news Simon Pegg Says ‘Star Trek’ Tension with Tarantino Is Over: ‘We Had a Laugh About It’

Quentin Tarantino and Simon Pegg appeared to have some beef last year when the director was quoted in a Deadline interview dissing the “Shaun of the Dead” and “Mission: Impossible” actor. The apparent feud was over the future of the “Star Trek” franchise. Pegg has starred as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott since J.J. Abrams’ 2009 “Star Trek” reboot, reprising the character in two sequels and co-writing “Star Trek Beyond.” The next “Star Trek” film has been up in the air, but one option is an R-rated entry based on an idea by Tarantino.

“I get annoyed at Simon Pegg. He doesn’t know anything about what’s going on and he keeps making all these comments as if he knows about stuff,” Tarantino told Deadline in July 2019. “One of the comments he said, he’s like, ‘Well, look, it’s not going to be “Pulp Fiction” in space.’ Yes, it is! If I do it, that’s exactly what it’ll be. It’ll be ‘Pulp Fiction’ in space. That ‘Pulp Fiction’-y aspect, when I read the script, I felt, I have never read a science fiction movie that has this shit in it, ever. There’s no science fiction movie that has this in it. And they said, I know, that’s why we want to make it. It’s, at the very least, unique in that regard.”

Tarantino appeared irked that Pegg was doubting his “Star Trek” vision, but Pegg told Radio Times in a recent interview that was not his intention at all. The actor said, “I was just saying the opposite of what people were assuming it was going to be. Then I heard this story that Quentin was mad at me! I haven’t read his treatment [of ‘Star Trek]’, but I’ve heard it’s very ‘Quentin Tarantino does Star Trek,’ you know. And it’s everything you would hope from that.”

Whatever tension existed between the two men was squashed at an event for Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” sometime after July 2019. As Pegg recalled, “Actually, I saw [Tarantino] at a ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ thing. I was like ‘You’re not mad at me, are you?’ He was like, ‘No, man, no! The press are blowing it all out of proportion!’ We had a good laugh about it.”

Pegg also revealed his history with Tarantino predates their “Star Trek” tension, as Tarantino once cast Pegg in a movie. The actor added, “I had to drop out because I made a commitment to something else. It was a heart-breaking week because I had to make a choice between Tarantino and Steven Spielberg [for the film ‘The Adventures of Tintin.’]”

Head over to Radio Times’ website to read Pegg’s full interivew.
 
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