That crowd-funded ‘Star Trek’ movie might have hit a big legal snag
There’s a brand new Star Trek movie in the works, but it doesn’t sound like it’s boldly going to go anywhere, especially not to theaters. That’s a bummer to hear, because a new Star Trek movie is always better than no new Star Trek movie. However, this newest venture isn’t exactly an approved Star Trek movie, and now, it’s hitting lots of legal road blocks.
This past summer, filmmaker Alec Peters started a campaign on Indigogo for a crowd-funded Star Trek movie. Awesome, right? It sure sounded that way, and the film was quickly funded by fans eager to see this project, titled Axanar. Writing on the Indiegogo page, the film is described as “a return to the type of Star Trek all of us grew up on, with a hopeful future where mankind works with other races to explore the stars” and “the first fully-professional, independent Star Trek film.” All that sounds cool, right? Right. Sounded cool to everyone — except for Paramount Pictures and CBS Films who are currently not cool with the fact that there’s an independent Star Trek film in the works.
Earlier this week, Paramount and CBS filed a copyright infringement complaint against Axanar, because the movie doesn’t have the rights to work within the Star Trek universe, let alone use any pre-existing characters, locations, or alien species (the plot of the movie is described as having lots of Klingons). There’s also that other Star Trek movie coming out later this year, Stark Trek Beyond, and since that one is backed by Paramount and CBS, they’ve gotta protect their own big studio film.
The team behind Axanar is deeply saddened over the fact that their film has hit this huge snag, and might not continue forward. Peters took to his Facebook to write that the film isn’t trying to step on any toes, but is rather “a love letter to a beloved franchise.” Peters continued stating that he, and the rest of the filmmaking team, are going to figure out what to do next, and hopefully everyone can come to an agreement; Axanar was set to start shooting in January! Hopefully 2016 will be the year all Star Trek movies live together in harmony.
(Imaage via Paramount.)