Will A Major Studio Ever Buy A Trek Fan Film?

[Amaris]

Do you think with the production of so many Star Trek fan films, any studio, major or otherwise, would ever actually buy one? If so, why? If not, why not?

Vote in the poll and give your explanation below. I'm curious to see where people stand on the idea.

 

[Relayer1]

No, never, ever.

Studio's (and I mean all of them) either treat fan stuff as poison or for legal purposes simply ignore it.

If some creative type proved very promising, they might poach them, but that's about it.

 

[Pondwater]

No. They might buy the idea for the low price of $19.95.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Just like Bixby Snyder - they'd buy that for a dollar.

 

[TheSubCommander]

Yeah I don't think a studio (assuming we aren't talking about Paramount) would buy a Star Trek fan film, simply because they don't want to be sued by Paramount. The reason fan films can be made is as long as there is no profit going on by the fan film maker. As soon as money changes hands, that gets into copyright infringement.

As for Paramount picking one up, I think its unlikely. How many opportunities have they had? They've even had former Star Trek actors, directors, producers, etc pitch stuff, even offering to have Netflix front the money to make it (IE Doug Drexler wanting to revive Enterprise), and its never happened.

 

[urbandefault]

No. Why would they buy something they already own?

The best a fan production can ever hope for is to be left alone.

 

[Amaris]

That's how I feel about it, too. A fan film, regardless of how good it looks, or who they get to star in it, will always be a fan film; something the studio can put the kibosh on immediately, without any warning. Fan productions are totally at the mercy of the studio, so they don't have to do anything, since the production is using the studio's intellectual property.

 

[Harvey]

There are too many legal issues in the way of this being a possibility. The best any fan film raising real money can hope for is that CBS doesn't send them a cease and desist letter.

 

[Melakon]

Man, I hate essay questions. I can't see it happening due to reasons already given.

However, it's possible that if a fan film generated more pre-release publicity than genuine studio projects, they might shut the film down through legal intimidation, or buying the concept outright and then burying it. Because of unions and all that stuff.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Not gonna happen. Easier and cheaper to just create their own from scratch. Why pay intellectual poachers for your property?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

There are too many legal issues in the way of this being a possibility. The best any fan film raising real money can hope for is that CBS doesn't send them a cease and desist letter.

Yep. To think that CBS is going to pick up "Axanar" or "Renegades," or even something like "Star Trek: Continues" or "Phase II," is purely a pipe dream.

 

[Amaris]

Not gonna happen. Easier and cheaper to just create their own from scratch. Why pay intellectual poachers for your property?

See, those were my thoughts, too. Why would they pay for something they already own? It's like letting someone borrow your car and you paying rent to borrow it back from them. It's your car.

There are too many legal issues in the way of this being a possibility. The best any fan film raising real money can hope for is that CBS doesn't send them a cease and desist letter.

Yep. To think that CBS is going to pick up "Axanar" or "Renegades," or even something like "Star Trek: Continues" or "Phase II," is purely a pipe dream.

Agreed. They're all wonderful fan productions, but that's as far as they'll get, in terms of official approval.

 

[Tosk]

Studio's (and I mean all of them) either treat fan stuff as poison or for legal purposes simply ignore it.

Not true. Lucasfilm held contests for select fan films.

That's not to say I think a studio would ever buy a fan film of course.

 

[I amnot Herbert]

the poll is so slanted / non-specific that i didn't even bother voting

given the question, the answer is no =P


however, given the circumstances, I DO believe and hope that Axanar is receiving serious consideration from CBS...

(but you already knew that) =P

Captain Worf too

 

[Amaris]

the poll is so slanted / non-specific that i didn't even bother voting

given the question, the answer is no =P


however, given the circumstances, I DO believe and hope that Axanar is receiving serious consideration from CBS...

(but you already knew that) =P

Captain Worf too

It's hard to slant yes or no. Good effort, though.

 

[Melakon]

The poll question is not biased at all.

The question whether a studio would ever buy a fan film wasn't even part of any film's pitch in 2004, and there was disguised professional talent involved in some cases even then, as with Max Rem and some people here on this board. It was a no brainer, but productions then didn't run major advertising campaigns to get money, like seems to be popular now.

 

[Borgminister]

Why buy what you can steal?

 

[lennier1]

Studio's (and I mean all of them) either treat fan stuff as poison or for legal purposes simply ignore it.

Not true. Lucasfilm held contests for select fan films.

They also went out of their way to clear the usage rights for a handful of audio files for use in fan films, but Lucas has always had a different approach to the whole thing than Paramount. It's only thanks to the fact that there now are people at CBS Legal who actually understand the matter that they're no longer acting like a bull in a china shop, as has happened back in the late 1990s.

@Topic: The studios are crazy, but not crazy enough to dive into a legal minefield like this. The closest you'll get is that the fact that fans are putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into producing their own fan films (and many of those TOS) was probably a line on a long list of pro&con items for which elements to keep when they were planning to reboot the whole thing, though for some weird reason it somehow resulted in the adventures of a flying brewery-powered Apple store.

 

[F. King Daniel]

While my knowledge is far from complete in this area (i.e. I've no clue what I'm talking about), I imagine there would be endless legal complications, starting with sets, costumes and props made using non-union labour.

 

[Maurice]

Well, naturally a studio would never be stupid enough to buy a film property based on something owned by another studio.

There are indeed a lot of legal and union related considerations which would stop almost any IP owner from purchasing a fanfilm, and even if by some reason they did, they'd never base a show off it because it would be cheaper to hire people to create a new show as work for hire and own it outright without any messy contract or other ownership issues.