For many “Star Trek” fans, 2016’s “Star Trek Beyond” is the first of the three films in the reboot trilogy to feel like an actual “Star Trek” episode. While the film got the stamp of approval from fans and received good, if not great, reviews, ‘Beyond’ just wasn’t a hit at the box office. With only earning $343 million worldwide, off a $185 million budget, the film just never reached the heights that Paramount was hoping, throwing the future of the film franchise into limbo.
One of the stars of the film, Simon Pegg, recently spoke about what he saw as the main problem that contributed to the failure of ‘Beyond.’ And it had nothing to do with the film.
“I think it was poorly marketed, to be honest,” Pegg says. “If you look at a film like ‘Suicide Squad,’ that was around for such a long time before it finally came out and people were so aware of it. Whereas with ‘Star Trek Beyond,’ it was left too late before they started their marketing push. It still did great business, but it was disappointing compared to ‘Into Darkness.’”
Pegg had a vested interest in “Star Trek Beyond,” more so than just being an actor. Pegg also co-wrote the film with Doug Jung. While he mentions the timing of the marketing as the main factor, there was also something specific about the trailer for the film that just rubbed him the wrong way.
“I was really angry about [the trailer],” he says, “because it used ‘Sabotage,’ which was our surprise moment in the end… they blew it in the first trailer, which really annoyed me. They also made the film look like a boneheaded action film. And they were scared, I think, of mentioning the 50th Anniversary. It was fumbled as a thing; they didn’t know what to do with it and it’s a real shame. But I came away from it really, really happy and very proud of it.”
He might be onto something with this assertion. Much of the buzz about the film, after the first trailer, wasn’t about how it looked like a fun “Star Trek” film, but more how new director Justin Lin, famous for several ‘Fast and Furious’ films, turned “Beyond” into another popcorn action film. The music wasn’t the only contributing factor, either. The trailer in question also featured star Chris Pine speeding around on a motorcycle, plenty of explosions, and people doing martial arts. It definitely looked like ‘Fast and Furious’ with aliens.
But lately, the talk surrounding the “Star Trek” film franchise revolves around a new filmmaker, Quentin Tarantino. The writer-director has recently been linked to a new “Star Trek” film, serving as a writer and maybe director. While Pegg does confirm that a script for a fourth film was already written, it seems that might get thrown away if Tarantino’s idea comes to fruition.
“There’s a script that’s been written,” he says. “And there’s also the story of Quentin Tarantino coming and chatting with J.J. [Abrams] about an idea that he’s had for a long time. That idea is going into the writer’s room to be looked at. I think it might take something like him to restart it. It’s an interesting proposition, although I don’t know if that means everybody will be blowing each other’s heads off with phasers and calling Klingons mother f*****s, but, who knows, that could be fun.”
Yeah, it’s doubtful that Paramount will allow extreme violence and curse words in a “Star Trek” film, the idea of making “Star Trek” a more adult affair is exciting. And who better to guide ‘Trek’ into a new frontier than Tarantino?