Quentin Tarantino “steering away” from Star Trek project

Fans of the Star Trek universe might already be excited from last month’s announcement that the rebooted series will continue with the hiring of Noah Hawley (Legion), but now a bit of disappointing news has arrived as Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) has revealed he is veering away from his R-rated entry into the sci-fi franchise (via Birth.Movies.Death.).

RELATED: Noah Hawley is Directing the Next Star Trek Film

In an interview with Consequence of Sound, Tarantino revealed that he’s had no recent conversations with Paramount Pictures and that while he doesn’t currently know what his tenth, and supposedly final, film will be, he is looking for a smaller project to follow up his five-Golden Globe-nominated hit.

“One of the things that [Once Upon a Time in] Hollywood has done is that it has made me feel like I’ve made my big statement on Hollywood and that there is the accumulation of a career, accumulation of my interest, accumulation of the filmography,” Tarantino said. “If the idea that all the films are a boxcar and it’s all one train, they’re all telling one story. Well, this is the climax, so I can actually see now my 10th movie probably being a little smaller. You know, an author’s note. And look, I might come up with a really big idea. But right now, the idea of a smaller audience almost all the way around is appealing to me.”

The script was written by Mark L. Smith, who penned The Revenant. Smith came aboard the project in December of 2017, after which talk of Tarantino’s Star Trek all but ceased while he worked on finishing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

RELATED: William Shatner Wants to Reprise Captain Kirk for Tarantino’s Star Trek

As previously reported, the new take on the Enterprise was going to shoot for an R rating, a notion that has irked some of Star Trek’s core fanbase. However, last year actor Karl Urban, who plays Dr. McCoy in the newer films, explained that the movie would not earn the harder rating via vulgarity or language, but rather through more gritty realism.

Tarantino’s latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and digital!

(Photo Credit: Backgrid Images)