Star Trek 4 star Chris Pine debunked rumors that the upcoming sequel will use the script originally written for another, unrealized entry in the sci-fi franchise.
Pine, who plays Captain James T. Kirk, discussed the film’s screenplay in a recent interview with Yahoo! Entertainment. While Pine admitted Star Trek 4‘s creative direction was “hard to say [anything about] without a script or a story,” he also laid to rest speculation the project shares any connection to Quentin Tarantino’s as-yet-unmade Star Trek film. The actor further revealed that although he was interested in Tarantino’s vision for the series — which reportedly targeted an R-rating — he hadn’t read the script itself, which was penned by The Revenant‘s Mark L. Smith.
Paramount confirmed it was moving forward with Tarantino’s Star Trek pitch in December 2017, a few months after the acclaimed auteur publicly expressed interest in helming a film set in the franchise’s universe. Despite a flurry of headlines in the wake of this news, by January 2020 Tarantino stepped down as director, and the project stalled. While little is known about Tarantino’s plans for the movie, Smith said in August 2021 that his Star Trek script included “an awesome cool gangster scene” and “time travel stuff.”
Meanwhile, Paramount was also trying to get Star Trek 4 off the ground alongside Tarantino’s film. These efforts ultimately fell apart in 2019 when the studio couldn’t reach an agreement over salaries with Pine and co-star Chris Hemsworth. Paramount’s reluctance to honor Pine and Hemsworth’s existing deals apparently stemmed from concerns over the production’s overall price tag, especially after Star Trek Beyond underperformed at the box office.
This wasn’t the end for Star Trek 4, though. At the February 2022 Viacom Investor Event, Paramount executive Brian Robbins and Star Trek producer J.J. Abrams announced the Star Trek sequel was back on. Robbins and Abrams further stated that principal photography was slated for late 2022, with the cast of the previous three Star Trek movies expected to return.
The Star Trek 4 announcement allegedly came as a surprise to Pine and his co-stars Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, John Cho and Simon Pegg. According to the actors’ respective representatives, they weren’t briefed ahead of time that Paramount intended to announce Star Trek 4, nor had they entered talks yet to reprise their roles. Some of the cast have nevertheless confirmed they’d consider boarding the USS Enterprise a fourth time. This includes Urban, who said in a recent interview, “I would love to work with those guys again, so much fun, the best hang. We’ll see.”
Star Trek 4 is set to premiere on Dec. 22, 2023.
Source: Yahoo! Entertainment
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