Quentin Tarantino’s proposed R-rated Star Trek reboot is moving forward with a screenwriter.
Deadline is reporting that Paramount Pictures has hired The Revenant screenwriter Mark L. Smith to write the script for a new Star Trek movie. Tarantino will produce the film with J.J. Abrams, who directed 2009’s Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. Tarantino is also interested in directing the film.
Smith’s attachment to an R-rated Star Trek movie comes after he participated in a writer’s room with Tarantino and fellow writers Lindsey Beer, Megan Amram, and Drew Pearce. At the time, Smith was viewed as a frontrunner to helm Tarantino’s Star Trek film.
The film has the potential to shake up the franchise for Paramount, which would fall in line with other recent R-rated action movies like Deadpool and Logan, both of which were praised by critics and ruled the box office. But even though Tarantino is a Star Trek fan himself, fans are concerned about what Tarantino’s involvement would mean for capturing the spirit of Star Trek. (His affinity for violence and racial epithets in many of his previous films is also a worrying factor for some fans.)
Should everything fall into place, we’re still likely years away from seeing a Tarantino-directed, R-rated Star Trek movie. He begins production on a movie about Charles Manson next year with a proposed release date of Aug. 9, 2019.
H/T Deadline