CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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Is it time for another Godwinning?
Leni Riefenstahl would direct the hell out of that script.
Other than JJ Abrams, who was already dreading $100 million movies, I don't think any of them have.
And even if they have, I can almost guarantee you no one who has directed an unlicensed fan film has, especially one that's been sued. Even if Axanar hadn't been sued, I still doubt that it would have done anything for RMB's career.
"So that is my offer. Take it or leave it. And while you think you are a big man by posting on the RPF and your blog, my blog has 8,000 unique visitors a month, and Propworx has a 7,000 person mailing list, and my forum has over 1,300 members. You want to amp this up, that is my ammo. And I haven't even started. The thread on the RPF here is the first shot. I would rather not waste my time on you.
...
Alec"
In the posts where they say Don exaggerates or it is "personal", Don is telling the truth.
As you can see in the quote above, Alec considers the people on his sites as his personal army. He has an ugly soul.
I didn't even realize I was probably bid up by the house on the one thing I bought from a Propworx auction. Other people have told me they were shill bid, and I didn't know about that at the time. Alec openly admitted on the Star Trek Props, Costumes forum he bid in his own auctions for himself, but said no shilling. Like a dummy, I believed that. (Can someone go in and find that--whole thread re Alec bidding. And the theme is a little back and forth about it but the gist is "well, we know our Alec would never shill bid, but it looks bad. People might get the wrong idea." ) Recently I was on a prop forum and someone told the story of how they bid on an item with no bids towards the end of the time allowed, and suddenly the item was bid up $200. Same thing happened with me. An Enterprise item with no bids, 250 start, I bid 450, boom there are counter bids and I get it for 450. It was an OK price. Add to that their buyer fee of 18% and high shipping, some kind of "document fee" for the COA. It was goofy. But just in the past few weeks I figured out the shill bidding probably DID happen.
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If you are bannable from the project you donated to if you raise the slightest question, your silence doesn't make you a part of a legion of silent supporters in waiting. It makes you an intelligent person who knows your thoughts are suppressed by those you supported. It makes you one who is keeping silent until the slightest truth to your suspicions is proved. Then it makes you willing to support whoever has a solution which undoes the problem. Banning Bursts Bubbles.
Leni Riefenstahl would direct "Petersjugen: Axanar über alles."
I'm going to defend Burnett somewhat here. Burnett is essentially taking the same tack that a writer in Hollywood does with a spec script.
Let's say I wanted to get a writing job with, say, Supergirl. The Supergirl producers won't look at an unsolicited Supergirl script, so instead I write a script for an entirely different series -- like Grey's Anatomy -- and have an agent send that script to the Supergirl producers. (The Star Trek series in the 80s and 90s were extaordinarily rare in that they took spec scripts for the shows.) The point of the unrelated spec script is to show the producers that I could write a script in the proper format, that I can tell a story, and that I can effectively evoke the characters. In short, it's to show that I have the basic skills.
Burnett is doing the same thing, but as a director. He wants something he can show a producer that says he has the skills a director needs -- to effectively stage scenes, to evoke performances, to stay within budget, etc., etc. A fan film does that for him, and had Axanar stayed under the radar like any other fan film, he could have proved his bona fides with Axanar. He would have shown he could take a known property (like my hypothetical Grey's spec script) and film it. On that level, Burnett's involvement makes some sense.
The problem for Burnett now is that Axanar has become toxic in Hollywood. It's likely that Axanar will never be made, which means he'll never have his "calling card." In defending the project, he's chained himself to a public lawsuit, and he could easily be one of the 20 John Does. Burnett, imho, should have walked away when the lawsuit was served; instead, by staying with it he's almost certainly giving the studios many reasons to close their doors to him; you don't screw with the studios and their properties.
Who would the other Does be? Can we speculate?
Speculation is hardly necessary.
Axanar provided CBS with a handy list. (See page 11) It's so sleek and shiny.Speculation is hardly necessary.
Story Editors Dave Galanter Christian Gossett Creative Consultant David Gerrold
But Gossett left and Galanter said here he just gave some advice and was never paid and didn't do much and Gerrold may be defending it but is he there other than in name?
From the press release linked above:
What does that even mean?
It is an empty sentence. I am a toilet user by training. Good for me.
What does that even mean?
It is an empty sentence. I am a toilet user by training. Good for me.
That's what I'm saying. He mentioned once he was writing it with someone who was Dr. McCoy on New Voyages, but now he is not on it, then with Dave Galanter but his name isn't mentioned, and Christian Gossett but his name isn't mentioned... it feels like people give him advice, so he says he's writing it with them.
"Trust me. I know what I'm doing."
Hahaha. He's bragging about 8,000 uniques a month. That's nothing. The really popular company blogs average that a day, or more.
I don't have a problem that Burnett, and to an extent Peters, wanted to use AXANAR as a calling card — a spec. However, when a writer works on a spec script he/she does so for no pay. Nor does he/she go out their way to use their script or someone else's IP to raise funds to build a for profit business.
I have an issue with how the funds ended up being used — building a studio to make more money off an IP they don't own.
Had they done this without trying to build an empire, or pocketing money, and actually making the movie, then maybe I'd have a different opinion. Maybe I'd see it as something akin to a spec script. As it stands, this production seems like a shell game.
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Exactly.
What started out as a $100,000 fan film has turned into a $2 million dollar capital investment by donors. Only the donors didn't know it until later.
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