I keep banging on about this but I wish Trek would go more like Interstellar, The Martian, Gravity, Prometheus, exploring space is wondrous and dangerous etc if they want to emulate something.
Forbes: How ‘Star Trek’ Became Obsolete Thanks To ‘Guardians,’ Fast & Furious’ And ‘Star Wars’
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What's even worse it was because of complete stupidity STID got delayed. All because Orci and Lindelöf spent an entire year not working on the script as they argued over whether or not to include Khan in the movie. The stupidity gets compounded with their decision to make the fact the villain is Khan a surprise twist, meaning they decide to have the movie feature who they consider the definitive Star Trek villain, Star Trek's Moriarty or Joker, and then create a situation in which they can't use that fact as part of the movie's marketing.
What always got me about Beyond's promotion is that there was no talk about the movie outside of fan circles at all until Anton Yelchin's death a little over a month prior to its release. It's genuinely horrifying to think of when would they have gotten buzz for the film among the general public had that not happened.
Mind you it's worth noting 2016 was a crappy year for Paramount films in general. Indeed, I think Beyond actually was the studio's top grossing film for the year. So Star Trek still did comparatively well, despite the studio's attempts at self-sabotage.
CBS/Paramount definitely dropped the ball on Star Trek's 50th anniversary. Just compared to how BBC handled Doctor Who's 50th a few years earlier, and Star Trek just looks like a fizzle in comparison,
Thing is, Star Trek's biggest movie successes have always been its action movies, which is why they always turn to the blockbuster action format. The one exception was TVH, which was a comedy. But Insurrection tried to follow suit there, which did not work out.
Heck, just compare the celebration of the 25th anniversary and you can see how it was the a ball drop.
Or even the 30th for that matter.
Which was the problem from the start. Ever since TMP, Star Trek has been perceived as chasing trends instead of being trend setters. Michael Eisner was disappointed about TMP not because it wasn't creative but it was more in the vain of 2001: A Space Odyssey and not STAR WARS. TWOK was more to what the studio was looking for and by the time Bad Robot into the mix they gave Paramount what they always wanted. A shot for shot copy of A NEW HOPE. I thought "Into Darkness" looked a lot better and I didn't see much comparisons beside Khan in the movie, but when I saw the trailer for Beyond I was disappointed to see Warp speed was aped off of Interstellar and there were motorcycle scenes which reminded me more of The Fast and the Furious than Star Trek.
Star Trek shouldn't emulate, there's enough history and stories to get a grasp at what to present to a viewer, but the biggest problem with Hollywood is they prefer being 2nd than being first. Its very risky to spend a huge budget for a franchise and the general audience don't click with it. Which is why a lot of franchises try to give sequels something more of the same approach, but I wish they would give the audience more credit than thinking a disguised remake is sufficient for a new chapter.
Audiences haven't given them reason to take that risk.
The disappointing box office of Star Trek Beyond and the Rise of Skywalker says different.
So they will become more risk adverse and not produce anything.
Hollywood (owing to the shutdown) is in bad financial shape, they have to produce and get people back into theaters.
Trotting out more movies that only a fraction of the audience is going to like in order to advance meaningless social agendas isn't going to work anymore. Putting clueless producers in charge of mega-expensive movies because they have the right connections easily could disappear.
More traditional proven old-school fare (I think) will be the business plan. At least until the money builds back up again,
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yes that Dr Who 50 event should've been the template for Trek to follow. loads of stuff that celebrated DW history: an adventure with the 2 Doctors (plus a previously unknown 3rd), the entire Drs save Galifrey scene (even a Capaldi cameo), Tom Baker, and the last scene with all of them (plus there was the McGann 'webisode').
The same should've applied to STs 50th: a movie to celebrate treks 50y history (not just TOS): the most obvious would've been to have shatner back as Kirk interacting with JJ crew. along with Nimoy and Stewart hes a Trek mega star arguably the biggest, hes the 'star' of star trek! (funny to think both Nimoy and Stewart came back to Trek in a big way yet not Shatner.. ST09 even sort of foreshowed shatner a couple of times as if it were almost heralding his return further down the line) even the non trekkies would’ve been intrigued to see him back having caught bits and bobs of TOS and the movies over the years . Also there couldve been TNG cameos, the classic movie enterprise, Klingons/romulans (tying back to the 2009 film - maybe even had nero back). the plot could've involved alt timelines/alt realities maybe something to do with the Guardian of Forever (nice callback to the most popular TOS ep) and some of that BTTF2/TrialsTribulations(& EndGame) style revisiting of previous eps/movies. Time travel/alt realities/manyworlds stuff even made sense thematically for the 3rd movie as that’s pretty much what the JJverse was all about (even ID dealt with it with an alternate version of SpaceSeed/TWOK) and the most popular with movies/eps are always timetravel/reality stuff.
The trailers would’ve been able to show Shatner (probably in one of those TMP style admiral uniforms from STID) taking the centre seat to some ACourage (think Ford at end of TFA trailers) and other fun 'Trek stuff'.. instead of motorbike stunts/rocksongs trying to be like Fast meets Guardians that turned off fans & non fans and that played before the huge generational event of Episode VII. with the movie being some weird Guardians-lite plot no one could really follow (with a Trek V cast photo thrown in at the end to celebrate the 50th)
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25th - was such a huge deal: Unification/Trek VI, plus stuff like the 2hr documentary with Nimoy and Shatner in their snazzy 90s suits/blazers and a plethora of celebratory magazines (that silver cover starlog special) books, model kits, posters, vhs (and that 25th anniversary logo was everywhere)
30th - Trials&Triblations/Flashback and of course First Contact. big celebratory tv event. usual magazine tie ins
40th - even had some stuff going on and Trek was dead then!
50th - Beyond, and that Beyond event thing with Abrams/Pine/Quinto/Urban, also a few docs and magazines (EW/Time etc actually abit like the 25th)..but it all felt abit idk.. halfhearted?,, and that's probably down to Beyond
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That will never happen. The clueless being in charge if important stuff because of the right connections is a time-honoured practice in all walks of life all over the world. It's not ever going to disappear.
I imagine they would have avoided using the Guardian of Forever simply to avoid provoking Harlan Ellison. I remember in late 2007 when rumours began circulating about the Guardian being in Trek XI, Ellison actually tried to sue Paramount over it. Despite the fact they were just rumours and false ones at that.
Indeed. Hollywood is a small town (relatively speaking) and those with the most connections will get their projects going.
Like what? Hollywood has been contracting for a while which is why big budget blockbusters are the norm.
Yes and the movies have done that all along (similar to Bond).. TMP happened purely due to SW (like the way Eon quickly switched to Moonraker). TWOKs Alien style gore, TSFS: Spielberg/Lucas style stuff, TVH: BTTF meets Croc Dundee, FC: Aliens meets Terminator meets ID4, ST09: SW'77/Batman Begins, STID:TDK, Beyond: Guardians/Fast&FuriousStar Trek shouldn't emulate? C'mon, from the get go it was Forbidden Planet: The Series.
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Trek has been successful transitioning from TV to movies; I think Viacom should return to that process. Alex Kurtzman has been credited for a handful of movies which were big hits, I know he had duds as well, but I think movies is where his heart is. I think an adventure movie would be fun than the target being a super villain, there has to be something out there which would be fun to explore which could have action and showcasing good looking people, and all of the things makes a good movie. Guardians of the Galaxy was Star Wars - like and quite interesting, would something like that be a nice approach for Star Trek? Was PICARD aiming in that direction already but the tone was different and could this be transitioned to the Big Screen? Probably could, it all depends on what could be translated as Star Trek. The movie plots unfortunately doesn't give room for exploring a planet or uncanny things within or around it, but doesn't mean the studios couldn't.
The 4 year gap to STID was the first big issue following ST09 despite making the most from the 3 movies. The botched production of Beyond that saw a sizable increase in the budget and was compounded by piss poor marketing that ignored the 50th year angle and not choosing a May release date (TMNT 2 got it and flopped) finished it off.
Star Trek doesn't need to be a billion dollar Box Office hit and I still think a TNG reboot could do STID numbers or better if handled correctly.
Star Trek doesn't need to be a billion dollar Box Office hit and I still think a TNG reboot could do STID numbers or better if handled correctly.
I'd be fine with jettisoning much (not all) of the expensive special effects, and losing big named villians/co-stars.
Don't shoot it all over the world, limited external locations, keep it on a sound stage.
Focus on the characters, the plot revolves around a mystery, audiences will go see introspective movies. It doesn't have to be wall to wall action.
I was thinking of movies that intend to entertain, just tell a story.
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