Chris Pine Hopes To Play Kirk In Tarantino’s Star Trek

Actor Chris Pine might return in Quentin Tarantino’s Star Trek as Captain Kirk. William Shatner originally played the character in the 1960’s series of the franchise.

Pine played the character of Captain James T. Kirk in 2009 Star Trek Beyond, directed by J.J. Abrams, written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. The movie is based on Gene Roddenberry’s TV series Star Trek. It was the eleventh film in the Star Trek film franchise and the first movie of the reboot series. Alongside Pine, Zachary Quinto as Spock, Eric Bana as Nero, John Cho, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, and Simon Pegg appeared in the supporting role. The first installment received four Academy Award nominations and won one for Best Makeup.

During the casting of the first film, actors were signed for two sequels of the movie. The first sequel and the second installment of the franchise released in 2013. The film also got nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. The second sequel, Star Trek Beyond, is directed by Justin Lin, released on 22 July 2016. In the film, Chris Hemsworth played the character of Kirk’s father. All the three films of the reboot series received an amazing response from critics and got an average approval rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.

However, the third installment did not perform well at the box office than the previous two projects. The poor performance put a question mark on the future of the franchise. The fans got relief when Quentin Tarantino joined the franchise in December 2017. Tarantino assured that he might also direct the film if his schedule allowed. Later that month, the writer of the Oscar-nominated movie The Revenant, Mark L. Smith, was hired by Paramount. The studio announced that the team is planning to make two new sequels of the franchise. The studio announced the involvement of S.J. Clarkson as the director for the fourth installment, Star Trek 4. Clarkson will be the first female filmmaker to join the franchise. She is known for her projects, including EastEnders, Doctors, Life on Mars, and Footballers’ Wives. The British TV director has also signed for the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel for HBO.

The future of the project seems a little uncertain after many ups and downs. Tarantino reportedly left the project for making a smaller budget movie. However, he said he might be involved in the project but won’t direct it. While talking to ComicBook.com, Pine shared that he would love to return as Kirk, particularly if filmmaker Tarantino is involved. The actor spoke about the possibility of going to space with the director of Pulp Fiction, although he did not know the status of the film right now.

Pine said he hasn’t read the script. And he wishes I knew everything. He is one of the last people to find out. So he has not read the script, has no idea where the film is in development. The actor added, he loves the character, loves his friends in the cast, and loves the Star Trek universe. Whatever happens, whether he comes back or not, the universe is great, and it deserves a future.

Pine’s enthusiasm for playing Kirk’s character is reciprocated by Tarantino and Smith’s script, which is more Kirk-centric. In a recent interview, Smith said he and Tarantino had fun creating Kirk. Tarantino also praised Pine for his performance in the film. While talking about the franchise, he shared he has no interest in continuing the universe with Abrams’ Kelvin timeline.

However, fans of the franchise think Tarantino’s R-rated approach might do bad to the film series. It also doesn’t seem Pine would get any chance in Star Trek with or without Tarantino.

Source: Chris Pine Hopes To Play Kirk In Tarantino’s Star Trek