From Axanar Productions production gallery

Axanar (Film)

Axanar is the title of the feature-length film (formerly titled Star Trek: Axanar) at the center of the CBS-Paramount lawsuit against producer Alec Peters and his company, Axanar Productions.

Which Axanar Do We Mean?
Throughout the AxaMonitor site, the term ‘Axanar,’ without italics, is used colloquially to refer to the group of people producing the film, Axanar, which is italicized to refer specifically to the film. The production company (and lawsuit defendant) 'Axanar Productions’ is always referred to by its formal name. AxaMonitor uses the nickname Axanar Lite to refer to the two much-longer titled 15-minute short films allowed under terms of the lawsuit’s settlement.

Production

Axanar is the story of Garth of Izar (introduced in the Star Trek episode, “Whom Gods Destroy”), first written by executive producer Alec Peters wrote 25 years ago. After playing Garth in the fan production Star Trek: New Voyages, Peters turned the story into a screenplay.

Peters recruited a team of experienced filmmakers, many from Hollywood, to first produce a short film as a proof of concept. That movie, Prelude to Axanar, sparked worldwide attention that led to multiple crowdfunding campaigns that raised about half the $2 million budget estimated for production of the feature-length film, which on November 17, 2014, was re-named Axanar. At the time, Peters explained:

In deference to CBS, we have removed the Star Trek branding from our website. and our Facebook page. … We think at this point Axanar has its own brand and we don’t need to use the Star Trek name. We are cognizant that we are using CBS’ intellectual property and we wish to minimize the use of that IP in our film and in our overall production.1)

Co-producer Terry McIntosh added the production took the action without prompting from CBS:

CBS did *NOT* contact us regarding the name, or anything else for that matter. … This was a preemptive decision due to things to come that we haven’t yet made public. Nothing more, nothing less.2)

Plot

GARTH OF IZAR, played by Steve Inhat, was introduced in the Star Trek episode, "Whom Gods Destroy.“

Axanar tells the story of Garth of Izar, introduced as Captain Kirk’s hero, a legendary starship commander whose victory at Axanar was required reading at the academy.

The film, originally scheduled to go into production in 2016, tells the story of the Four Years War with the Klingon Empire, which the United Federation of Planets nearly lost. Axanar picks up where Prelude to Axanar left off, with the new Klingon battlecruiser, the D-7 class, turning the tide of the war, and a frantic Starfleet scrambling to find some way to end the conflict. Garth’s audacious battle plan is the course the Federation decides to bet on.

Cast

GARTH OF IZAR as portrayed by Axanar producer Alec Peters in Prelude to Axanar.

While no cast members have been officially signed, several of those who appeared in Prelude to Axanar were expected to reprise their roles in the feature, including Richard Hatch, Kate Vernon and J.G. Hertzler in principal roles, with Gary Graham reprising his role as Vulcan ambassador Soval, first seen in the television series, Star Trek: Enterprise.

Actor Tony Todd left the project in 2015, citing “accountability” problems possibly connected with the production’s crowdfunding of more than $1 million.

Crew

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Budget

Lawsuit Impact

LAWSUIT PRIMER Get an overview of the copyright lawsuit, including a timeline of the case, as well as downloadable pleadings made by the plaintiffs, CBS and Paramount, and defendants Alec Peters and Axanar Productions Inc. » Lawsuit Primer

Prior to the lawsuit’s filing, Axanar was scheduled to start shooting in early 2016. Production was halted by mutual agreement by all the lawsuit’s parties until February 22, 2016, the due date for Axanar’s response to the legal complaint. By all accounts, production is halted until the lawsuit is resolved.

Changed Production Status

According to IMDb Pro, the lawsuit appears to have affected the film’s production status. Their motion to dismiss explains that the formerly locked script is being rewritten in light of the copyright infringement claims detailed in the legal complaint. Here is IMDb Pro’s chart showing the history of status changes for the film:

Rotate mobile device for best view of chart

IMDb Production Status3)

Status Date Changed IMDb Details Correlates With…§
Pre-Prod† Oct 30, 2013
Jul 2, 2014 Prelude shot in May, premiered Jul 26, simultaneous with Axanar Kickstarter
Development Unknown* Jan 8, 2015
Pre-Prod† Mar 16, 2015 We shoot in May/June. Christian Gossett resigned as director May 12.
Sep 16, 2015 Tony Todd left cast Sep 1.
Development Unknown* Mar 18, 2016 CBS, Paramount filed amended lawsuit Mar. 11.

Pre-prod means the project is in preproduction — it is financed, locations are being scouted, people are being hired and production is imminent with a fairly firm start date for filming.
* Development Unknown means the project is in some form of development stage that is completely unknown to the person who entered the change on IMDb.4)
§ These notes are annotations from the Axanar Timeline, not part of the IMDb data.

In Development

Rotate mobile device for best view of chart IMDb notes that there are several ways to define the stage of development a project is in. They are:

Pitch An idea for an upcoming project that has been presented and sold to a production company, which agrees to develop it.
Optioned Property A piece of literary work (book, short story, play, news article, etc.) where the exclusive rights to purchase the property are currently held by a production entity for consideration to develop into a feature length film or television project for a defined period of time.
Treatment/Outline An idea or abridged script; longer than a synopsis containing a rough outline such as a summary of each major scene and descriptions of the significant characters in the project. While a complete script is around 100 pages, a treatment is closer to 10.
Script Completed, copy written manuscript, which has been picked up by a production entity for development. A script may take the form of a screenplay, shooting script, lined script, continuity script, or a spec script.
Turnaround A project, which was previously picked up by a production entity, but has been dropped and is currently in a state of limbo allowing the producers to set up the project with another studio.
Development Unknown The project is in some form of development stage that is completely unknown to you.5)

Injunction

The lawsuit sought an injunction that would end production. The settlement reached by CBS, Paramount and Axanar Productions allowed production of two short films, totaling 30 minutes, instead of the feature-length movie planned by Peters.


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