The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith to pen script for Tarantino’s R-rated Star Trek

I honestly never expected that it would happen, but it seems that Paramount Pictures is actually moving forward with an R-rated STAR TREK film from Quentin Tarantino. Let that percolate in your brain for a bit. We first heard rumblings of the project earlier this month when it was revealed that Tarantino had come up with a "great idea" for a STAR TREK movie which he then shared with J.J. Abrams. Excited by the pitch, Abrams put together a writer's room consisting of Lindsey Beer (CHAOS WALKING), Drew Pearce (IRON MAN 3), Megan Amram (Parks and Recreation), and Mark L. Smith (THE REVENANT), and it was expected that Tarantino would choose his writer from that group.

Deadline now reports that Mark L. Smith has emerged as Quentin Tarantino's pick and that Paramount closed a deal with the screenwriter today. Word is that Tarantino still wants to direct the film, which would make it his final feature-film as he's long said that he'd retire after ten movies. Smith will work on the STAR TREK script while Tarantino keeps his focus on his next film, the as-yet-untitled project in which Manson Family murders serves as a backdrop to the main story of a TV actor looking for a way to get into the film business. The idea of an R-rated STAR TREK film may sound a little strange, but the rating was a condition of Quentin Tarantino's involvement, which J.J. Abrams and Paramount agreed to.

What do you folks think? Will Quentin Tarantino actually direct an R-rated STAR TREK movie or will the project fall apart?

It's not known whether this would be another sequel in the Kelvin Timeline, following last year's STAR TREK BEYOND, or something entirely new, but I'm inclined to believe it will be the latter. Before Quentin Tarantino got the ball rolling on this new STAR TREK project, the planned fourth film in J.J. Abrams' series would have seen Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) crossing paths with a man he never had a chance to meet, but whose legacy has haunted him since the day he was born: his father (Chris Hemsworth).