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Production Halted
Did Axanar‘s director just let slip that production is on hold until the lawsuit is resolved?
Under pressure from a copyright infringement lawsuit, production on the Star Trek film, Axanar, has come to a halt, its director said February 19.
In a Facebook post on Friday, director Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise) wrote:
Burnett’s post appears to have been part of a long and controversial thread in the Axanar Fan Group in which administrators repeatedly warned members their questions about accountability or discussion about the lawsuit would get them banned from the group.3) 4)
Burnett’s revelation came just ahead of the Monday, February 22, filing deadline for Axanar’s Answer to the legal complaint filed two months before by CBS and Paramount Pictures. In exchange for a 30-day extension to file its Answer, Axanar had previously agreed to not proceed with filming until at least the filing deadline.
For their part, plaintiffs CBS and Paramount Pictures had already asked the court for an injunction to keep Axanar from going into production, and a hearing on that matter would likely have followed filing of the defendants’ Answer.
In another post on the above-mentioned Facebook thread, Burnett also expressed some doubt about Axanar‘s production prospects, given the lawsuit:
The sad part is, Axanar does not currently exist. For now, it’s just an idea. I think a good idea, but an idea which might never be realized, and that’s a damn shame.5)
While Burnett himself is not named in the suit, as director of the feature film he is widely believed to be one of the unnamed 'John Doe’ defendants described CBS/Paramount’s legal complaint.6)
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