9 Other Major Franchises Quentin Tarantino Was Linked To Before Star Trek

Online chatter among film fans just hit warp speed, with reports that Quentin Tarantino has approached JJ Abrams with an idea for a new Star Trek movie, which maybe - just maybe - Tarantino himself may wind up directing.

Just how likely this is to happen is, of course, anybody's guess right now. For one thing, Tarantino is poised to get behind the camera on his as-yet untitled 1969-set drama which may in some way be about the Manson Family murders; for another, the 54 year old filmmaker has long since declared that he intends to retire from film directing once he reaches his tenth feature.

As this new, possibly-Manson based movie will be Tarantino's ninth directorial credit (the two-volume Kill Bill just counts as one, by the way), this may mean that, assuming he sticks to his guns, the new Star Trek could wind up Tarantino's swan song.

Considering that he's never made a film that wasn't R-rated, and that aside from Jackie Brown (an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's novel Rum Punch) and Django Unchained (very loosely based on the Spaghetti Western series) he's never directed something that wasn't of his own creation, Star Trek would seem an uncharacteristic note for Tarantino to go out on.

Still, it's by no means out of the question. This is not the first time Quentin Tarantino's name has been linked to a major Hollywood franchise, though some came closer to becoming reality than others.

The sixth instalment in the long-running slasher series was a notoriously troubled production. However, if rumours are to be believed, things might have been very different: the sequel was briefly poised to get a script from Quentin Tarantino.

While still piping hot from his Best Screenplay Oscar for Pulp Fiction, Tarantino is said to have been involved in a potential script rewrite on the struggling horror sequel. However, he was not in line to direct: those duties were at the time earmarked for Scott Spiegel.

While it doesn't seem that Tarantino was ever officially on board the project, it is believed that he and Spiegel collaborated on ideas for the film, but their vision - something simpler, which went back to John Carpenter's original (sort of like David Gordon Green's upcoming reboot is expected to do) - did not line up with what producer Moustapha Akkad had in mind.

Still, Spiegel went on to co-write and direct direct-to-video sequel From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money, on which Tarantino was an executive producer.