Former Star Trek: The Next Generation star Jonathan Frakes is hoping that one of Quentin Tarantino and Noah Hawley’s proposed Star Trek film projects becomes a reality. Paramount has temporarily put the film franchise on pause, and is reportedly considering three different scripts, including ones from Tarantino and Hawley. Frakes himself has directed two previous Star Trek films and episodes of various Star Trek shows.
After a successful rebooted film trilogy led by Chris Pine and spearheaded by J.J. Abrams, the franchise has been focusing more on building out its Star Trek TV offerings as of late. Star Trek: Discovery was recently joined by CBS All Access’ (soon to be renamed Paramount Plus) Star Trek: Picard, starring Patrick Stewart as Jean Luc Picard, and the animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks. While several film projects have been rumored since Justin Lin’s Star Trek: Beyond released in 2016, they have all reportedly been put on hold by Paramount Motion Picture Group’s new President, Emma Watts. Two of the rumored projects came from Hawley and Tarantino, while a third pitch would have brought back the cast of the Chris Pine films.
In a new interview with TrekMovie, Jonathan Frakes discussed what he would do with the future of the film franchise if given a choice. His answer was simple: “I say greenlight the Tarantino and Noah Hawley, if you are lucky enough to get either of them. And if they are too busy to direct, I’ll be available.” When asked about the potential of a follow-up to Beyond, however, Frakes said he thought it was the most likely option.
“Well, that’s probably the one that has the most hope of being made first because there’s already an audience. After Paramount shut down Star Trek for five years, J.J. [Abrams] relaunched it, and in my taste, very successfully. It captured the zeitgeist again. They spent a lot of f–king money so it was a BIG movie. His first one [Star Trek 2009] in particular was great. I wasn’t crazy about Idris Elba wearing a mask [Star Trek Beyond]. And I love Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan [in Star Trek Into Darkness]. And I love that cast…So my opinion is that that movie with J.J.’s cast is the one, if I were betting, that would be greenlit”
The rumors around Tarantino and Hawley’s films have both been intriguing. The Tarantino project, written by The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith, would reportedly pull from The Original Series episode “A Piece of the Action,’ which was set on a planet resembling early-21st century American gangster culture. Hawley’s film would introduce a new cast of original characters and move away from the action-heavy storylines of the Pine films in an effort to re-center the franchise’s focus on exploration.
With so many different Star Trek projects currently in the works, it’s possible that any number of the three proposed films could be produced in some fashion in the future. Major franchises like Star Wars, Marvel and DC Comics have shown that brands of Star Trek’s scale can succeed by embracing a range of varied, simultaneous content, and Gene Roddenberry’s universe is certainly big enough to support such a model. Paramount’s next move with Star Trek remains to be seen.
Source: TrekMovie