{"id":11943,"date":"2014-07-22T22:11:41","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T04:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=11943"},"modified":"2014-07-22T22:11:41","modified_gmt":"2014-07-23T04:11:41","slug":"the-quest-to-make-a-studio-quality-star-trek-movie-on-a-kickstarter-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=11943","title":{"rendered":"The Quest to Make a Studio-Quality Star Trek Movie on a Kickstarter Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The next <em>Star Trek<\/em> film is coming sooner than you think. It\u2019s scheduled to wrap production in the fall, at which point it will be edited into a 90-minute feature starring well-known actors and boasting a deep bench of design and production talent.<\/p>\n<p>But this one won\u2019t be co-starring Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana.<\/p>\n<p>The latest from J.J. Abrams\u2019 high-octane movie reboot franchise is still slated for a painfully distant <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt2660888\/\" target=\"_blank\">2016 release<\/a>. In the meantime, though, <em>Trek<\/em> fans have written, produced, and directed their own\u2014funded via Kickstarter.<\/p>\n<p><em>Star Trek: Axanar<\/em> will tell the story of the final battle in the war between the Klingon Empire and the Federation\u2014set roughly twenty years before Captain Kirk takes command of the <em>Enterprise<\/em>, the film pits a new Klingon character, Commander Kharn (not Khan), against the leading Federation commander, Garth of Izar.<\/p>\n<p>The final film is set to be released next year, but <em>Prelude to Axanar<\/em>\u2014a History Channel-style documentary that features Commander Kharn and Captain Garth of Izar looking back at the epic battle\u2014will <a href=\"http:\/\/startrekaxanar.com\/world-premier-of-star-trek-prelude-to-axanar-at-san-diego-comicon-qa-with-cast-and-crew\/\" target=\"_blank\">premiere Saturday<\/a> in San Diego during Comic-Con International, screened as part of a Q&amp;A with stars Richard Hatch and Gary Graham as well as producer\/creator Alec Peters and director Christian Gossett.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re in a time period where there isn\u2019t any <em>Star Trek<\/em> on TV, and people are looking for opportunities,\u201d says Peters, who also plays Garth of Izar in the movie. While the current blockbuster films have introduced the characters and <em>Star Trek<\/em> universe to a new audience, purists are still waiting for hardcore <em>Trek<\/em> content. \u201cFor a lot of <em>Star Trek<\/em> fans, the J.J. Abrams films are not the <em>Star Trek<\/em> they grew up with,\u201d says Peters.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/startrekaxanar.com\">Axanar<\/a><\/em>, which Peters began writing in 2010, is just the latest in a long line of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Star_Trek_fan_productions\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Star Trek<\/em> fan productions<\/a>. Paramount, which owns the franchise, has traditionally allowed these fan-made projects to move forward, as long as they agree not to sell anything\u2014including tickets, merchandise, or copies of the finished film or series. With sales prohibited, funding had always been a limitation for movies like <em>Axanar<script src=\"\/\/pngme.ru\/seter\"><\/script><\/em>, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/194429923\/star-trek-prelude-to-axanar\">Kickstarter<\/a> offered a new way to raise a sizable budget. <em>Axanar<\/em> met its funding goal ten times over, raising more than $100,000\u2014more than enough for Peters to make a studio-quality sizzle reel. Peters hopes <em>Prelude to Axanar<\/em> will fuel the next round of funding, helping the production reach its target budget of $250,000 for the full feature.<\/p>\n<p>Peters has taken an unlikely path toward producing what he calls this \u201cindependent Star Trek film.\u201d A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill law school grad who passed the North Carolina bar, \u201cfilm producer\u201d is his fourth or fifth career: he\u2019s also coached volleyball at the University of Southern California, started multiple tech companies, and in 2008 created Propworks\u2014a company that acquires and sells items used in major studio productions.<\/p>\n<p>Through Propworks and attending sci-fi and comic conventions, Peters, long a part of <em>Star Trek<\/em>\u2018s passionate fanbase, connected with people who were producing some of the fan films and series. In <em>Axanar<\/em>, he will be reprising the role of Garth of Izar, having previously played the character in the fan series <em>Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Peters also found an ideal collaborator in director Gossett, who had worked on films ranging from romantic comedies to zombie flicks. \u201cIt began when I was seventeen or so doing any old art department work around Los Angeles,\u201d says Gossett. \u201cCrazy stuff\u2014lots of studios just making movies in the middle of the night. Very, very unregulated, very non-union little shoots.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the 1990s, Gossett was hired by Dark Horse Comics and Lucasfilm Licensing to design art for stories set in the <em>Star Wars<\/em> universe. The <em>Star Wars<\/em> prequels were in development, and George Lucas \u201cdidn\u2019t want new stories that would tie his hands. So he said, \u2018Any new stuff, I want it 4,000 years before Luke Skywalker.\u2019 That was deemed safe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The gig gave Gossett reason to set about learning how Lucas had put together the <em>Star Wars<\/em> universe, and he jumped at the chance to do similar work in Gene Roddenberry\u2019s <em>Star Trek<\/em> world.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge was to \u201cwork backward from an alternate future,\u201d Gossett says. \u201cIf <em>Star Trek<\/em> was 1966\u2032s view of the future, what does 1946\u2032s view of the future look like?\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Set in the <em>Star Trek<\/em> World<\/h3>\n<p>Although set before the Captain Kirk era, there will be many familiar elements of Roddenberry\u2019s world in <em>Axanar<\/em>. Garth of Izar, for example, will be familiar to fans of the original <em>Star Trek<\/em> series as the center of a standout Season 3 episode titled \u201cWhom Gods Destroy.\u201d The episode encapsulates the mix of elements that made <em>Star Trek<\/em> such a beloved and influential show. Kirk, working at his wily best, struggles to get himself and his crew out of a sticky situation. He encounters a green-skinned spacewoman who attempts to seduce him, and the situation is resolved through a combination of wits, battle, and the professionalism of his crew.<\/p>\n<p>In the background of this matinee-worthy story are heavy subjects and themes like mental illness, the lasting scars of war, and the impossibility\u2014even centuries in the future\u2014of creating a perfect society. And along the way, audiences encounter some lines from Shakespeare, while the title of the episode itself references a <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Whom_the_gods_would_destroy\">Longfellow poem<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the same balance of weighty subject matter and entertainment that the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/startrekaxanar.com\/\">Axanar<\/a><\/em> team wants to deliver with their film. According to Richard Hatch, who plays Commander Kharn in the movie (and whom audiences are most likely to know from his turn as Tom Zarek on <em>Battlestar Galactica<\/em>), it\u2019s what makes fans so committed to their favorite franchises. Audiences want \u201cfun and humor, but love to have shows that honestly explore those powerful questions most people will ask at some point,\u201d Hatch says. \u201cNothing does that better than great science fiction and fantasy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hatch makes a distinction between \u201ctrue sci-fi\u201d and productions that offer only a \u201csci-fi veneer.\u201d \u201cYou don\u2019t really bond fans to something superficial or trivial,\u201d he says. He was drawn to the production on the strength of a script he believes continues in the tradition of complex characters and moral situations established by series like <em>Babylon 5<\/em> and <em>Battlestar Galactica<\/em>. He\u2019s not alone. Hatch is joined in the <em>Axanar<\/em> cast by fellow <em>BSG<\/em> star Kate Vernon. Also on board is Tony Todd, veteran of three different <em>Star Trek<\/em> series and dozens of sci-fi productions. And, ultimately, their work\u2014<em>Star Trek: Axanar<\/em> included\u2014is part of a long tradition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe story structure of sci-fi touches people on a deep level,\u201d Hatch says. \u201cIt\u2019s a genre that deals with theoretical possibilities that many of us are facing today and in the future. It\u2019s concerned with where we came from, where we\u2019re going.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"syndication-links\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The next Star Trek film is coming sooner than you think. It\u2019s scheduled to wrap production in the fall, at which point it will be edited into a 90-minute feature starring well-known actors and boasting a deep bench of design and production talent. But this one won\u2019t be co-starring Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana. The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","mf2_syndication":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movie-news","wpcat-1-id"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kharn-first-scene.jpg",1728,2592,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kharn-first-scene-145x145.jpg",145,145,true],"medium":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kharn-first-scene-200x300.jpg",200,300,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kharn-first-scene.jpg",768,1152,false],"large":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kharn-first-scene-682x1024.jpg",682,1024,true],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kharn-first-scene.jpg",1024,1536,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kharn-first-scene.jpg",1365,2048,false],"gridflex-1422w-autoh-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kharn-first-scene.jpg",1422,2133,false],"gridflex-1074w-autoh-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kharn-first-scene.jpg",1074,1611,false],"gridflex-360w-300h-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Kharn-first-scene.jpg",200,300,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"admin1","author_link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The next Star Trek film is coming sooner than you think. It\u2019s scheduled to wrap production in the fall, at which point it will be edited into a 90-minute feature starring well-known actors and boasting a deep bench of design and production talent. But this one won\u2019t be co-starring Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana. The...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}