Future of Star Trek to Paramount

[Captain_Rogers]

Found this little tidbit this morning, which means Star Trek and Transformers franchises are going to be extremely important to Paramount in light of recent happenings in the industry.

Certainly the need to produce real blockbusters is going to have people very focused on their work:


*Disney/Marvel Fallout: Star Trek & Transformers New Focus For Paramount*

(online.wsj.com)
Walt Disney Co.'s plan to buy Marvel Entertainment Inc. May deliver a setback to Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures.

Paramount less than a year ago signed an agreement with Marvel Studios to distribute the company's five next films, including "Iron Man 2," "The First Avenger: Captain America," and Marvel's most-anticipated property, "Thor."

That deal will remain in place, but a Disney takeover means it won't get extended. That could pose a problem for Paramount, which leans on revenue garnered by distributing films produced by others.

Paramount has released a string of home-grown franchises, including "Star Trek," which has grossed more than $250 millon and the domestic box office, and "Transformers." The sequel to that franchise grossed more than $400 million this summer.

The studio will likely focus on those franchises in the coming years, especially after the Marvel films are released and that deal ends.

 

[Sector 7]

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. So far, this bodes well for the Star Trek franchise as they will need to invest in the property to insure good returns.

 

[MvRojo]

Yeah, let's see how Paramount does. They've generally been really, really crappy in development. If you've looked at the movies they've released in the last decade, nothing has really been a huge successful that wasn't a Dreamworks production released by Paramount (other than Trek, the Mission Impossible films).

And the same is going forward for the next 5 years (Dreamworks and Marvel productions that Paramount gets to distribute for a fee).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Paramount_Pictures_films#2000s

 

[Ward Fowler]

I really don't see how one thing relates to the other. Star Trek made so much money that Paramount was going to focus on it anyhow. How does focusing on it even more fill the holes left behind by Marvel? Unless they decide to put out a Trek movie every year, they are still going to have a problem. They need to develop new projects not focus even more on existing ones.

 

[Captain_Rogers]

I really don't see how one thing relates to the other. Star Trek made so much money that Paramount was going to focus on it anyhow. How does focusing on it even more fill the holes left behind by Marvel?

How do you NOT see it? seriously?

 

[T'Cal]

Yep. They're going to really, REALLY focus on Trek. I feel better already.

 

[Aragorn]

I really don't see how one thing relates to the other. Star Trek made so much money that Paramount was going to focus on it anyhow. How does focusing on it even more fill the holes left behind by Marvel?

How do you NOT see it? seriously?

"Wow, Star Trek made a lot of money for us. Let's focus on it as a potential long-term franchise!"

"Oh no! We're losing all our Marvel superhero franchises! What are we going to do?"
"How about look at Star Trek?"
"Like we're already doing anyway?"

 

[Ward Fowler]

^Exactly.

 

[MvRojo]

^Exactly.

I think the argument is that since they are going to lose their Marvel revenue stream, albeit in 2012, they will have to focus even more attention on Trek in order to make up for the lost income.

This might be true, but it's also just as likely they'll get off their asses and actually try to develop new concepts or sign more talent like what they did with J.J. Abrams.

 

[Ward Fowler]

My point is the argument makes no sense. The problem they're facing right now is quantity not (arguably) quality. They're already focusing on the Star Trek franchise. How is focusing on it any more than they already are going to bring them the additional revenue being lost by their other tent poles moving to Disney? One movie every two years is still just one movie every two years, no matter what its quality. It makes far more sense to develop other big projects in addition to Star Trek.

 

[ALF]

They should focus on it a bit faster.

 

[MvRojo]

My point is the argument makes no sense. The problem they're facing right now is quantity not (arguably) quality. They're already focusing on the Star Trek franchise. How is focusing on it any more than they already are going to bring them the additional revenue being lost by their other tent poles moving to Disney? One movie every two years is still just one movie every two years, no matter what its quality. It makes far more sense to develop other big projects in addition to Star Trek.

And that's what I'm saying as well.

In any case, they aren't getting all that much from Marvel films. They got $60 for Iron Man, and for all the future movies, they get 8% + international distribution rights.

 

[Captain_Rogers]

"Wow, Star Trek made a lot of money for us. Let's focus on it as a potential long-term franchise!"

"Oh no! We're losing all our Marvel superhero franchises! What are we going to do?"
"How about look at Star Trek?"
"Like we're already doing anyway?"

It's a pity some people tend to lose sight of things, like the fact Paramount has historically had a pretty bad track record, and tend to ignore that which should have been given attention.

Because we all know Paramount has ALWAYS done an exemplary job where Trek is concerned right?

 

[Nick Ryder]

Well it wasn't really Paramount's fault it was Rick "I'm Roddenberry's soul brother" Berman and Brannon Braga who just kept rehashing TNG over and over and over again. I look at DS9 as what COULD have been done for keeping the franchise fresh. But we got DS9 lite in Enterprise and Voyager...

Now we got JJ Abrams who's a great showrunner... buuuuut his mojo kinda loses it around the end of Season 2 for any show he's on. BUT if you bring in some of the "young guns" in television and movie production you could have something special. Give those up and comers a shot. Give the guys who sort of do their own thing. Like Robert Roderiguez, his gory/violent movie one year and then the kid friendly movie the next. I'd love to see what he'd do given the chance to put his talent in on Trek.

Course then we'd have spaghetti westerns meet hard rockers in starfleet uniforms... but it'd still be kinda cool.

 

[Captain_Rogers]

Well it wasn't really Paramount's fault it was Rick "I'm Roddenberry's soul brother" Berman and Brannon Braga who just kept rehashing TNG over and over and over again.

That's not a very good excuse.

Paramount dropped the ball and let the stooges just keep spewing garbage. At any time, someone could have said enough was enough and look for options. Simple fact is, they let it happen, and the blame is ultimately the studio's.

For Christ's sake Berman still thinks Nemesis was a good film!!!! I'm pretty sure even the average teenager could have read the script and provided the proper response, "this is crap".

 

[Tyralak]

I'm cautiously hoping for a new TV series.

 

[Borgminister]

I'm cautiously hoping for a new TV series.

Wouldn't that be nice? But likely not going to happen until after the second movie, if then.

 

[Captain_Rogers]

I'm cautiously hoping for a new TV series.

It's likely that a number of things would have to occur for that to happen.

The film franchise would definitely have to kick ass through the next two features. As I recall, didn't they say the actors were optioned for 3 films?

I wouldn't expect to see a series until after the third film, so we'd be looking at 2015 at the earliest, possibly even later. 2015 would put Star Trek at 10 years since it was last on TV (new).

I'd sure like to see it happen, but realistically it's extremely unlikely to happen any sooner than I've hypothesized.

 

[Flake]

The inevitable question is....

Will the new TV series be the TNG remake or will the next series of movies be the TNG remake? Cos its gonna happen..

 

[number6]

The inevitable question is....

Will the new TV series be the TNG remake or will the next series of movies be the TNG remake? Cos its gonna happen..

Doubtful. They will likely go with what works. Right now what is working is the TOS reboot.

The next series will likely involve TOS era settings, or something completely fresh.

As fans we had three series and four movies set in TNGs era.

Outside of a few TNG fans , there is no one really hungry for more of that. When one says "Star Trek" to the general public, they nearly always associate that with Kirk and Spock. That's why this film was successful and that's what will likely dictate the direction of anything new coming to television.

For Star Trek to do well on television, it will have to be geared toward the general public and will likely need to take a similar direction that the film took in catering to fans and the general public alike.