'Star Trek Beyond' Director Justin Lin Tries to Rescue 'Axanar' Fan Film From Studio Lawyers
J.J. Abrams, Justin Lin, Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine, and Karl Urban at ‘Star Trek’ Fan Celebration (Photo: Paramount)
The folks at the helm of Star Trek are going warp factor 10 to keep Enterprise enthusiasts happy.
On Friday, Paramount held a Trek celebration on the studio lot in Los Angeles attended by Star Trek Beyond producer J.J. Abrams, director Justin Lin, stars Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), and Karl Urban (McCoy), and dozens and dozens of die-hard Trekkers. The wide-ranging event served multiple purposes: to ramp up the franchise’s 50th anniversary festivities; to hype the upcoming Beyond (including the launch of a new trailer); to dedicate a street on the lot to the late Leonard Nimoy.
And, above all, it was geared to assure fans that the Trek team had their backs. Aside from free posters, T-shirts, Spock ears, Tribbles, and tickets to the world premiere, attendees got good news from Abrams about the fate of Axanar, a fan-backed film set about two decades before Kirk joined Starfleet that promised Hollywood-quality production. After filmmakers scored more than $1 million from Kickstarter and Indiegogo fundraisers, Paramount shut down the project citing copyright infringement.
Abrams and host Adam Savage at ‘Star Trek’ event (Photo: Yahoo)
We’ll let J.J. pick it up from there:
“A few months back there was a fan movie, Axanar, that was getting made and there was a big lawsuit that happened between the studio and these fans, and Justin—and I need to tell the story because he probably wouldn’t—was sort of outraged by this as a longtime fan. We started talking about it and realized this was not an appropriate way to deal with the fans. The fans should be celebrating this thing.… Fans of Star Trek are all part of this world. So he went to the studio and pushed them to stop this lawsuit, and now, within the next few weeks, it will be announced this is going away, and that fans would be able to work on their project.”
More: New ’Star Trek Beyond’ Trailer ‘Reflects What We Were Hoping to Achieve’
The announcement was met with raucous cheers from the audience.
Watch J.J. Abrams discuss ‘Axanar’ lawsuit:
Lin, who tells Yahoo he grew up watching the original series with his dad, has been public in his disapproval of the suit.
But Abrams might have pulled the phaser trigger prematurely. While both sides acknowledge that they’re working on a settlement, the deal doesn’t seem as imminent as he made it sound.
In a blog post this weekend, Axanar producer-writer-star Alec Peters, who was in attendance at the Friday event and blindsided by Abrams’s remarks, sounded an optimistic note.
“Even though we’re really excited by what J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin shared at last night’s Star Trek Beyond event, the lawyers need to do their work (on both sides) before the lawsuit is officially resolved,” he wrote.
‘Axanar’ (Photo: Axanar Productions)
“CBS also tweeted that they are working on guidelines for all fan films – we’re anxious to see what those guidelines say and make sure we have a clear idea of what needs to be done to meet those expectations.
“Once those two things are done, we have to get our team together to assess our current situation, determine what can be made (e.g. can we go with a current version of the script or do we need to change it), and take an inventory of what resources we have in-place to get it done. Once that process is done (and it could take a while), then we’ll be able to explain where we’re headed and what we’re going to do.”
There was no immediate comment from the studio on Monday.
In the lawsuit, Paramount claimed Axanar violated the studio’s rights to certain Trek characters, alien planets, and species (including Klingons and Vulcans), uniforms, ships, and even the made-up Klingon language. That last element, whether a language is copyrightable, has legal ramifications that stretch well beyond Hollywood and could even affect how computer programming is viewed by the courts.
Earlier this month, a judge set the Axanar case to go to trial in January 2017. But it behooves Paramount to resolve the suit sooner. Over the coming weeks, the marketing blitz for Star Trek Beyond will kick off ahead of its July 22 release. The studio doesn’t want to be in the awkward position of having its director and cast, already on record opposing what they see as an anti-fan action, forced to address the issue.
Abrams and Lin leave the stage at ‘Star Trek’ event (Photo: Yahoo)
Plus, the studio is banking on Beyond to generate blockbuster box office and keep the franchise going. In addition to tentative movie sequels, there’s a small-screen Trek arriving next January — just in time for the potential trial.
And if Axanar winds up scuttled, all that goodwill generated by last week’s fanapalooza could be scuttled with it.
