In a move that will likely displease his current employers, Justin Lin the director of Star Trek Beyond, has come out in support of Axanar and even went so far as to brand Paramount, his employer, as "ridiculous" in the process.
Justin Lin blasting his employer in a Tweet that will no doubt make him both friends and enemies.His Tweet in full reads "This is getting ridiculous! I support the fans. Trek belongs to all of us." before linking to a Hollywood Reporter story regarding the efforts of Paramount and CBS to tackle Axanar.Despite the box office success of the JJ Trek movies, large groups of Star Trek fans weren't happy at what they saw as a departure from the essence of Star Trek in favour of flashy special effects, shallow plots and over the top action (for disclosure I'm one of them). When news first broke of Justin Lin, of The Fast and the Furious fame, being named the director of Star Trek Beyond it is fair to say that a number of fans weren't optimistic but Lin might just win back Trekkers... or Trekkies (let's not get in to that one now though) with his comments but one does have to wonder whether or not it is a simple coincidence that the director of the next Star Trek film really wants to make sure fans know that he likes them.
In response to Paramount and CBS claiming that Axanar had infringed on "thousands of copyrights" relating to Star Trek episodes and films the Axanar team sought to have the case thrown out on the grounds that neither Paramount nor CBS had provided any examples of what infringements had taken place. That as it happens didn't work out too well for them with Paramount and CBS simply amending their complain to provide dozens of examples of alleged copyright infringements.
The Hollywood Reporter article linked to by Lin (link HERE) details the pretty scarily large list of examples that Paramount and CBS have put together with examples of characters, events, uniforms, medals, logos, technology, make up and even the Klingon language itself, all things that they claim infringes on their copyrights.
Regardless of who wins and who loses Lin has made his position clear as to who he feels Star Trek really belongs to.
Do you agree with Lin? Must the line be drawn here? This far, no further? Or should Paramount make Axanar pay for what they've done?
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Writer Bio Christopher is on an ongoing mission to seek out new life in the hopes it is less annoying than most of Earth's population. It isn't going well. |
Written and Edited by Chris Halsey - chris.halsey@ufplanets.com
