Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Star Trek’ Will Boldy Go R-Rated

Facing facts, we can all agree that the “Star Trek” movie franchise needs new life.”Star Trek: Beyond” wasn’t the financial hit needed to move ahead with a planned sequel that would bring Chris Hemsworth to the series in a lead role. So, Paramount decided “What the hell, let Quentin Tarantino take a crack at it.” J.J. Abrams was roped in to help assemble a writers room, and we all thought, that’s cute, but it’s still never gonna happen. Well….

Deadline reports that things are moving ahead, and Mark L. Smith, who penned “The Revenant,” is the frontrunner to write the movie for Tarantino. Drew Pearce (“Iron Man 3,” “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation“) and Lindsey Beer (“Chaos Walking“) also met with Tarantino about the gig.

However, the most fascinating detail is that Tarantino demanded an R-rating, and Paramount has complied, which means Captain Kirk can drop f-bombs or whatever. Honestly, I’m not sure that’s the vision Gene Rodenberry had, and moreover, just because you can make something R-rated, doesn’t mean you should. The franchise has been just fine for decades without pushing into that territory, because at the end of the day, it’s all about compelling stories. Not whether or not we see alien boobs or whatever.

Tarantino has previously touted original series episode “City On The Edge Of Forever” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation“ episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” as ideal stories that could be expanded into feature length format. But I’d presume he has his own tale he wants to tell.

Before you freak out too much, just remember, this is still in development and a long way off and may never happen. It’s also unclear if this will “count” toward Tarantino’s self-proclaimed ten-movies-and-done plan (he’s already made an exception for television, so maybe he’ll have another excuse here).

Tarainto’s next movie is his Charles Manson-era pic which opens on August 9, 2019.