Quentin Tarantino is keen on taking the Star Trek franchise to a place it's never been
before, but one person is apparently throwing off his groove.
Someone who apparently doesn't get what Tarantino is hoping to do with his Star Trek film is
Simon Pegg, whom Tarantino fired a public shot at.
In a recent interview with Deadline, Tarantino got to talking about his in-the-works Star
Trek film, for which he has a very specific vision.
As is standard for the violence-and-vulgarity-favoring filmmaker, he wants it to be R-rated, and
every bit as bold and bombastic as his past works.
Tarantino got candid when he shared that he gets, quote, "annoyed at Simon Pegg" for comments
the actor and filmmaker has previously made about the potential Star Trek project.
Pegg, of course, is known for his role in the Star Trek reboot franchise as USS Enterprise
engineer Montgomery Scott, aka Scotty, a role previously made iconic by also-not-Scottish
actor James Doohan.
In addition to playing the new Scotty, Pegg is also an accomplished screenwriter who co-wrote
the previous Star Trek movie, 2016's Star Trek Beyond, with writer Doug Jung.
Since then, he's been asked on multiple occasions about Tarantino's potential involvement in
a new Trek film, and his comments have apparently rubbed Tarantino the wrong way.
Not mincing words, he told Deadline,
"He doesn't know anything about what's going on and he keeps making all these comments
as if he knows about stuff.
One of the comments he said, he's like, 'Well, look, it's not going to be Pulp Fiction in
space.'
Yes, it is!"
Tarantino went on to claim that he has yet to encounter a science fiction movie that
approaches the material with his particular style, or what he calls, quote, "that Pulp
Fiction-y aspect."
Pegg made the "Pulp Fiction in space" comment in May 2018, during an interview with Coming
Soon.
In context, Pegg's remarks were far from critical.
He said of Tarantino's potential movie,
"Everyone sort of assumes it’s gonna be like Pulp Fiction in space, but I think his
devotion to Trek and his understanding of it…
It won’t be ordinary, it’ll have him all over it, but it won’t be anything a Star
Trek fan will have to worry about."
Pegg went on to note that at the time, he had not yet read Tarantino's treatment for
the film.
Pegg also made comments about the film a few months earlier during a red carpet interview
with the outlet HeyUGuys in March 2018.
On that occasion, Pegg pushed back against the idea that Tarantino's Star Trek would
be R-rated, as well as the idea that he would even be writing the project himself at all.
"I don't think he's written an R-rated Star Trek script.
I think what happened is that he went to J.J. with an idea that he's had for awhile.“
"I don't know much about it other than the fact that it's sort of in the mix."
It seems like Tarantino is expressing his annoyance not because of the content of Pegg's
remarks, but because he's been on record speculating about it at all, which is an understandable
position to take.
But in Pegg's defense, there is a lot of ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding the Star Trek
flick in question — including whether Tarantino will even direct it, which actors might board
to reprise their roles, when it would be released, what the story will be, and if it will serve
as the fourth Star Trek film in the new continuity or a separate entry into the franchise entirely.
For Tarantino's part, he made it clear to Deadline that a final decision on his involvement
in making a movie is still very much to be determined, though the project is being worked
on.
He said,
"I will say one thing about Star Trek that I've been waiting for someone to bring up:
I don't know if I'll do it or not.
I've got to figure it out, but Mark [L. Smith] wrote a really cool script.
I like it a lot.
There's some things I need to work on but I really, really liked it."
Tarantino isn't known for skirting around profanity or violence, and he's made it clear
that if he's going to do Star Trek, he's going to do it his way - no matter what anyone has
to say about it.
"If you've seen my nine movies, you kind of know my way is an R-rated way and a way that
is without certain restrictions.
So that goes part and parcel.
I think it would be more controversial if I said I'm going to do a PG movie and it's
going to fit exactly in the universe."
In the Deadline interview, the filmmaker also made a somewhat controversial statement of
his own, asserting that,
"As long as Paramount likes the idea and the script they almost got nothing to lose right
now when it comes to Star Trek."
It's not hard to read that as potentially being a shot at the current state of the franchise,
which is currently floundering on the big screen.
Though it was previously reported that a fourth movie in the film franchise would be going
forward centering on James Kirk's relationship with his father George, played by Chris Hemsworth
in the 2009 Star Trek, that movie ended up being cancelled, allegedly over contract negotiations
with the cast that fell through.
Either way, the fate of the Star Trek film franchise remains very much in the air, and
it's possible we won't get any new movie in the series, Tarantino or no, for quite some
time.
But if the Reservoir Dogs filmmaker does get behind the camera for it, you can expect a
whole lot less lens flare, and a whole lot more of… well, stuff like this.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite movies are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.