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According to io9 J.J. Abrams announced that Paramount Pictures' lawsuit against Axanar Productions was "going away.".
The report comes from a Star Trek event in Los Angeles, at which the trailer for Justin Lin's new film Star Trek Beyond debuted:
io9 was at the fan event, where Abrams noted that Star Trek Beyond's director, Justin Lin, was outraged at the legal situation that had arisen.
Axanar is a kickstarter-funded fan film covering events preceding the original Star Trek, and the team responded to the io9 article with cautious optimism
While we're grateful to receive the public support of JJ Abrams and Justin Lin, as the lawsuit remains pending, we want to make sure we go through all the proper steps to make sure all matters are settled with CBS and Paramount.
Paramount's legal manoeuvrings, and IPR claims, have been covered previously on Soylent.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Sunday May 22 2016, @06:42PM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Sunday May 22 2016, @10:41PM
My assumption is a change in personnel. Old manager thought it was great and helped build the brand. New blood thinks like a cog.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday May 23 2016, @08:36AM
No, it's in keeping with their previous policy. The grandparent is slightly wrong. They were not lenient towards projects that did not make a profit, they were lenient towards projects that did not ask for money. The former would require someone to audit the accounts of said projects. Axanar is paying actors, paying special effects folks, and asking for money. This crossed the line - other projects have been run entirely by volunteers (including some of the original cast).
This is a particularly important distinction because of Hollywood accounting. Very few movies make a profit, though certain individuals involved make huge amounts. It's very easy to set up a 'fan' production using entirely professional staff, pay the producer and director huge amounts, and then make no profit. Should this get a free license?
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday May 23 2016, @06:14PM
Yeah, but the other productions (Star Trek Continues and Star Trek: Phase II) both "asked for money" by soliciting donations. Their costs weren't that high of course since they used amateur/volunteer actors and a lot of self-financing, and probably got the FX work done for free, but they did ask for donations to offset the principals' personal expenses. Building all those sets was expensive.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday May 24 2016, @08:47AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday May 24 2016, @03:42PM
Phase II takes donations here [startreknewvoyages.com]. I've donated small amounts to both productions. Unfortunately I can't see their blog entry right now as their site is blocked for me, but as I remember it, their statement on donations is something to the effect of attempting to offset their production expenses (as I said, building those sets costs money), and they don't make any profit or pay any salaries. I seem to remember reading that James Cawley spent $100k of his own money initially.