If you’ve been following the movie news in the past few days, you’ve probably heard about the utterly bizarre tale of the JJ Abrams-produced and Quentin Tarantino-involved Star Trek movie, which went from idle fanboy dream to on the studio fast-track in the span of about three days.
Now, via Deadline, we’ve got some additional details about the project that might blow your mind.
The first and most important piece of information: The planned film will be rated R, which we can only imagine is a significantly easier sell to the studio after the heavy success of films like Deadpool and Logan, which took their nerdy and childish pedigree and crafted successful adult-appealing takes on the material. Deadline points out that an issue over the rating of a planned big budget film, Guillermo del Toro’s planned adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s In the Mountains of Madness (starring Tom Cruise!), prevented the entire project from getting made.
It’s an interesting about-face, and it’s kind of telling about the current state of Hollywood that they’re willing to risk it all on a chance to hear Captain Kirk say “Fuck.”
Secondly, the film will be written by Mark L. Smith, best known for writing the bear-on-Leonardo DiCaprio hardcore film The Revanant, and that, perhaps, is the most worrying detail to emerge in the last few days. Not because Smith isn’t a good fit for the project or that he’s a particularly bad writer, but that it’ll be the first time that QT will be potentially directing a film that he himself didn’t write. And given that this may be his last film as a director (he’s long claimed that he’ll retire after his 10th work, which, assuming that his Manson project is completed before he tackles Trek, the space odyssey will be), it’s odd that he’d want to go out as a gun-for-hire.
Still, this is an interesting proposition, both in terms of content and in its execution, and we’re excited to see how this develops in the future. We’ll let you know as more information is available, but for now, steel yourself against the tide of angry Trekkies taking to their message boards to say that their beloved series should never, ever be R-Rated.
Featured image via MoviestillsDB.