Paramount Pictures Drops Lawsuit Against STAR TREK Fan Film AXANAR
Earlier this year, Paramount Pictures slapped makers of a crowd-funded Star Trek fan film called Star Trek: Axanar with a lawsuit. The film raised over $638,000 to complete a full-length feature film. Even though the studio has always seemed to support fan films over the years, for some reason they decided to file a lawsuit against this one.
After the first complaint to the courts was dismissed due to the non-specific nature of "copyright infringement,” CBS hit them back with a specific list of things that the movie would infringe upon — “innumerable copyrighted elements of Star Trek, including its settings, characters, species, and themes.” Some of the specifics included the Vulcans' pointy ears, yellow shirts, and even the Klingon language. This caused an uproar within the fan community.
Well, Paramount Pictures and CBS finally came to their senses and dropped the lawsuit. The Announcement was made by J.J. Abrams at a Star Trek fan event that recently took place on the Paramount studio lot. I was there when Abrams made the announcement and said, “This wasn’t an appropriate way to deal with the fans.” No, it wasn’t, but it’s good to know that they have seen the error of their ways and are fixing it.
It looks like the fan film will be able to resume production with the likes of Battlestar Galactic series vets Richard Hatch and Kate Vernon. The film will also star Deep Space Nine vet J. G. Hertzler and Star Trek: Enterprise alum Gary Graham. So it looks like we’ll have another cool Star Trek fan film to look forward to!
Here's the description of the film itself:
Axanar takes place 21 years before the events of 'Where no Man Has Gone Before,' the first Kirk episode of the original Star Trek. Axanar is the story of Garth of Izar, the legendary Starfleet captain who is Captain Kirk’s hero ... Axanar tells the story of Garth and his crew during the Four Years War, the war with the Klingon Empire that almost tore the Federation apart. Garth’s victory at Axanar solidified the Federation and allowed it to become the entity we know in Kirk’s time. It is the year 2245 and the war with the Klingons ends here.