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Abrams Says Paramount Will Drop Star Trek/Axenar Lawsuit (gizmodo.com) 82

An anonymous reader writes:At a fan event Friday for the upcoming Star Trek movie, producer J. J. Abrams said Paramount Pictures' lawsuit against Axanar Productions was "going away." Director Justin Lin had been outraged by the lawsuit against the crowdfunded fan Star Trek film, and when he'd started discussing the situation with Abrams, the two "realized this was not an appropriate way to deal with the fans. The fans should be celebrating this thing. Fans of Star Trek are 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 continue working on their project."
In a statement, Axanar said they still "want to make sure we go through all the proper steps to make sure all matters are settled with CBS and Paramount..." adding "There is still a lot of work to do, but receiving this kind of public support helps immensely."
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Abrams Says Paramount Will Drop Star Trek/Axenar Lawsuit

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  • by davmoo ( 63521 ) on Saturday May 21, 2016 @08:49PM (#52157981)

    I can understand why Paramount and CBS are nervous about Axanar. Having seen the trailers for "Star Trek: Beyond" and the short "Prelude To Axanar", I think that Axanar is going to be a hell of a lot better than Beyond. And Axanar looks like Trek. Beyond looks more like "Star Trek: Fast and Furious In Spaaaaace!!!!"

    • CBS has a new Star Trek TV series in the works. Based on the new trailer (see below), Axanar looks a lot better in comparison.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXpPweAooeE [youtube.com]

      • CBS has a new Star Trek TV series in the works. Based on the new trailer (see below), Axanar looks a lot better in comparison.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXpPweAooeE [youtube.com]

        Spinning off the episodes in Enterprise where they went through the Tholian Web into an alternate universe were the Federation was evil and the Klingons good guys would have been an interesting series. Star Trek:Renegades had potential as well.

        • Spinning off the episodes in Enterprise where they went through the Tholian Web into an alternate universe were the Federation was evil and the Klingons good guys would have been an interesting series. Star Trek:Renegades had potential as well.

          Yeah, I had a love-hate relationship with Enterprise. Mostly with that dumb-ass Captain Scott Bakula, and that fucking dog, gawd. (Thanks for killing the franchise Scott! Kidding, sort of.) So much lost potential with Enterprise. With a different and better actor in the role of captain, it could have been much better. They finally got T'Pol right in look and behavior and then turned her into a freaking Emo. Sigh. On and on....

          The Delphic Expanse was a goldmine of potential stories and they squandered it. D

      • That trailer tells us absolutely nothing about what the new series will be like. It shows off some special effects and the new logo, and that's it. I'm waiting for the next trailer before I'll even think about offering an opinion on the series.
    • by Anonymous Coward

      The second trailer for "Star Trek: Beyond" came out today and it is far, far less horrid than the first.

      • "Beyond" what?
      • by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 ) on Sunday May 22, 2016 @02:58AM (#52158753)

        Kirk makes out with a chick who looks like a zebra, ho hum.

        Trek used to be a show about ethics and the prime directive where they'd solve a mystery of the week, overcome a paradox of time travel or Wesley would be sentenced to death.

        Now it seems all about the explosions and space warfare.

        • by mccalli ( 323026 )
          That was the increasingly preachy-and-tedious new stuff. The original was a good mix of thought and action.
          • by GNious ( 953874 )

            That was the increasingly preachy-and-tedious new stuff. The original was a good mix of thought and action.

            From what I've seen, the Jar-Jar trek movies have been a horrid mix of action and, uhm ... something ...

          • The original was Starfleet officers reminding each other of stuff that they should have learned at the academy. Just the other day they showed the one with the planet killer and they said that the doctor would have to assess the commodore and then the doctor acted as if he was powerless to tell the commodore to go to sick bay to get evaluated. I was like, if the doctor is powerless then the rule lacks teeth. Then the captain orders Spock to relieve the commodore, and instead of making a big deal about mutin
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Holy God. I had been ignoring the Axanar news until I read your comment. Then I looked for it on YouTube and saw the faux-documentary about the lead-up to Axanar. That was better than anything Trek has ever produced, and yet it did still look like Trek. It wasn't cheesy or self-absorbed in fan-ishness. My only complaint is that I had a hard time believing that the Klingon commander would sit down for an interview; other than that, it was gorgeous and good.

      Thanks, dude. You made my evening.

  • Axanar (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gavron ( 1300111 ) on Saturday May 21, 2016 @09:07PM (#52158023)

    The company is Axanar Productions: http://www.axanarproductions.c... [axanarproductions.com]

    The movie is Prelude to Axanar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    There's no "e" in Axanar, unless the E is for the missing slashdot editor who approved it without bothering to read.

    E

  • The lawsuit isn't dropped, until the lawsuit is dropped. A director and a producer are saying the lawsuit is dropped because of their "outrage", but the fact of the matter is they really have no control over the lawsuit. Sounds like they are just trying to get the fans on their side and if the big corps don't do what they want then "they're the bad guys" while "we're the good guys". But the big corps are used to being the bad guys, so really no telling if this will work. I also don't really believe J.J. Abr

  • by Anonymous Coward

    It's a core element of IP law that a company that holds trademarks must defend those trademarks. Failure to do so becomes legal evidence against the validity of the exclusive use of those trademarks and can lead to their loss.

    As a result, a company like Paramount, with a valid trademark on a valuable property like the Star Trek franchise has no choice but to sue people who try to use the name, characters, etc in any other commercial endeavor. If they fail to sue, then eventually Fox, Sony, and the rest coul

  • If Paramount/CBS were smart they make a deal with these guys, throw some money at it and syndicate it. I don't know why Paramount/CBS hold so tightly to this franchise. They should take a page of Disney's handbook and give us fans multiple movies and shows.

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      If Paramount/CBS were smart they make a deal with these guys, throw some money at it and syndicate it. I don't know why Paramount/CBS hold so tightly to this franchise. They should take a page of Disney's handbook and give us fans multiple movies and shows.

      They already do. They allow fan fiction and works to be created - provided you don't try to make money off the property (or try to destroy it). This is to be honest one of the more open IP franchises out there.

      The problem is, it's a thin grey line separat

    • > If Paramount/CBS were smart they make a deal with these guys, throw some money at it and syndicate it.

      Many companies do that buying out smaller competitors. The result is often quite poor. The managerial, technical, and cultural approaches of the smaller company are lost, many of the best staff take the buyout money and move on to other projects, and you get uncertain quality about new projects. It's especially bad when the corporate offices have policies that work well for larger companies, and their

  • Whereas I've been a harsh critic of his Star Trek-flavored (which is like saying something is 'chocolate flavored', but not containing any actual chocolate) movies, but have greatly enjoyed his various television series (which makes for some internal conflicts for me), I now have a little more respect for the man that he'd stick his neck out for this. Now, if only Paramount will heed his words and let the whole thing drop for real..
    • Hear hear, well spoken, Bruce. Now only time will tell if they turn off the legal heat on the fans, who are doing for (practically) nothing what the studios can't do with million dollar budgets. I mean, why can't they study the 20 or so good episodes of TOS and and get inspired for a new Trek? Why is the ONLY idea they ever come up with is blow up (or, at best, decommission) the Enterprise, when the Enterprise is really the only reason we go see the show?

      "These are the voyages... of bad boy Kirk, his goofy sidekick Spock, and some supporting cast with familiar names; their on-going mission, to beat up aliens, perform outrageous stunts, make awkward wise-cracks, and hop in the sack with every..."

      Doesn't sound right, does it?

      Been waiting a real

    • exactly.....i had dozens of reasons not to like him, but now, damn it, I gotta give him a little something on this

      you know, as long as we're not actually being blinded by a lens flare

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