Hollywood filmmaker J.J. Abrams drew cheers from Trekkies last month when he announced that a controversial copyright case against the makers of a crowd-funded Star Trek fan film was coming to an end.
Paramount Pictures Corp. and CBS Studios last year sued the makers of the planned low-budget “Axanar” movie, accusing them of infringing on their interstellar intellectual property.
Mr. Abrams is a famous director and producer — not a lawyer. And it appears that his assurances about the litigation coming to a close didn’t actually make it so. At least, for now.
“Axanar” producers say their film is “a love letter to a beloved franchise” and have fought back in court. The case made headlines this spring when lawyers for the two companies asserted copyright claims over Klingonese, or Klingon, the native language of the fictional Klingon species.
Last month, it appeared the defendants’ resistance wasn’t futile.
While promoting the latest installment of the rebooted science-fiction franchise, Mr. Abrams told fans that the lawsuit was misguided and that “Star Trek Beyond” director Justin Lin had gone “to the studio and pushed them to stop this lawsuit.” Mr. Abrams wasn’t exactly gainsaid by the studios, which said settlement talks were ongoing.
That was weeks ago. The Los Angeles Times reports on the current state of play:
“Nothing has changed,” Robert Meyer Burnett, who is set to direct “Axanar” if it ever goes into production, told The Times last week. “It has been going through the court system exactly the same way it had been before [Abrams] made that announcement…. I think, unfortunately, the outcome ultimately is not going to be favorable to us and certainly not for our fans and our donors.” (A spokesperson for Paramount did not respond to a request for comment.)
In a recent counterclaim, “Axanar” attorneys, citing Mr. Abrams’s earlier remarks, said no such peace deal has materialized.
“[D]espite these public comments, the present action remains pending,” they wrote, “and Defendants are currently left with uncertainty as to how Axanar may proceed with its film to fulfill the wishes of thousands of fans who have contributed.”
Law Blog has sought comment from an attorney representing Paramount and CBS.
(Published by The Wall Street Journal - June 21, 2016)