Prelude To Axanar--The Lawsuit

I've written before (here and here) about Star Trek: Axanar, the crowd-funded, fan-made Star Trek movie due to be released in 2016.  I even kicked in a few ducats to have it made.  A could of days ago, CBS and Paramount, which own the rights to Star Trek, have filed suit, even though (see first link above) CBS had previously green-lighted the production.  I've been following this issue on Facebook for a couple days, with battle lines being drawn quickly--boycott CBS/Paramount, write them letters, accept the inevitable, etc.  Ed Driscoll has distilled the issue here:

CROWDFUNDED STAR TREK MOVIE DRAWS LAWSUIT FROM PARAMOUNT, CBS: As the Hollywood Reporter notes, Star Trek: Axanar, “the subject of a lawsuit filed on Friday in California federal court, is no ordinary Star Trek film. The forthcoming feature film (preceded by a short film) is the source of more than $1 million in crowdfunding on Kickstarter and Indiegogo.”

Perhaps the crowdfunding aspect of this production and the amount of money raised so far sent up a giant red flag with Paramount’s lawyers, who in the past have been remarkably laissez-faire when it comes to the prolific amount of video Star Trek fan fiction, such as Starship Exeter, Star Trek Continues and the long-running Star Trek: Phase II series. The latter two productions have featured a number of actors who’ve appeared on the various real, Paramount-produced Star Trek TV series and movies, sometimes playing their original characters.

I hope the filmmakers and the studio come to a mutually amicable arrangement, as the trailer looked pretty awesome....

Why yes, yes it does.


The 21-minute "prelude video":


#IStandWithAxanar