Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek Had A 1930s Gangster Vibe

Star Trek has been a malleable franchise for almost 60 years and with the newest Star Trek movie–from the Kelvin Timeline–hitting production this year. It’s been six years since Star Trek fans last saw Chris Pine’s Kirk in Star Trek Beyond, but things could have been a lot different. Remember that Quentin Tarantino Star Trek project back in 2017? Details are coming about what could have been, and it definitely reads “very Tarantino.”

Tarantino ultimately partnered with screenwriter Mark L. Smith, who had just garnered acclaim from The Revenant and had to write a Star Trek film script based on Tarantino’s idea. All the while Tarantino was busy finishing post-production for his then-next project, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. For their new Star Trek film, the vibe was going to be 1930s gangster films.

Talking to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast, Smith talks about how he ended up with the position and what Tarantino had in mind, which was a more Pulp Fiction sort of energy and mostly an earthbound story set in a 1930s gangster setting. The pitch appeared to pull inspiration from the classic Trek episode “A Piece of the Action,” which took the Enterprise crew to a planet that mirrored 1920s Chicago.