A lot of discussion has already happened regarding the end of Quentin Tarantino’s filmmaking career. The director said publicly that he would probably call it quits after his 10th film, which would make whatever he does after “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” his final film behind the camera. But then this whole ‘Star Trek’ thing happened, and people started to wonder, would Tarantino actually end his career doing a big-budget franchise film?
Speaking to CinemaBlend, the short answer is yes. Yes, Quentin Tarantino is willing to end his career directing a ‘Star Trek’ film.
“I guess I do have a loophole, the idea was to throw a loophole into it,” said Tarantino. “Which would be [to go], ‘Uhhh, I guess ‘Star Trek’ doesn’t count. I can do ‘Star Trek’… but naturally, I would end on an original.’ But the idea of doing 10 isn’t to come up with a loophole.”
He continued, “I actually think, if I was going to do ‘Star Trek,’ I should commit to it. It’s my last movie. There should be nothing left-handed about it. I don’t know if I’m going to do that, but that might happen.”
Last year, it was reported that Tarantino had pitched an idea to producer J.J. Abrams about an R-rated ‘Star Trek.’ Abrams loved the idea and a first draft of the script has been completed by writer Mark L. Smith (“The Revenant,” “Overlord”). But with only one film left in his 10-film promise, fans were skeptical that Tarantino would actually step behind the camera for ‘Star Trek’ and actually end on an original work.
But as Tarantino explained, ending on ‘Star Trek’ would actually provide an interesting end to his storied career. We’ve seen nothing but originals from the filmmaker, so wouldn’t it be interesting, before he packed it up all, to see what he would have done if he went the franchise route?
“There also is another thought process going on where it’s like, yes, [my last movie] could be original,” said the filmmaker. “On the other hand, maybe that could show a different career I could’ve had. Whereas maybe [‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’] is my last original — I’m not saying this is the case — but maybe this is my last original, and ‘Star Trek’ or any other thing, a book or something like this, is the career I could have had if I wasn’t just writing everything all the time. Writing always originals.”
He added, “Maybe I could have had a different career if I looked for other people’s scripts, or if I wanted to find a book to be inspired by, and do an adaptation of. That would’ve been a different career. And maybe that could be fun to explore on the 10th [movie]. I don’t know. I mean, I’m making all this up as I go along, but those are two different ways I could look at it.”
Before we find out the specifics of what his future might hold, Tarantino first has to wait for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” to hit theaters on July 26.