When Wyck Godfrey climbed aboard Paramount Pictures two years ago, he was tasked with reviving some of the studio’s struggling tentpoles – big-name franchises in the vein of Terminator, Star Trek and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The Transformers series has already veered off-course with the really rather brilliant Bumblebee, while the Powers That Be have finally committed to a true Top Gun sequel (entitled Maverick, it’ll speed into theaters next summer).
That leaves Star Trek in need of a facelift, given progress has already been made on TMNT and the sixth Terminator movie. The answer? Godfrey believes that placing someone like Quentin Tarantino in control of the flight deck is enough to pique everyone’s curiosity in a post-Beyond landscape.
Via The New York Times:
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.”
It’s no secret that Star Trek Beyond undershot expectations, leaving the franchise’s immediate future in jeopardy. Paramount still pursued new frontiers thanks to the Discovery TV series, though Godfrey is hoping to fill the cinematic void with a Tarantino-directed Trek movie.
Further details were not disclosed at this early stage, but we understand an R rating was one of QT’s conditions when entering negotiations. And then there’s still the questions surrounding which timeline to use and whether the likes of Chris Pine, Zoe Saldana, and Karl Urban will be jetting off into deep space on board Tarantino’s sci-fi project. After all, Star Trek 4 may be no more, but there are still new adventures ahead, and if Godfrey is to believed, they’ll breath new life into this iconic franchise.
