Quentin Tarantino Confirms His Potential Star Trek Movie Will Be Rated R

Star Trek Beyond crew John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Karl Urban, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Pegg
(Image credit: (Paramount))

Is it even a Quentin Tarantino movie without his stylized high violence and sharp language sprinkled throughout his dialogue? Each one of the auteur director’s films have certainly earned their R-ratings. But what happens to this reputation if Tarantino ends up directing his pitched Star Trek movie? Here’s what he says:

Oh yeah. It’s an R-rated movie. If I do it, it’ll be R-rated.

If the Pulp Fiction director is involved, it’s obviously going to include his famed aesthetic! This would be a first for the Star Trek franchise which has stayed PG-13 in recent years. Previously, when William Statner and the original series donned the big screen in the ‘80s, the films were actually consistently PG. Talk about boldly going where no man has gone before.

Amidst some roadblocks during Paramount’s development of Star Trek 4 that ultimately led to it being shelved, Tarantino pitched out his own take on the property. It was reported that Revenant writer Mark L. Smith was on board to write the script. In Tarantino’s recent interview with Empire (via ComicBook.com), he offered this update on the project:

There’s a script that exists for it now, I need to weigh in on it, but haven’t been able to do that yet.

Looks like Mark L. Smith has been working hard on the script for a Tarantino Star Trek movie, the director just needs to look it over! He’s been busy working on his upcoming project Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but once the film is released in late July, he has said he will shift his focus back over to Star Trek.

As far as we know, Tarantino has not been hired by Paramount to helm the next Star Trek film. Since the studio lost previous Star Trek 4 director S.J. Clarkson, who left the project to work on the Game of Thrones prequel, among other issues Paramount faced, they may be open to ideas.

What kind of script Tarantino and Smith deliver to them will determine if the project becomes greenlit and the idea of a Tarantino putting his own stamp on the franchise becomes a reality or not. It is yet to be known if this script actually includes the cast of the most recent Star Trek series of films or an entirely new set of faces.

Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban and John Cho have been vocal about their interest in reprising their roles under Tarantino. However, their captain Chris Pine was part of the cancellation of Star Trek 4 when him and Chris Hemsworth parted ways from the project due to contract disputes. Pine could potentially be swayed back into the project if he’s intrigued by Tarantino’s vision and the director is looking to bring this crew back.

We’ll likely have to wait until the after Tarantino’s release of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood on July 26 before another update about this Star Trek project comes. Be sure to stay tuned with us here on CinemaBlend!

Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.