Axanar Continues

[Sonic Glitch]

Star Trek Axanar recently launched their last crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo. To whet our appetites they provided their first real scene from "Axanar." Aside from Richard Hatch's introduction, I'll let you decide what this means for their potential to be a star trek film

[Reliant121]

I am intrigued. I wonder do they intend to diverge from canon timeline or "embellish" on it?

[Graham Kennedy]

There's very little known about that period to contradict. We know Garth was a hero at the battle of Axanar, but really nothing beyond that. So it seems like they're taking that and embellishing on it.

[Sonic Glitch]

I am intrigued. I wonder do they intend to diverge from canon timeline or "embellish" on it?

I suspect they plan to embellish it. They've made it clear its not a nu-Trek project, but they have incorporated some design elements in their special effects i think (mostly based on the design/look of the Kelvin). Also, apparently the Four Years War was established in Beta canon through the FASA games I believe.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I wouldn't mind them embellishing. I've loved the Axanar stuff overall.

[Tsukiyumi]

After watching Renegades, and comparing the budgets of the two, they're night and day on quality. All of the CG on Axanar looks professional, along with the viewpoint angles and uniforms. The new clip uses green screen for the outdoor Vulcan scene, but the lighting angles and tone match up, and it actually looks quite respectable. Contrast that with Renegades, where a lot of the planetside scenes and most of the VFX look like they were whipped up on a laptop from 2005 (with a few shots that look straight from 1995), the costumes are ill-fitting and low-quality, and the cinematography and editing is noticeably amateur. Not to even mention the scripts.

In the end, I think it's more up to the drive and talent of the people involved than the amount of funding received. Prelude to Axanar was made on about a quarter of the budget that Renegades wasted; Star Trek: Axanar (the upcoming full film) ended up with over $600k, and based on Prelude, I think they'll they'll use it wisely. I anticipate another professional quality work; it's a shame that there's no current plan for this to be a series of either episodes or films. If the execs at CBS/Paramount see this, they might change their minds about putting Trek back on TV; Renegades would have quite the opposite effect.

[Graham Kennedy]

Alas, Paramount launched a lawsuit on December 29th against the Axanar people.

http://trekmovie.com/2015/12/30/star-tr ... ringement/

Hard to believe they will have the money to defend against this.

[sunnyside]

Alas, Paramount launched a lawsuit on December 29th against the Axanar people.

http://trekmovie.com/2015/12/30/star-tr ... ringement/

Hard to believe they will have the money to defend against this.

I was just about to post a thread on that.

Sad news. I was obviously looking forward to Axanar. I suppose there's a still a chance things will go well, but at a minimum this will be an annoyance that will cause delays, costs, and distractions that will hurt the production. Of course the whole thing might go down in flames.

You know, they've got to have some sort of standard licensing deal going for books and things. People have cranked out all manner of Trek stuff for decades from games, to tech manuals, to endless novels. They just get treated as non-cannon and presumably have to send the copyright holders a cut. I wonder if they just won't allow that sort of thing in the "primary" media that cannon Trek uses?

[Mikey]

People have cranked out all manner of Trek stuff for decades from games, to tech manuals, to endless novels.

I sincerely doubt that any of that was released without permission and prior licensing agreements, as "Axanar" seems to have been.

[Graham Kennedy]

From what I've read, the issue was that they hired professional production staff and paid them a wage to work on the show. Paramount have generally turned a blind eye to fan productions because they have been strictly amateur, with money spent on sets and whatnot, but nobody paid to do anything. What Axanar did was considered crossing the line.

[Sonic Glitch]

I guess the question is why now though. Axanar has been going on for the better part of two years now, they weren't exactly a secret. Is it a coincidence that the Star Trek Beyond trailer just dropped to lukewarm reception?

[Graham Kennedy]

Could be.

Back in the day, prior to launching the Startrek.com website Paramount went on a campaign to shut down as many fan websites as they could get their hands on. Quite a few got nasty lawyer letters - I was waiting for one to drop into my mailbox. Most saw it as an attempt to clear the competition out prior to launching their own site, wouldn't surprise me if this was similar thinking. Back then, fan reaction made them drop the whole thing after a few months. Will be interesting to see what happens this time.

[Graham Kennedy]

Source

“Star Trek Beyond” producer J.J. Abrams just announced during a fan event held on the Paramount lot that the studio would be dropping its lawsuit against producers of the proposed fan-produced Star Trek feature “Axanar.”

“A few months back there was a fan movie and this lawsuit that happened between the studio and these fans, and [“Star Trek Beyond” director Justin Lin] was sort of outraged by this as a longtime fan,” said Abrams. “We started talking about it and realized this wasn’t an appropriate way to deal with the fans. The fans of Star Trek are part of this world. We went to the studio and pushed them to stop this lawsuit. Within a few weeks, it’ll be announced that this lawsuit is going away.”

Fan-produced sequels to Trek TV shows and movies are shockingly numerous, but Paramount never took legal action until “Axanar,” whose month-long Kickstarter campaign -- launched at 2014’s Sand Diego Comic Con -- managed to go way beyond its $100,000 target and raised $638,471.

[Mikey]

Wow. I'm glad to hear this, but very surprised.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Wow. I'm glad to hear this, but very surprised.

Sums up my feelings, too. I would not have expected the lawsuit to have been dropped.