Star Trek: Axanar

[Hammerfest]

Okay so I apparently missed this when it debuted late last year. Some guys who work for CBS (which is the division at Paramount that is currently in charge of the Star Trek television wing of the franchise), did a Kickstarter and from that made this extremely polished mockumentary about the Four Years War... specifically the things that led up to the fabled Battle of Axanar between the Federation and the Klingons. This is a very, very good piece of Star Trek film work with top-tier special effects and several Star Trek alum actors... including JG Hertzler ("Martok" from DS9 previously), Tony Todd (who played Worf's brother Kurn on TNG and DS9) and Gary Graham reprising his role as Ambassador Soval from ST:ENT. This film has generated enough interest to merit a feature film project which is currently in production.

I like that they took some visual elements from the Abrams films as well as TOS.

Below is the embedded 22 minute mockumentary, but honestly it's better if you go to their site and watch it. The link is below that embed. If you have the ability to watch it on a big screen on your TV, that's even better. This is History Channel quality stuff...



http://www.startrekaxanar.com/

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Very impressed!

For a 1,500th of the budget of the 11th Star Trek film, these guys made their own of comparable quality (albeit some lesser CGI).

Looking forward to it!

[Hammerfest]

I thought the cgi was top tier. I believe it was done by fine folks at The Light Works.

[abihail]

Very cool... can't wait to see what becomes of this.

[Tradewind]

At first I was like "oh fuck it's another one of these fanfic short films where everyone has some ridiculous name"...but even though that was kind of the case...that wasn't that bad at all. I mean, it shits all over the Constitution Class/Enterprise canon...but that's nothing new.

[Hammerfest]

I mean, it shits all over the Constitution Class/Enterprise canon...but that's nothing new.

I don't mind as long as it's bright and shiny shit. Star Trek's canon has always been adjustable anyway.

[Hammerfest]

Hmm... apparently, Star Trek: Axanar will star Eighth Doctor Paul McGann as Captain Robert April, the 1701 Enterprise's first commanding officer. That's some gravitas for sure!

[Deleted]

Very impressed!
For a 1,500th of the budget of the 11th Star Trek film, these guys made their own of comparable quality (albeit some lesser CGI).

Michael Straczynski did have a low budget then he did a Babylon 5 ep he did do some TV-movies of Babylon 5 with a bit higher budget. He was suprised how the cost increased because it was a movie production and the net gain to add better things compeer to a ordinary Babylon 5 ep was small.

But I agreed that most modern movie burn money like crazy without large gain.

[s_bushido]

It was much better than I thought it would be. But it makes sense given the actors they were able to get to do it.

[Raptor With a Saber]

Looks awesome, Wish they would continue the series with newer movies/shows that follow the main Star Trek Universe and not continue with the New Trek crap. Just one movie where Q is in it could fix the horrors that the New Trek series have done.

[Krawu]

I was hoping for a new TV series when I read the title. I got something almost as good.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

But I agreed that most modern movie burn money like crazy without large gain.

This; usually it comes down to having to pay ludicrous amounts to big name actors, directors, unreasonable licensing royalities (CBS: Were licensing this IP to you for use in a small budget film, ofcourse we'll only ask for twenty-thirty percent! Then you get big budget movies like Star Trek 11's 150 million budget, and they go Were licensing this IP to you for use in a big budget film; we expect fifty to sixty percent!" and so forth, before even getting to theater payouts and so forth, before even getting production costs. Hell; More than half of the budget of the Avengers films is spent on actors alone (Robert Downy Jr. alone wanted dozens of millions!)

[Feel The Power]

Yeah I came across this back when this prelude was first released and I have been extremely excited for this. The story looks fantastic, they totally captured the aesthetic of how Starfleet people would look at the time (if I recall it's something like 20 years before the original series takes place), it's the only crowdfunding thing I ever considered giving money to. I just looked at their site the other day and they said the dvd and blueray of the movie is in the process of being manufactured, and the digital download should be available soon.

[Hammerfest]

So over the week between Christmas and New Years, Paramount hit Axanar Productions with a lawsuit. I'm of the opinion this has everything to do with the (oh, I'll be nice here) less-than-tepid reaction to the "Star Trek Beyond" trailer that was released earlier in December.

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/st...ed-1201669522/

While I agree that CBS/Paramount owns the IP of Star Trek and certainly can throw suits at fan-made films, I don't think this is a very good idea on a couple of levels.

Star Trek legend David Gerrold (who wrote the TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles") has written a three-part blog why this lawsuit is (oh, I'll be nice) not a very well thought-out idea...

http://www.axanarproductions.com/dav...axanar-part-1/
http://www.axanarproductions.com/dav...axanar-part-2/
http://www.axanarproductions.com/dav...axanar-part-3/

The lawsuit could have ramifications that ripple out to other IPs beyond Star Trek. I can see a scenario where Star Trek may in fact be rendered public domain during this process.

[Elim Garak]

I can see a scenario where Star Trek may in fact be rendered public domain during this process.

Which is awesome for everyone.

[zEmini]

If there is no profit involved then I can't see how a suit will win. Only issue is the head ache and legal bs the makers will have to go through which could be enough to cancel it. If that happens, I will stop watching and/or support anything that comes out of the Paramount/CBS. That will show them!!!!!

[Hammerfest]

Which is awesome for everyone.

Yeah, I can see it being both awesome and sucky... but I'd be surprised if it actually happened (Star Trek becoming public domain).

[Deleted]

So over the week between Christmas and New Years, Paramount hit Axanar Productions with a lawsuit. I'm of the opinion this has everything to do with the (oh, I'll be nice here) less-than-tepid reaction to the "Star Trek Beyond" trailer that was released earlier in December.

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/st...ed-1201669522/

While I agree that CBS/Paramount owns the IP of Star Trek and certainly can throw suits at fan-made films, I don't think this is a very good idea on a couple of levels.

Star Trek legend David Gerrold (who wrote the TOS episode "The Trouble With Tribbles") has written a three-part blog why this lawsuit is (oh, I'll be nice) not a very well thought-out idea...

http://www.axanarproductions.com/dav...axanar-part-1/
http://www.axanarproductions.com/dav...axanar-part-2/
http://www.axanarproductions.com/dav...axanar-part-3/

The lawsuit could have ramifications that ripple out to other IPs beyond Star Trek. I can see a scenario where Star Trek may in fact be rendered public domain during this process.

IF I was paramount I'd throw money at these guys and do a deal.

This looks so much better than beyond. Its much more faithful to Star Trek than that garbage Michael Bay'ed up trailer.

[eschatological]

A property doesn't go public domain til life of the creator + 70 years have elapsed. Other people/corporations can hold the rights to it til then, and make money off it to the exclusion of others. That's fairly established.

I know it sucks for us, since we basically live in that timespan of "creator's life + 70 years" for all motion picture/television media. Roddenberry died in 1991, so, unless the law changes, we won't see Star Trek be public domain til 2061.

[Hammerfest]

A property doesn't go public domain til life of the creator + 70 years have elapsed.

A court can deem an IP public domain if it can be demonstrated that the IP owner didn't protect their trademark/copyright. Superman was, for a period of a few months, a public domain character precisely because National Comics Publications (later called DC) didn't do that, a court found during the 1940s.

- - - Updated - - -

IF I was paramount I'd throw money at these guys and do a deal.

This looks so much better than beyond. Its much more faithful to Star Trek than that garbage Michael Bay'ed up trailer.

I agree. Someone at Paramount just isn't thinking.