Every Tarantino movie is cherished, revered and deeply analuzed. That’s partly because of his craftsmanship but also because of his self imposed limit - he will only make 10 films. Without question Tarantino is a legendary director but he is a cinephile first and foremost. His indiscriminate and eclectic love for all kinds of films from every genre is exactly what got him into filmmaking. That is probably why his discogrpahy touches almost every genre to varying degree. However despite being a huge sci-fi nerd, the Dark Star fan has yet to make a project in this genre. However, there were a few times when he came close to making one.
Everytime Tarantino came close to making a sci-fi movie
1. 2007 - Westworld
Despite the failure of Death Proof, Warner Bros brought Tarantino onboard to remake Westworld starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the lone gun slinger. However the movie was never made. Usually sci-fi projects get cancelled because lack of budget or lack or good screenplay. However with Warner Bros backing the project budget was not going to be a problem and Tarantino would have ensured well written screenplay. However the project still got scrapped. Why? Well every coin has two sides. So while big studio do offer good budget they also can be overbearing/foreceful with their unsolicited creative opinions. And if you are a Tarantino fan you know he is somewhat allergic to other people forcing their creative choices on his visio. And that’s exactly what went wrong with this project. First Tarantino was not happy with casting Arnold Schwarzenegger and wanted to replace him and second he wanted to make his movie a bit darker and not exactly kid friendly. But Warner Bros were opposed to both these ideas and so (much to the dismay of his fans) Tarantino had to walk away from the project.
2. 2014 - Sci Fi Horror
In 2014 San Diego Comic Con Tarantino revealed that he is planning on making a sci-fi film that wouldn’t be your typical lets go to space film. He said that he wants to stay away from the popular tropes and instead make a slasher sci-fi horror movie citing the movie “It Follows” as his main inspiration for this film. Fans were excited to see a sci-fi movie by Tarantino along the lines of movies like The thing, THe Halloween, Stalker and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. However, after that announcement it seemed like the project was stuck in develoment hell because nothing else was announced and the media assumed that the project may have been dropped. But in 2019, Tarantino once again talked about it saying he might start working on the project once again. However he cancelled the movie yet again because he felt that his typical wordy writing style wouldn’t fit (do justice to) the horror aspect of the film.
3. 2017 - Star Trek
As sci-fi fans one can only dream of a Star Trek film directed by Quentin Tarantino. Well in 2017 the dream was about to come true. In 2017, Tarantino was in talks with Paramount pictures about making a a Rated R standalone Star Trek film similar along the lines of an episode from Star Trek : THe Original Series. Mark L Smith even began working on a screenplay where the story was supposed to revolve around Captian Kirk with inspiration from gangster films and the plot revolving around time travel. Tarantino was supposed to co direct the movie along with J.J. Abrams who in the past has directed and produced Star Trek reboot project. But then Tarantino got busy with his 9th film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and never got around to reviewing Smith’s script. By the end of 2019 he walked away from the project saying he didn’t want his last film to be a franchise films and instead wanted to work on a small budget project. He confirmed that the movie might still be made he just won’t be the one directing it.
Why it’s unlikely Tarantino will make a sci-fi movie ?
So is it time to shoot and bury the dream of Tarantino ever directing a Sci-fi Film? Probably yes. Tarantino’s tenth and final movie “The Movie Critic” has supposedly already entered early stages of production. So its certain as of now that he won’t be making a sci-fi film as his final projet. That is, unless “The Movie Critic” project gets scrapped and Tarantino starts looking at other projects for his 10th film which is quite possible knowing his history of numerous unrealized projects. Or maybe Tarantino ditches his plans of only making 10 movies but since he has been talking about this stipulation throughout his career that is less than likely.
However even though a sci-fil by Tarantino seems like a distant dream now, if he does ever decide to make one, the fans would love to see his take on a sci-fi project especially since he has always had a unique(one of the most unique) perspective in filmmaking.