Simon Pegg says Quentin Tarantino’s idea for Star Trek would have been ‘crazy’

Simon Pegg has revealed that Quentin Tarantino’s unmade Star Trek film would have been “bats*** crazy”.

The Spaced actor, who played Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in three Star Trek films released between 2009 and 2016, opened up about Tarantino’s unconventional vision for the beloved sci-fi franchise.

The 55-year-old admitted that he had never read the script, but had been given a detailed description by JJ Abrams, who directed 2009’s Star Trek and its 2013 sequel Star Trek Into Darkness, alongside producer Lindsey Weber.

Speaking to Collider, Pegg said of the scripts: “That was what we call in the business bats*** crazy. It was everything you would expect a Quentin Tarantino Star Trek script to be."

open image in gallery

“I think it would have been such an incredible sort of curio to see Star Trek through his lens. I don't know how it would have gone over with the fans, but it certainly would have been an interesting thing."

Tarantino, best known for making violent cult hits such as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, successfully pitched an R-rated Star Trek movie to Paramount and Abrams in 2017, which he would’ve directed had it been made, though the film was never officially greenlit.

In 2019, Tarantino distanced himself from the project and hinted that it was no longer likely to happen. “I think I’m steering away from Star Trek, but I haven’t had an official conversation with those guys yet,” he told Consequence of Sound at the time.

By 2020, though, Pegg suggested that the economics of the film industry meant that the Star Trek franchise may be over.

“The fact is, Star Trek movies don’t make Marvel money,” he told GamesRadar. “They make maybe $500m at the most, and to make one now, on the scale they’ve set themselves, is $200m. You have to make three times that to make a profit.”

open image in gallery

Now, Pegg has hinted that there could be life in the series following the merger between Paramount and Skydance. “I’m hoping now that David Ellison [Skydance founder] is now high up at Paramount,” he told Collider.

“Now the merger’s happened, and David’s always been a big supporter of the Kelvin timeline. So who knows, maybe we’ll get to make another one.”

The last entry in the Star Trek franchise, which also featured Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana and Zachary Quinto, was a box office disappointment. Star Trek Beyond, which was released in 2016, grossed $343m (£267m) worldwide on a budget of $185m (£144m).