The studios may have done this event to get the press and casual followers believing that Axanar 'has been shown mercy, story over'. But the studios can't afford to just let him walk, unless they want a hundred clones of him going after all their properties next year expecting to get studios of their own out of it. So I think they will do something with him in the 99% of possibilities between 'show mercy' and 'ruin him'... which in fact where I suspect 99% of the people having any opinion about Alec's behavior would also look for a solution.
CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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The studios may have done this event to get the press and casual followers believing that Axanar 'has been shown mercy, story over'. But the studios can't afford to just let him walk, unless they want a hundred clones of him going after all their properties next year expecting to get studios of their own out of it. So I think they will do something with him in the 99% of possibilities between 'show mercy' and 'ruin him'... which in fact where I suspect 99% of the people having any opinion about Alec's behavior would also look for a solution.
Then there's the lies Alec Peters personally spread about why Tony Todd bailed. I wouldn't believe ANYTHING coming out of either Alec Peters or Robert Myer Burnett's mouths re Axanar. As for it being 'confirmed' the Lawsuit is being dropped - we'll know Monday as it takes a FEW MINUTES to file a joint petition agreeing to the dropping of the suit. (I guess RMB must be taking legal advice from 'lawyer by training Alec Peters.)
If the suit ISN'T dropped on Monday, then we'll know it wasn't dropped/abandoned - but rather C/P and Axanar's lawyers are in settlement discussions. Such talks could indeed lead to a settlement, but as I've said before BOTH sides have to agree; and I do believe if Mr. Peters ego gets in the way or he just tells his lawyers to say "Hey JJ Abrams said you're dropping the case so you have to just agree to what Mr. peters demands..." - he'll get another legal lesion is how settlement talks can go,
Again, I've been a Star Trek fan watching first run since 1969 (the third season of TOS); and who's seen every Star Trek feature film first run in the theatre; and who has really enjoyed the previous two JJ films quite a bit; IF there's a settlement that essentially gives Mr. Peters and Axanar a free pass on their lies and civilly criminal actions - I myself will be boycotting Star Trek: Beyond and won't give Paramount/CBS/Bad Robot my money to see the thing. I really hate the message Mr. JJ Abrams is sending which to me seems to be:
"Hey, the law really doesn't matter if you have influential people willing to allow you to circumvent it"
I don't care to support artists like JJ Abrams or Justin Lin when they send messages like that to the world. Will my action do anything to C/P/BR's bottom line - nope. But I hope other people who feel the same will take a similar action. You gotta love how some 'fans' expouse how 'Star Trek' Axanar is - and wholly support someone who has stolen and lied to bring such "True Star Trek" to fandom.
And like I said many times here and elsewhere - I myself helped enable this with my $75 pledge to Axanar because I didn't bother to research and find out what a scumbag was behind/in charge of the project. So if such a person has the support of JJ Abrams and Justin Lin; and further, CBS/Paramount give Alec Peters a pass because these two influential Hollywood artists - that's a message I don't want to support or reward by paying to see their work. But, that's me.
I have to wonder... did JJ and Justin say what they said because CBS wanted them to?
Does Axanar own the studio any more? The entire asset has been handed over to the super double-secret "private investor group" and rebranded as Valkarie Studios.
However, if Axanar received any financial renumeration for the studio sale/transfer, I would expect they would have to forfeit that, since it was raised directly off Star Trek IP
CBS could give Alec full permission to do anything he wants, he won't be able to fund raise or attract talent like he did. He won't be able to complete Axanar or fullfill the perks.
CBS wins, Axanar doesn't get made, and people will still think CBS is being generous.
CBS won't care about as small studio in the area. How many people think they can break into Hollywood every year? They don't have to take away the studio all odds are that it like most business will fail in the first two years
CBS wins, Axanar doesn't get made, and people will still think CBS is being generous.
CBS won't care about as small studio in the area. How many people think they can break into Hollywood every year? They don't have to take away the studio all odds are that it like most business will fail in the first two years
I just saw the JJ Abrams quote on Io9, and that is a little frustrating if that is how it actually happened. I have to wonder if Lin did any research or if he just got pissed that CBS/P were suing a fan film. I can understand being upset if you heard they were suing a fan film, but I would like to think that someone who had researched Axanar and Peters would see everything they did wrong, and understand why they were being sued.
Conversation early on Monday morning at Paramount:
Exec: You are the alternate aide to the assistant to the deputy public relations officer. Did you run your statement confirming the status of our lawsuit by me, my lawyers, or your supervisor before spouting off?
"Spokesperson": Well, no.
Exec: You're fired.
Ex-spokesperson: But I didn't put my name on it. You can still spin it, can't you?
Exec: I just did.
I don't know how other people in fan films feel about this weekends events, The pass on ranaxA and possible new restrictions on all other fan production studios but I felt a gut punch being thrown by JJ to all my friend's past efforts like they meant nothing to him.
Maybe nobody has though for a minute, that in the scheme of things ranaxA is a drop in the bucket of fan films with an ultra high budget.
I thought I was watching the Oprah show for a second
Apologies in advance if someone has already addressed this.
Okay, I just checked out the video as suggested. And Mr. Abrams Did Not Say point blank the studio would be dropping the suit. He does say "And now, within the next few weeks it will be announced this is going away and fans will be able to work on...", then the clapping made it unclear if he said 'the production' specifically or 'their productions' in general.
Which is perfectly inline ambiguity if the Plaintiffs are indeed anticipating a Settlement within the next few weeks. Dropping a lawsuit though takes, what, a few hours so that isn't even being implied by Mr. Abrams.
Even the quote at Trekmovie is not faithful quoting of the video.
And Franklin has already addressed the completely inaccuracy of their Update saying 'CBS & Paramount have made a statement confirming that they are abandoning the suit'.
wth? Are these kinds of inaccuracies confined to that particular writer at Trekmovie, or are these kinds of easy-to-see inaccuracies regularly found in more writings there?
Or maybe it's just me who has Trekmovie wrong. For some reason I've thought it was a sort of news outlet. Maybe instead it's a fan site that has morphed into looking like a news outlet??
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It used to be........not so much anymore.
I don't think he was invited by CBS, Paramount, or even Abrams. :-)
Every bit of behind-the-scenes information says Abrams spoke out of turn / prematurely / or to screw with CBS, depending on the source.
There will be more clarification in the weeks ahead. But I'm pretty sure many angry and pointed emails were exchanged at all levels and between multiple parties, including Abrams reps.
Sad too----at one point when Anthony was running it, it was pretty good.
After his prolonged silence, I was ready to give this schmuck the benefit of the doubt......more and more though, I think he and Terry (whose veiled condescension hasn't really abated) deserve to share in the ignominy that C/P heap on LFIM.
This late in the game, it doesn't matter which side you've been on - you should be able to see the forest for the trees.
There comes a point when you have to stop giving people the benefit of the doubt and see them for what they really are. I don't give people nearly as much leeway as The Internet has given The Princes of Axanar.
I subscribe to Scotty's Rule: "Fool me once, shame on you ... "
I've not seen these. What was the deal? I thought I'd seen most stuff.
Okay, well knowing how litigation actually works, it's perfectly possible that there has been an initial agreement over the telephone or in simple correspondence, so I wouldn't just assume it's all just dictated by whether or not something is filed on Monday/tomorrow.
It's entirely possible that the parties have a preliminary agreement that has yet to be formalised.
I think it's very important to realise that these are specific issue proceedings that aren't specifically about fraud. It's a civil action brought by two private entities regarding abuse of IP. That's all the court has ever been asked to consider. Not criminal actions (and, "civilly criminal actions" is a contradiction in terms so I'm not sure what that was referring to).
The reality of this kind of litigation like is that, being a civil dispute, it is always at the discretion of the party bring the claim to terminate it. We do not yet know the full reasons behind the studio wimping out (and I'm not entirely convinced it was just a case of Lin being upset), but litigation is always as much a commercial endeavour as it is a legal one.
I dare say that one of the issues here is that they simply don't know the extent of Peters' activities. That it has been portrayed to them as big bad corporation against the little man. That's not entirely surprising considering the amount of sheep Peters still has following him.
I think the reality is that some fans just saw Prelude to Axanar and thought "I want more of that" and think nothing more of it beyond that.
Have you made a refund request? Irrespective of the situation with Abrams and Lin, if you feel that the project isn't going to happen then at the very least you are well with your rights to lodge a grievance, even if it doesn't necessarily come to fruition.
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