J.J. Abrams getting rid of TOS merchandise...

[Christmas Canon Spock]

I wonder if the Nutrek novels being pulled might have something to do with at least two of them from what I remember of their summaries delt with stuff covered in Star Trek Into Darkness.

I.E. Kirk's promotion to captain and how Spock Prime's knowledge of the future and what he's saying about it.

This is just speculation (in this thread? No... ) but part of that was covered in the IDW comics released before ID. Not just Countdown to Darkness, but the different plot lines, including the fallout after Vulcan was destroyed, and the effect on Vulcan psyches. That was very interesting, actually.

Also, I don't fault Abrams in the slightest, even if he did have that discussion with Paramount and CBS.

 

[F. King Daniel]

This post by Thrawn mentions the nuTrek novels and possibly why they were shelved.

 

[Commishsleer]

This post by Thrawn mentions the nuTrek novels and possibly why they were shelved.

Is the gist of this that a nuTrek novel can't talk about PrimeTrek or have to give CBS some revenue so JJ can't be bothered?

So who gets the money from the nuTrek comics and nutrek merchandise? Is it Bad Robot? Surely they'd have to give some money to CBS?

 

[Christopher]

I wonder if the Nutrek novels being pulled might have something to do with at least two of them from what I remember of their summaries delt with stuff covered in Star Trek Into Darkness.

I.E. Kirk's promotion to captain and how Spock Prime's knowledge of the future and what he's saying about it.

I've been hearing that speculation for years and it just doesn't work. If it were simply a matter of continuity, the books could've just been rewritten. Many prior Trek novels have had their scripts adjusted to reflect new information from upcoming canon or to avoid contradicting it.

Is the gist of this that a nuTrek novel can't talk about PrimeTrek or have to give CBS some revenue so JJ can't be bothered?

Well, there are no Abramsverse novels, aside from the four YA Academy novels. But the Abramsverse comics from IDW have been free to acknowledge elements from Prime Trek; they're currently doing a 6-parter where the Prime Universe's Q takes the Abrams Enterprise crew into a "possible future" version of the 24th century featuring Deep Space Nine characters. Presumably that's because IDW's license does include both the Prime and Abrams branches of the franchise. Although it's odd, because I thought their DS9 license had lapsed years ago.

So who gets the money from the nuTrek comics and nutrek merchandise? Is it Bad Robot? Surely they'd have to give some money to CBS?

CBS gets revenue from all official Trek productions, because Trek belongs to them. Paramount and Bad Robot are licensed to make Trek movies, but CBS is still the ultimate owner of the trademark and the core concepts, although Paramount/BR have a copyright on the specific works they create and the characters and concepts original to those works. Naturally a licensee makes profit from their publications or productions, since that's why they're doing them in the first place, but they pay a share of the profit to the property owner in exchange for the license.

What the report says -- although, as Harvey pointed out, it's unclear whether it's true -- is that Abrams didn't want to have Prime TOS merchandise competing with Abrams Trek merchandise because he thought it would confuse audiences, so he wanted CBS to stop producing Prime TOS merchandise (or something like that). But CBS had the final say, and they said no.

 

[drt]

Although I take the original article with a grain of salt (from a TOS-themed salt shaker, approved by CBS, since that's what people want I guess), I do recall from somewhere that Abrams was interested in doing a much more multi-media approach based on nuTrek, and that CBS didn't want to (or couldn't) grant Bad Robot the needed rights.

 

[Crisp Conditions]

More rumors....

 

[seigezunt]

All I've ever seen was this The Wrap story which quotes an anonymous source (= could likely be BS) and other articles that refer back to this article. So I'm not believing it yet.

 

[Shaka Zulu]

We all remember how bad the 2013 videogame was...It really pains me to consider selling it.

I want to buy and play the video game myself, if for no other reason than that I like Star Trek. It doesn't look bad to me.

 

[Jerikka Dawn]

Although I take the original article with a grain of salt (from a TOS-themed salt shaker, approved by CBS, since that's what people want I guess), I do recall from somewhere that Abrams was interested in doing a much more multi-media approach based on nuTrek, and that CBS didn't want to (or couldn't) grant Bad Robot the needed rights.

I have no opinion as to the veracity of the original article, but in my limited, non-Hollywood, not part of the industry at all opinion on this topic, this doesn't seem that far-fetched or weird.

Again, this is just me, and I know nothing of this industry, but if I owned a popular sci-fi franchise, why would I hire a movie production company to handle non-movie merchandising (e.g. action figures, books, games, etc.), of my franchise? It seems to me that these would be things outside of the core competency of a company who's business is to produce movies.

 

[mos6507]

It certainly would make sense why he jumped ship when offered the chance for Star Wars. With that franchise, everything that can be newly produced is all under one roof.

JJ didn't enter into Trek to pay homage to every nuance of prime-continuity minutiae. He wanted to imprint it with his sensibilities (like his poor taste in Trek production design). But Star Wars is a continuation, not a quasi-reboot. So what is JJ doing over in SW land? Rebuilding classic stuff like the Falcon, or building a new X-wing model that would have fit right into the original trilogy better than anything seen in the prequels.

 

[Christmas Canon Spock]

Although I take the original article with a grain of salt (from a TOS-themed salt shaker, approved by CBS, since that's what people want I guess), I do recall from somewhere that Abrams was interested in doing a much more multi-media approach based on nuTrek, and that CBS didn't want to (or couldn't) grant Bad Robot the needed rights.

I have no opinion as to the veracity of the original article, but in my limited, non-Hollywood, not part of the industry at all opinion on this topic, this doesn't seem that far-fetched or weird.

Again, this is just me, and I know nothing of this industry, but if I owned a popular sci-fi franchise, why would I hire a movie production company to handle non-movie merchandising (e.g. action figures, books, games, etc.), of my franchise? It seems to me that these would be things outside of the core competency of a company who's business is to produce movies.

The sad part is that after SW (the original) merchandising has become all to common part of movie making, regardless of who is running merchandising. And, it is frustrating to me. I honestly always felt that Trek merchandising paled in comparison to SW but still have my odd collection of figures.

Having a new film, like Abrams, to me, brings up the whole new possibility of starting collecting again. It's like, here is this new aspect of a franchise that I can feel like I enjoyed since it's beginning.

So, I do agree that it's annoying that merchandising seems to be handled by people who do not grasp that concept.

I have been glad to at least see some Abrams merchandising continue, even after ID.

 

[Ithekro]

There is a USS Vengeance Christmas ornament from Hallmark this year.