Photo : Dominique Charriau ( Getty Images )

It’s beginning—against all odds—to seem increasingly possible that Quentin Tarantino might actually soon be making an in-canon, certified, R-rated Star Trek movie, complete with, like, phasers and shit. And while certain folks more intimately connected with the franchise (namely Simon Pegg, who both stars in, and writes for, it) have tried to downplay how radically Tarantino might stretch the bounds of what Star Trek is with this little prospective side project—suggesting that it won’t be, say, “Pulp Fiction in space”—Tarantino fired back yesterday by suggesting that, actually, fuck that, because “Pulp Fiction in space” is exactly what it’ll be.


“I get annoyed at Simon Pegg,” Tarantino noted in a recent interview with Deadline, mostly centered on the upcoming release of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. “He doesn’t know anything about what’s going on and he keeps making all these comments as if he knows about stuff. One of the comments he said, he’s like ‘Well, look, it’s not going to be Pulp Fiction in space.’ Yes, it is! If I do it, that’s exactly what it’ll be.” Tarantino noted that he doesn’t know yet whether he’ll direct the film, but that he has total faith in the script, written by The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith, which is apparently filled to the brim with Pulpy goodness. “It’ll be Pulp Fiction in space,” Tarantino continued. “That Pulp Fiction-y aspect, when I read the script, I felt, I have never read a science fiction movie that has this shit in it, ever. There’s no science fiction movie that has this in it. And they said, I know, that’s why we want to make it. It’s, at the very least, unique in that regard.”

(TKTKTK don’t forget to write some jokes about what they call a Quarter-Pounder on Qo’nos and drop them in here later. Also, remember to call Mom.)


In the interview—in which he also waxes nostalgic about his love for William Shatner, because of course Quentin Tarantinio’s major in-road to Star Trek would be life-long love for a well-worn older male actor—he draws specific parallels to Deadpool, which made a ton of money by screwing with the tone and energy of a standard comic book blockbuster:

If you’ve seen my nine movies, you kind of know my way is an R-rated way and a way that is without certain restrictions. So that goes part and parcel. I think it would be more controversial if I said I’m going to do a PG movie and it’s going to fit exactly in the universe. It’s not me. What the fuck am I doing? I mean I didn’t even do that when I did that CSI episode. The thing is, when I talked to JJ about it, it’s not that radical. We’re just not worrying about stuff like that. JJ said, “Quentin, I love this idea because I think with Star Trek we can go any way we want to.” Look, I’ve got a situation. As long as Paramount likes the idea and the script they almost got nothing to lose right now when it comes to Star Trek. Deadpool showed that you can rethink these things, do them in a different way. So really, even before JJ knew what the idea was, his feeling was, if it wants to be an R rating, fine. If it wants to be the Wild Bunch in space, fine.


Also, apparently there will be space gangsters involved, which, natch.