Crowd-funding has become a popular way for aspiring filmmakers to achieve their visions. With a fan base supplying the funds on the basis that what they are paying for is something they would love to see, filmmakers now have more freedom than ever. Take Axanar as an example. Axanar is a Star Trek fan film that has been hailed as one of the most successful crowd-funded projects of 2015 and serves as a prequel set 21 years before the original series. However, it is now facing catastrophe as Paramount and CBS, the rights holders to Star Trek, are set to pursue legal action against the producers of Axanar.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, the studios claimed that “Star Trek is a treasured franchise in which CBS and Paramount continue to produce new original content for its’ large universe of fans. The producers of Axanar are making a Star Trek picture they describe themselves as a fully professional independent Star Trek film. Their activity clearly violates our Star Trek copyrights, which, of course, we will continue to vigorously protect.”
Axanar follows the adventures of Garth of Izar, Captain Kirk’s hero, during The 4 Year War with the Klingon Empire. Specifically, it will chart his involvement in the battle of Axanar, a victory that allowed the Federation to become what it is during the classic adventures of The Enterprise. Luckily, the producer of Axanar, Alec Peters, is a lawyer and stated that “We’ve certainly been prepared for this and we certainly will defend this lawsuit. These fan films have been around for 30 years, and others have raised a lot of money.”
Fan films have always been tolerated by Hollywood because they have never truly threatened their own big-budget franchises; the budgets would never allow them to. However, with the rise of crowd-funding, it seems that studios are worried that fan films could soon become a much larger concern for them, hence the action against Axanar. Whether we will ever get to see Axanar or not is an uncertain thing at the moment, but it does signify an interesting shift of power in the film industry.
#Peace.love.Crowdfunding
