Quentin Tarantino has officially dropped out of the Star Trek film he was in talks to direct. The script by Mark L. Smith is still up for consideration and now plot details have been revealed.

Tarantino’s Star Trek

In 2015, on the podcast The Nerdist, Quentin Tarantino was asked what his vision for Star Wars would be. In true Trekkie fashion Tarantino answered that he would be much more interested in making a Star Trek movie. Elaborating on how the Abrams reboot series was an opportunity to revisit some of the classic episodes. Expanding such an episode to a feature film length that explored the concepts more. This remained a fun little encounter until 2017. When Deadline announced that JJ Abrams would produce a Star Trek film directed by Tarantino and written by The Revenant scribe Mark L. Smith. Deadline teased that the film would be a feature length adaptation of an original series episode, would feature the Chris Pine era crew, would possibly be rated “R” and would be Tarantino’s last film following Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

The Story

Deadline has revealed that the script is an adaptation of the classic episode A Piece Of The Action. For those of you unfamiliar, in A Piece of the Action Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise visit the planet Iota. A world visited by human explorers during the early days of the federation. Starfleet had sent the Enterprise to see if there had been any cultural damage.

Upon beaming down the planet’s surface Kirk and crew discover that the captain of the previous ship left a copy of the book Chicago Mobs of the 30s as a present to the Iotians. The Iotians proceeded to model their entire planet’s civilization after 1930s gangland Chicago. This episode is one of the pulpiest ones of the original series in the best way. A feature film of this episode would be a glorious hybrid of 30s gangster action and pulpy space adventure. Thor Ragnarok meets The Untouchables.

Tarantino Out, Does the Project Live On?

According to Deadline Tarantino has officially left the project. The director started hinting that he may be out during the press tour for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. He was original enthusiastic when asked about Star Trek being his final movie. But later indicated that he may no longer be involved. The exact reasons have not been made official. Tarantino may want his final feature to be 100% original instead of an adaptation. Or Paramount will probably not want to spend blockbuster money on an “R” rated film.

This does not mean that the project is completely dead, even with Tarantino out. Paramount head Emma Watts has made developing a Star Trek film top priority and is developing three different projects. A time travel story where Kirk meets his father, an unknown project written and directed by Noah Hawley and Mark L. Smith’s adaptation of A Piece if the Action. If the project can find a director then there is hope we can finally see Captain Kirk with a fedora and tommy gun on the big screen.

So, what do you think of this Star Trek news?