CBS/Paramount sues to stop Axanar
- Thread starter Richard Baker
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Actually, it's not on hiatus, the season just ended.
Discovery and the Kelvin movies had fans involved, for the Kelvin movies Damon Lideloff and at least half of the Kurtzman/Orci pair were huge hardcore Trekkies, and Simon Pegg is also a huge Trekkie. Discovery also has Kirsten Beyer (the New York Times Bestselling Writer of the current post-Endgame Voyager novel series), was co-created by Bryan Fuller, who worked on the Voyager TV series, and had several other writers and other BTS people who has experience with Trek before Disco.
The Kelvin movies managed to update Trek and turn it into relatively intelligent big budget blockbusters, and I will admit Disco got off the a rough start, but by the end was great Trek.
Back when it was first starting Axanar might, might, have stood a very slight chance against them thanks to the level of talent Alec managed to con into getting involved, but now that pretty all of the real talent is gone, if we ever do get an Axanar movie, they'll be lucky if it is at least competent.
Even if a prequel is made that "doesn't touch canon" people like you still aren't going to like it, because there is still no way it is going to be what you want. If we are talking about a prequel to TOS made today, there is no way it will not change things. Even setting aside the visual aspects, politics, society, and storytelling have changed so much in the past 50 years that there is absolutely no way it will be able to be 100% accurate to TOS.
Because his message was replying to mine (even though he seemed to be replying to an argument I hadn't made).
I agree. Either you embrace TOS as a sort of retro-futurism, or you break with canon and modernize the concept. I still like of the idea of retconning TOS and other shows as a holodeck programs that teach historical events through the lens of late twentieth century television. Then you completely modernize the show, but you can still have earlier actors come back as the "real" version of their original characters. For example, maybe the "real" Janeway lost an eye in the Delta Quadrant, and now has a Borg-inspired cybernetic eye.
The King is dead. Long live the King.
First we have to kill all the lawyers...wait...The King is dead. Long live the King.
One of the reasons that fan film makers, such as myself, create fan films is because we want to see the very kind of Star Trek we create. My own preference is that area (our playground, so to speak) between The Undiscovered County and the Enterprise-C. Others have chosen the TOS timeframe. Some, such as Alec Peters, have done the pre-TOS era. Each era has its own specific fans, and fans of fan films gravitate toward their own interests. Axanar gathered in a lot of fans, no doubt about it, and I had no problem with that. Hell, I admired that. (And in many ways, I find Prelude to Axanar superior to what I've seen of DISCOVERY.)
I was asked (by one of our producers no less!) if I were given $1.4M for Potemkin Pictures, what would I do with it? I'd build a studio. I'd redo our wardrobe. I'd install a huge green screen. I'd purchase some much needed lighting, cameras and sound gear. And then we'd sit here and make Star Trek fan films. With the exception of the last thing I listed (making the fan films) these are the things Peters did.
But Peters chose to take some of the funds available to him for non-Star Trek fan film things (sushi, tires, actor's dues, etc.), and that's what got him in trouble with the fans. I don't believe he started out to do this, but the end result is quite damning.
I was asked (by one of our producers no less!) if I were given $1.4M for Potemkin Pictures, what would I do with it? I'd build a studio. I'd redo our wardrobe. I'd install a huge green screen. I'd purchase some much needed lighting, cameras and sound gear. And then we'd sit here and make Star Trek fan films. With the exception of the last thing I listed (making the fan films) these are the things Peters did.
But Peters chose to take some of the funds available to him for non-Star Trek fan film things (sushi, tires, actor's dues, etc.), and that's what got him in trouble with the fans. I don't believe he started out to do this, but the end result is quite damning.
If I was filming a movie or series of significant length, and I thought it might be cheaper in the long run to own a studio instead of renting, I'd be hard pressed to say I wouldn't build or buy a studio. (Of course, AP tried to upgrade a space he was renting, which made no real sense. Why sink that much money into something you don't own?)
If you're concerned about the studio being seen as a commercial use of funds, you could always make the studio its own crowd-funded non-profit dedicated to fan films, and give the sets over to the studio nonprofit when you're done with them, similar to what STC did with their sets. You could even acquire some sets from other productions that can't keep them any more...
Of course, the real truth is that people rent for a reason, so unless you know what you're doing, it's probably a bad idea to try to build your own to begin with. But it's nice to dream...
Alec Peters is, and ever shall be, a shifty-eyed money-grubbing creep. 
I’m not ignoring his point. I disagree with his point.
How many people gave their money away to Axanar? 10s of thousands? How many millions saw Star Trek Beyond?
But you are right Peters is selling a small segment of the fan population want.
So i guess the key difference is that Peters raised money for the express purpose of making a fan film, with the goal to *make* said fan film, and then tried (and failed) to build up a studio instead of investing the money into sets (his own or other fan sets) actors and an actual production.
If you'd raised $1.4 mil for the express purpose of making new trek films, and then did all that other stuff instead, with nothing left over, people would be mighty pissed.
And I would probably fit out a space for my filming needs too with $1.4m.. however, I wouldn’t grab an empty warehouse and build it from the ground up... and I wouldn’t use Star Trek IP to raise money to create a business model.
Given that Star Trek Beyond had millions of dollars in advertising, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison. Even if every fan wanted something like Axanar, only a subset would even know about the Kickstarter.
That's not to say that you're wrong. I'm just saying how popular something like Axanar would be by comparison isn't easily knowable because it was lower profile. Personally, I kinda liked Beyond, but then again I've always fantasized about fixing a derelict spaceship and making it my own.
Right. I suspect he never really did a cost analysis, and simply wanted to set up his own studio.
Yeah, if you absolutely must buy sushi, buy it for your starving cast and crew, not yourself. Sheesh!
No Sushi bar on the bridge?
They have it on the bridge of Cap'n Kirk's Lobster Shack. Just remember, the "greyfish" in the sushi is actually Humpback Whale!
Except, y'know, all the copious, pew-pew CGI that was done in the style of the JJ-movies, even to the point of straight-up copying shot composition.
We'll just leave it at that.
Yes, especially all the action scenes.
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