Star Trek 4 (1 Viewer)

[benbess]

Look at this quote from a big New York Times story on Paramount today.....

"But Mr. Godfrey insisted otherwise. Imagine, for instance, Paramount giving “Star Trek” to Quentin Tarantino. “Suddenly people’s eyes light up,” Mr. Godfrey said. “Yours just did.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/business/media/paramount-pictures.html

 

[Jason_V]

That's been a tease for a while now. Tarantino doing Trek would be a bit odd because, let's face it, his sensibilities are not Trek. It would potentially get a more diverse audience in the theater, but it has always felt like a desperate "quick fix" by Paramount.

 

[JimmyO]

If Tarantino ever got ahold of Trek - I'm not sure what that could lead to.

If it would cause characters we know well to turn into bloodthirsty, backstabbing drug addicted spacefarers, you wouldn't really be able to put that genie back in the bottle.

But it would still be interesting.

 

[benbess]

What if they asked him to do it PG-13? You can do quite a bit with PG-13.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think anyone curious about what Tarantino doing Trek would be like should look to Tarantino’s CSI two-parter.

It’s a phenomenal episode of CSI because it’s clearly a CSI episode, but within the format of the show, Tarantino is able to use his own style to emphasize the best things about the show. It doesn’t take CSI in a radical new direction. Rather, Tarantino folds his own style into the CSI world.

That’s what I expect him to do with Star Trek. He loved CSI, so he made a CSI episode that felt like CSI. He loves Trek; he’ll make a movie that feels like Trek.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I think anyone curious about what Tarantino doing Trek would be like should look to Tarantino’s CSI two-parter.

It’s a phenomenal episode of CSI because it’s clearly a CSI episode, but within the format of the show, Tarantino is able to use his own style to emphasize the best things about the show. It doesn’t take CSI in a radical new direction. Rather, Tarantino folds his own style into the CSI world.

That’s what I expect him to do with Star Trek. He loved CSI, so he made a CSI episode that felt like CSI. He loves Trek; he’ll make a movie that feels like Trek.

Makes sense. Tarantino might be known for a certain style, but that doesn't mean he can't adapt to the needs to the property...

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I just don’t see the guy who loves Star Trek making a movie that isn’t satisfying as a Trek movie.

...and thanks to multiple previous Trek projects, most recently Discovery, cursing is canon in the Trek future. I don’t expect Tarantino to drop f bombs just for the sake of it but if a character curses I’m not gonna lose my mind.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I couldn't agree more with Josh's example of the Tarantino CSI episodes.

Top notch. Vintage CSI/ala Tarantino. A perfect blend of the two universes and respectful of both. I need to take those off the shelf for a spin sometime soon.

And for those who don't know, there was a Blu-ray release of just those episodes!

It freaks me out that I ordered that from Amazon on February 3, 2012!!!

 

[Tino]

Yeah. Everyone is just assuming he’s going to make Pulp Trek. Tarantino is better than that.

 

[benbess]

And maybe he could make it for c. $80 million? Aren't most of his recent movies somewhere around that (or under)? That's what needs to happen in terms of budget imho—under 100m. Although I guess most of his movies don't have the expensive sets and expensive effects that Star Trek needs. But I still think it should top out at 100m.

 

[Thomas Newton]

If Tarantino ever got ahold of Trek - I'm not sure what that could lead to.

If it would cause characters we know well to turn into bloodthirsty, backstabbing drug addicted spacefarers, you wouldn't really be able to put that genie back in the bottle.

But it would still be interesting.

No problem. Center the movie around the Romulans, the Ferengi, or the characters in the "Mirror Mirror" universe. Or around some of the more unsavory Klingons. Or a combination.

Remember, you haven't really seen "Throne of Blood" until you have seen it in the original Klingon!

 

[Bryan^H]

That’s what I expect him to do with Star Trek. He loved CSI, so he made a CSI episode that felt like CSI. He loves Trek; he’ll make a movie that feels like Trek.

I never thought otherwise but...

...and thanks to multiple previous Trek projects, most recently Discovery, cursing is canon in the Trek future.

I still think the F word has about as much business in Star Trek as it does in Star Wars. But if Tarantino makes a Star Trek movie, I will watch it.

 

[Jason_V]

I think anyone curious about what Tarantino doing Trek would be like should look to Tarantino’s CSI two-parter.

It’s a phenomenal episode of CSI because it’s clearly a CSI episode, but within the format of the show, Tarantino is able to use his own style to emphasize the best things about the show. It doesn’t take CSI in a radical new direction. Rather, Tarantino folds his own style into the CSI world.

That’s what I expect him to do with Star Trek. He loved CSI, so he made a CSI episode that felt like CSI. He loves Trek; he’ll make a movie that feels like Trek.

I have watched about one episode of CSI, but I don't think that's an apples-to-apples comparison. CSI is about murder, gruesomeness and blood. Sure, it has people working together to stop the bad guy and a general "exploration" theme in a broad sense. But CSI can get away with a whole lot more than Trek has historically done (aside from Discovery).

That being said, would I see a Tarantino Trek movie? Absolutely. I haven't missed one since I became a fan.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I recall a long time ago, well before any of the talk of Tarantino making a Trek film, that he talked about an idea he had to write a Trek story based on or related to some favorite episode from the original series. Now, I have no idea if that is what his Trek movie idea is or will be or if all these years later he has come up with something different.

I also think he expressed some interest in doing something from the Picard series.

The good, at least to me, about Tarantino doing a Star Trek film is that in his film you can bet the characters, their relationships, and the dialogue, of course, are all going to really matter. So, it would likely be the most intimate Trek since the days of Shatner and the original crew. By that I mean a story that focuses on the characters and how they relate to each other and how their relationships help them problem solve. This was the heart of the series and why it became popular in the first place. It was not a show about jaw dropping effects and spastic action sequences.

As his films have become more and more wacky I can understand people being concerned about Sam Jackson being cast as a bad guy pointing a phaser at Kirk and shouting "Say what again, motherfucker!" but I actually doubt he would do this as knowing Quentin his idea is that he will make the "greatest Star Trek ever" which means he likely wants it to at least sort of fit into what people expect as Trek...not something that is some kind of Trek/Pulp Fiction parody.

The story so far is that Tarantino gave Abrams an idea...not a script...and I would not at all be surprised if this is the same idea that Tarantino mentioned I believe a couple decades ago or more. So, it may just be that Quentin really does have some kind of great idea, as the giant fanboy he is, for a Trek film.

 

[Jeff Adkins]

Tarantino also directed an episode or two of Alias which he did a pretty good job with.

 

[Tino]

Tarantino also wrote the Star Trek analogy used in Crimson Tide.

He’s loved Trek for a loooong time.

 

[JQuintana]

So how relevant and popular is Star Trek to the under 50+ crowd at this point? It seems most folks under say 50 or so have no real desire to invest in watching this series of TV shows or movies or is it still a huge seller to Millennial's and other similar groups?

I've tried to sell the the older movies and the original series to my 10 year old and he thinks they are "dumb". I'm guessing his friends think similarly.

 

[Tino]

So how relevant and popular is Star Trek to the under 50+ crowd at this point?

Considering the last three films alone have grossed close to $1.2 billion worldwide, I would say Star Trek is still very relevant.

And that’s not including the numerous new Star Trek series in development.

Anecdotal evident as we all know is pretty useless. Pretty much all my nephews and nieces love all Trek.

 

[Jason_V]

Beyond did the least of all three by a substantial amount.

 

[BobO'Link]

My oldest grandson (15yo) will watch the occasional episode but he's not devoted to it and never asks to see an episode. He regularly asks to watch episodes of I Love Lucy, Leave it to Beaver, and Gilligan's Island but never any drama programs from that era of broadcasting (he's seen episodes of several - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mannix, Hawaii 5-O, The Wild Wild West, and a few others). He seems to enjoy it when he watches an episode with me so maybe there's hope and I just need to get the right episode(s) for him to take interest.

His oldest sister (12yo) has seen a few episodes of TNG and never asks to see it. If that's what I'm watching she usually leaves the room after 15-20 minutes.

Their sister (7yo) will watch complete episodes of TNG with me but I don't think she's seen any TOS. However, she, like her brother and sister, never ask to watch any Trek. That could easily change if I watched enough of it with her.

All three generally ask for comedy series from the 60s and I'm OK with that as my preference leans in that direction but I'd really like to get them interested in some of the better dramatic series, especially Star Trek.

Their mom, my daughter (39yo), never watched Trek. She might now but I just don't know. I'd have to loan her some seasons with a "watch some and let me know" mandate.

My son (36yo) has watched episodes of TOS, TNG, and DS9. He didn't care for any of them. But he's never been too interested in anything SF related - other than Star Wars (and he's a huge SW fan - skipped school, with our permission, to sit in line to purchase a ticket for the Episode 1 premier at the local theater).

No one I work with (ages ~22-39) watches anything Trek. Most watch the Marvel and DC superhero movies bit didn't bother with any of the "New Trek" movies, much less the older stuff.

I know 2 people who like and watch Star Trek. One is in his late 40s (likes it all), the other in his mid 50s (only likes TNG).