The Revenant Screenwriter Mark L. Smith To Pen Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Star Trek’ Project
After much speculation over the scribe for Quentin Tarantino's upcoming Star Trek movie, The Revenant screenwriter Mark L. Smith has been confirmed as the film's writer.
Tarantino's R-rated Star Trek film is a step closer to reality as Paramount Pictures has found its writer for the upcoming project. Needless to say, the studio was impressed with Smith's work on last year's Oscar-winning film, The Revenant, and decided to rope him in for the project.
Smith emerged as the frontrunner for Star Trek after Tarantino assembled a writer's room last month with Smith, Lindsey Beer, Drew Pearce, and Megan Amram.
Who Is Mark L. Smith?
After working on some low-budget horror flicks, Smith earned a big break when he worked as a co-writer on Alejandro González Iñárritu's film, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, and won three Oscars at the 88th Academy Awards.
Smith was the top choice of Paramount and Abrams after he penned the script for the World War II thriller, Overlord, with Billy Ray. The film is currently in post-production at Paramount and Abrams served as a producer on the project.
Next 'Star Trek' Movie
Earlier this month, reports surfaced that Tarantino, whose credits include Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, and The Hateful Eight, had pitched an idea for an R-rated Star Trek movie to Paramount with J.J. Abrams on board as producer. Notably, this will be the first time Tarantino takes on a movie franchise.
Paramount has released a total of 13 Star Trek films since 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture." The studio rebooted the franchise in 2009 with Star Trek, which Abrams directed. The film grossed more than $380 million at the worldwide box office.
Abrams also directed the 2013 sequel Star Trek: Into Darkness, which grossed $460 million before he moved to 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Star Trek Beyond opened in theaters in 2016 and hauled in more than $343 million at the worldwide box office.
Quentin Tarantino's 2019 Project
The filmmaker is currently working on an untitled film for Sony Pictures. The film will be a drama set in Los Angeles in 1969. It will revolve around the Charles Manson murders.
The studio has set the film's release for Aug. 9, 2019, which marks the 50th anniversary of Manson's murder of Sharon Tate and four other victims. Margot Robbie has been reported to play the role of Sharon Tate while Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Leonardo DiCaprio are among the contenders for the two lead male roles.
