CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar

Having worked on this kind of thing I don't doubt for a moment that Burnett and others are working continually and hard on it, nor do I have any difficulty understanding that it all takes much longer than they expect.

 

I understand that making a movie is hard work.

But they've had a warehouse for more than a year and still haven't finished their bridge set. I can understand it taking longer than envisioned, but this is bordering on laughable.

 

It's really not.

If you follow all the work they're doing - and exclude the carpet, - it's quite a lot for half a dozen people to handle. Most of them are not being paid 38,000 dollars a year.

 

Well, you have a point there.

 

If you root around over there a bit you see that in addition to the bridge they have a fairly elaborate set of quarters, some pretty complex Klingon set pieces (to be augmented with green screen; those meshes take time as well) and a huge green screen cyclorama - and stationary lighting grid. All of this is being constructed to hold up to at least 1080p photography.

 

Nobody is claiming that they're not working at all, but working HARD? Debatable. They've been at this for literally years and have no footage other than a fully green screened scene to show for it (that required none of what you cited).

If they were really working hard, the movie would have been done a year ago or more.

 

Let me also point out that the Axanar KS page listed delivery of the downloadable film as coming in July of 2015. A year after the campaign.

Now I know most Kickstarters miss their delivery dates, but we're 8 months later now and the film doesn't have a cast even, and they're spending more time fixing the offices up than working on the movie. Even before the lawsuit was filed they weren't scheduled to begin filming until February.

Meaning even if the lawsuit had never happened, it would be AT LEAST 2017 before they delivered a finished product, THREE YEARS after the Kickstarter campaign. More realistically, based on past behavior, they'd have probably hit more delays and not delivered until close to 2018.

But now we have a lawsuit, and they'll likely NEVER deliver (and they've now lost their director and star, and will likely lose more even if by some miracle they could proceed), but the point here is that if they'd really been working hard as they say, they could have delivered the finished film to backers by mid 2015 like they originally planned.

 

They lost their director?

 

I presume. A number of pages ago someone posted the director's tweets calling them out for their crazyness, so I can't imagine he's still going to do it.

 

As I understand it Christian Gossett (who directed Prelude) was supposed to direct Axanar as well but left the project in May 2015.
Here's the post in the production blog: http://www.axanarproductions.com/captains-log-may-12-2015/
There's some chat about it in August on this TrekBBS thread: Star Trek: Axanar

 

So, Alec Peters posted a video detailing how they are violating the agreement to cease production of Axanar (storyboarding, etc. IS production activity) that they stipulated to in order to get the filing extension. I'm sure Mr. Peters lawyers and the court will be happy about that.

(I have to wonder what law school grades Mr. Peters received because for a 'lawyer by training' he sure doesn't seem to know what a stipulation agreement implies once you agree to be bound by it. It's serious in that if the Judge wants he could impose financial sanctions against Axanar's lawyers for the failure to effectively control their client - IE stick to their part of the stipulation agreement.)

 

At what point will the "true believers" become infuriated?
IKEA furniture: "because we're cost-conscious!"

 

If you're going to present yourself as a professional production, I think it's fair to judge it as a professional production.

As a professional production, they have failed massively.

 

I think the following sums up Mr. Peters mindset through all of this (and why he doesn't appear more concerned about the lawsuit or to keep to agreements his lawyers stipulated to):

 

I've tried talking to a few of the true believers, they're denser than a neutron star.

 

Make sure to ask Alec if they've fixed the electrical problem \o/.
It didn't appear anyone was working in the studio proper, and the set was covered. As I've said before, if it were me, I wouldn't spend another dime on building Axanar stuff, just studio build out stuff. And selling the crap out of all the merch laying around before the injunction hits.

 

Ares Studios should be turned into a museum. A tribute to Alec Peters incompetence. They can make him the curator and give him a little hut to live in.