expectation was that it would be a hard R-rated film - gritty, violent, and unlike anything the franchise had seen before. Screenwriter Mark L. Smith, known for The Revenant (2015) and Twisters (2024), was brought on board to turn Tarantino's concept into a script. In a 2023 interview with Collider, Smith praised just how unique it would have been. 'It would've been the greatest Star Trek film,' he said. 'Not for my writing, but just for what Tarantino was gonna do with it. It was just a balls-out kind of thing.' While Smith wouldn't give away any specific plot details: 'I can't say anything about the story, he would kill me' - he did confirm that it was a typical Tarantino bold take. 'I think his vision was just to go hard. It was a hard R. It was going to be some Pulp Fiction violence. '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 setting alone was wildly unconventional for a Trek film. Most of it was going to take place on Earth in a 1930s gangster setting. It's believed Tarantino was drawing from the 1968 Star Trek: The Original Series episode 'A Piece of the Action', where the crew encounters an alien culture imitating Chicago mobsters. Knowing Tarantino, this version would've also featured ruthless shootouts and fedoras. Smith compared what the film might have done for the Star Trek to how Taika Waititi reimagined Thor with Ragnarok (2017). 'I liked it because I think it's different, but the way that Ragnarok changed things. It was like suddenly it had a different feel for the Marvel stuff. 'It was like, 'That's fun. That's different,'' he said. 'And I guess Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) to some level, but it was just like a different vibe and that's what I thought that it could bring to Star Trek - just a different feel.' Despite the excitement behind the scenes, the project never left the drawing table, and according to Smith, the reason came down to Tarantino's famous filmmaking rule: ten movies, then he's done. '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,' Smith recalled. '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.' The studio pivoted to developing a new prequel movie instead, with Andor (2022) director Toby Haynes and script written by Dark Shado ws(2012)writer Seth Grahame-Smith - but that version was also shelved. Now, Paramount reportedly intends to make a final chapter to wrap up the Chris Pine-led Star Trek films, with The Flight Attendant (2020)'s Steve Yockey writing the script. Tarantino, meanwhile, still hasn't announced what his tenth and final film will be. It was expected to be The Movie Critic, but reports in 2024 confirmed he had also scrapped that idea. So the big question remains - what will Tarantino actually end his career on? So far he's completed nine films: Reservoir Dogs (1992), P ulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2003-4: which he counts as one), Death Proof (2007), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012), The Hateful Eight (2015), and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). While his work is undeniably brilliant, it's hard not to feel a pang of sadness knowing that somewhere in Hollywood, a batsh*t crazy, R-rated Star Trek script is gathering dust, likely never to be made. And it might have been a masterpiece. Still, fans remain hopeful: 'Maybe that's what's needed right now... To give cinema a wired boost since there's nothing good in theatres,' one Instagram user wrote. 'Someone finally has an original idea for Star Trek. They def should make it instead of this reboot,' begged another.
Geek Tyrant
12-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Simon Pegg Says Quentin Tarantino's Unmade STAR TREK Movie Was 'Batsh*t Crazy' — GeekTyrant
Simon Pegg has given fans a peek into the Quentin Tarantino Star Trek movie that never got made, and if his description is anything to go by, it would've been wild! Speaking at Fan Expo Boston (via Collider), Pegg revealed that J.J. Abrams and producer Lindsey Weber once shared the breakdown of Tarantino's pitch with him, and the idea was pure Tarantino energy set in the Star Trek universe. 'That was what we call in the business batshit crazy. It was everything you would expect a Quentin Tarantino Star Trek script to be.' Pegg admitted he would've loved to see the world of Star Trek through the Pulp Fiction director's lens, even if it might have divided the fanbase. 'I think it would have been such an incredible sort of curio to see Star Trek through his lens. I don't know how it would have gone over with the fans, but it certainly would have been an interesting thing.' Back in late 2017, Paramount and Star Trek producer Abrams accepted Tarantino's pitch, with Mark L. Smith ( The Revenant ) brought on board to write the screenplay. But the project stalled. In 2023, Smith revealed that the biggest obstacle was Tarantino himself, who was wrestling with the idea that Star Trek could be his final film. '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.' The movie's setting would have been a retro gangster-inspired world on an Earth-like planet in the 1930s, drawing influence from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode 'A Piece of the Action' where the Enterprise crew encounters a civilization steeped in 1920s mobster culture. Sadly, this crazy vision for Star Trek will remain one of Hollywood's great what-ifs. But somewhere, in Quentin Tarantino's office, sits the script that might have been.
Yahoo
12-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Simon Pegg says Quentin Tarantino's planned 'Star Trek' movie was 'bats--- crazy'
"I don't know how it would have gone over with the fans, but it certainly would have been an interesting thing," he teased. We may never know if a Quentin Tarantino-led Star Trek film would boldly go where none had gone before, but Simon Pegg has an idea. Pegg — who played Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in all three films of the Star Trek reboot series: Star Trek (2009), Into Darkness (2013), and Beyond (2016) — didn't read the script for the proposed film, but heard a detailed description of it from producers Lindsey Weber and J.J. Abrams, he told Collider during a panel at the Fan Expo Boston over the weekend. "That was what we call in the business bats--- crazy," he said of his reaction to Tarantino's vision. "It was everything you would expect a Quentin Tarantino Star Trek script to be." He didn't provide further details on the specific plot points given to him, but did tease, "I think it would have been such an incredible sort of curio to see Star Trek through his lens. I don't know how it would have gone over with the fans, but it certainly would have been an interesting thing." Sci-fi fans first had their faces set to stunned in December 2017 when news broke that the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood helmer had come up with an idea for an R-rated Star Trek film, and that he also hoped to direct it. At the time, reports stated that screenwriters Mark L. Smith (The Revenant), Lindsey Beer (Pet Sematary: Bloodlines), and Drew Pearce (Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation) were in the running to pen the script, with Smith as the apparent frontrunner. The plan was for Tarantino to direct. Smith later revealed that the idea would involve Captain Kirk and time travel and draw inspiration from classic gangster films. As of summer 2019, Tarantino told Empire that he still hoped to make the film, and that a script had been written, but he needed to weigh in on it. In 2020, Tarantino told Deadline that he believes "they might make that movie," but he would no longer direct it. The project has thus far failed to there are no positive updates about a possible Tarantino venture into the Star Trek cinematic landscape, Pegg did share at Fan Expo Boston that he has some reason to be optimistic that his corner of the Trek-verse might live long and prosper. The actor noted that Skydance founder David Ellison, who executive produced Beyond and Into Darkness, is now chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance Corporation following the merger. "I'm hoping, now that David Ellison is now high up at Paramount," Pegg said, "now the merger's happened, and David's always been a big supporter of the Kelvin we'll get to make another one." Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
