Even though Star Trek fans have been encouraged to make fan films in the past, Paramount and CBS have decided to sue the makers of Axanar, a crowdfunded fan film that has raised over $1 million.
Producer Alec Peters and his team launched two campaigns, raising $638,471 on Kicksterter and $565,701 on Indiegogo. The team claims that the film is not a commercial venture, even though it will be made by a professional crew, so they do not see it as copyright infringement.
Of course CBS Studios and Paramount, the rights holders of the Star Trek franchise, don’t agree. They filed a lawsuit against Axanar Productions and Peters in Los Angeles federal court, reports Variety.
“The Axanar Works infringe Plaintiffs’ works by using innumerable copyrighted elements of Star Trek, including its settings, characters, species, and themes,” the suit reads, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
The film is set 21 years before the first episode of the original Star Trek series with Captain Kirk and is about the Starfleet captain Kirk looked up to. In an interview with TheWrap in August, Peters explained why he thought that the project would survive a suit from the studios, stressing that the video uses no actual Trek logos and only three obscure characters from Trek lore.
Paramount and CBS are hoping to get production on Axanar stopped and is demanding damages linked to the project. They noted that, while they have allowed shorter films to be made, they are clearly not happy with the idea of a professionally made fan film, no matter what Peters’ intent is.
The lawsuit comes while Paramount and CBS are readying their own Trek projects. CBS is making a TV series for CBS All Access and Paramount’s Star Trek Beyond hits theaters this summer.