Will A Major Studio Ever Buy A Trek Fan Film?

[JirinPanthosa]

The glass is at approximately 50% of it's maximum capacity.

I would love to see a 25th century story in the prime universe. But more realistically, there might be a great new IP similar to Star Trek on a premium network. I think the time is right for space operas to come back to television. And personally I would want it to live somewhere that cares more about artistic quality than broad appeal. HBO, Showtime, AMC, somewhere like that.

 

[Dick_Valentine]

Dear god I hope not.

There's a very thin line in fan films between storytelling and wish fulfilment.
Most are the wrong side of the line.

Most writers, directors, producers etc think of the characters first, their emotions, their journeys, their ordeals and what they have to overcome etc.

Most fans think "wouldn't it be cool if the romulans declared war on the cardassians....and then the borg showed up in the middle of it! "

At the moment we're enjoying a time in culture where geeks are seen as cool.
geek chic etc

We don't need that set back by 20 years

 

[xavier]

you mean like how a studio bought 50 shades of grey that was basically a twilight fan fiction?

yes its possible.

 

[Greg Cox]

you mean like how a studio bought 50 shades of grey that was basically a twilight fan fiction?

yes its possible.

But they changed the names and took all the vampires and werewolves out . . . .

Do we really want them to remake a Star Trek fan film without any starships or aliens!

 

[JoeZhang]

you mean like how a studio bought 50 shades of grey that was basically a twilight fan fiction?

yes its possible.

Except as Greg points out what the studio bought was altered so much from its roots as to make that irrelevant - I may be wrong but I don't think the books feature vampires and the original twilight isn't about a kinky billionaire.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Yes. I bet a significant chunk of fiction started out as fanfics of something else. But, like 50 Shades, the authors change it so much they make it completely their own. Is it still derivative? Sure. But just about everything is derivative of something else.

 

[Noname Given]

Technically - ANY fan film is illegal and infringing on an owned IP. Legitimate companies make licensing deals (and usually pay a fee/royalties, etc.) to legally make commercial use of said IP.

Just because (at this time) CBS has chosen to effectively 'look the other way' (based on some non-written and non-legally binding 'rules' which have been mentioned by some Star Trek fan production heads); it doesn't preclude them from one day deciding to enforce their legal IP rights across the board and start sending 'Cease & Desist' notifications followed by legal action against those that ignore said C&D orders.

No studio is going to 'buy' a fan produced episode/film as that would undermine the studios' own rights (under the law, if they don't actively defend an IP they own, they could loose some or all rights to said IP and it would become Public Domain. <--- So, yeah, no studio is going to 'legitimize' a fan production in this manner as they gain NOTHING from doing so; and open a real legal can of worms regarding their stewardship of their IP.

 

[Tommunist]

I voted "no" based on what I understand the situation to be now.

Do the producers of Axanar, Continues, and Phase 2, etc have to submit their scripts for review? What happens if a fan production has a similar story concept to something that the studio is actually producing, or at least has paid someone to write and they have the option to produce?

I seem to recall Paramount and the Trek producers mentioning the legal headaches of their script-submission program. While it opened the door for some people, it became too burdensome for the producers and opened them up to all sorts of accusations for story stealing.
If these "fan" or "independent" productions (no snark intended, call it whatever you want!) keep increasing the quantity and hopefully quality of their work, I can see CBS possibly tightening their reins over their IP.

But for now, I'm enjoying the prospect of more prime-era Trek by passionate people.

 

[Warped9]

I can't see this happening. And if it ever did happen you'd likly wish it hadn't.

I really like STC and I know a lot of fans have expressed that they wish it could get picked up by CBS or Netflix (or whatever). But if (for argument sake) CBS did pick it up the next thing to happen would be TPTB demanding changes so that very quickly so much of what one likes about the current production would be lost.

No thank you.

 

[doubleohfive]

Nope.

 

[Cyke101]

If it's good enough (and I mean very good. it would take a lot to overcome the lack of Hollywood polish), I imagine a fan film getting purchased, but then never releasing it. It would be studied, modified, and dissected so that it could be recreated from the ground up without anything related to Star Trek in it. (as others pointed out, Twilight vs. 50 Shades)

 

[Therin of Andor]

No, 'cos Hollywood (and Hollywood red tape) doesn't work that way.