The film that killed STAR TREK: CONTINUES
Planned feature film
Raising $638,000 on Kickstarter through the creation and release of
Prelude to Axanar, Peters went into pre-production for the feature film
Star Trek: Axanar, with production slated to begin in October 2015,
[16] for an early 2016 release.
[17] The original plan was to raise financing "in chunks", with the initial Kickstarter to raise enough money to obtain a warehouse, convert it to a sound stage and build sets.
[12] Approximately $200,000 of the funding happened in the campaign's final 49 hours, after
Star Trek alum
George Takeishared his interest publicly, bringing production more than six-times the originally sought amount of $100,000.
[17] The cast includes: Richard Hatch as Kharn the Undying (Klingon supreme commander); J. G. Hertzler as Admiral Samuel Travis (Captain of the USS
Hercules); Gary Graham as Soval (Vulcan Ambassador to the Federation); and
Kate Vernon as Captain Sonya Alexander (Captain of the USS
Ajax).
On January 3, 2016, Alec Peters announced he would no longer portray Captain Kelvar Garth in the
Axanar movie, stating that he wanted to hire a professional actor to fill the role, which would allow him to focus more on writing and producing.
[18]
Lawsuit
On December 29, 2015,
CBS and
Paramount Pictures filed a copyright lawsuit seeking damages in the
US District Court for the Central District of California, stating Axanar works infringe their rights by making use of the Klingon language and "innumerable copyrighted elements of
Star Trek, including its settings, characters, species, and themes".
Planned feature film
Raising $638,000 on Kickstarter through the creation and release of
Prelude to Axanar, Peters went into pre-production for the feature film
Star Trek: Axanar, with production slated to begin in October 2015,
[16] for an early 2016 release.
[17] The original plan was to raise financing "in chunks", with the initial Kickstarter to raise enough money to obtain a warehouse, convert it to a sound stage and build sets.
[12] Approximately $200,000 of the funding happened in the campaign's final 49 hours, after
Star Trek alum
George Takeishared his interest publicly, bringing production more than six-times the originally sought amount of $100,000.
[17] The cast includes: Richard Hatch as Kharn the Undying (Klingon supreme commander); J. G. Hertzler as Admiral Samuel Travis (Captain of the USS
Hercules); Gary Graham as Soval (Vulcan Ambassador to the Federation); and
Kate Vernon as Captain Sonya Alexander (Captain of the USS
Ajax).
On January 3, 2016, Alec Peters announced he would no longer portray Captain Kelvar Garth in the
Axanar movie, stating that he wanted to hire a professional actor to fill the role, which would allow him to focus more on writing and producing.
Lawsuit
On December 29, 2015,
CBS and
Paramount Pictures filed a copyright lawsuit seeking damages in the
US District Court for the Central District of California, stating Axanar works infringe their rights by making use of the Klingon language and "innumerable copyrighted elements of
Star Trek, including its settings, characters, species, and themes".
On March 28, 2016, Axanar Productions filed a
motion to dismiss or
strike Paramount and CBS's claims, saying the elements mentioned in the court filing are not protected by copyright and it is seeking premature relief from a work, the
Axanar film, that does not exist.
[20]
On May 9, 2016, the motion to dismiss the lawsuit was denied. Later that month,
J. J. Abrams said that "within the next few weeks, it will be announced this is going away". Abrams said he pushed the studio to stop the lawsuit, because "we realized this is not the appropriate way to deal with the fans."
[21] This statement by Abrams had no apparent effect on the lawsuit, since the case was scheduled for a jury trial in early 2017.
On June 23, 2016, Paramount and CBS released new fan film guidelines, which Axanar staff described as "disheartening" and "draconian."
On January 5, 2017, U.S. District Court judge
R. Gary Klausner rejected various motions by both parties, setting the stage for a civil trial on the matter to go forward on January 31.
[24] On January 20, 2017, the parties announced that the lawsuit had been settled, with Alec Peters and Axanar Productions promising to make "substantial changes" to
Axanarand agreeing to abide by Paramount's and CBS' "Guidelines for Fan Films."
[25] Under the terms of the settlement, the filmmakers will be allowed to release two 15-minute movies, instead of their planned 90-minute feature.
The films cannot be shown with ads.
