J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin convinced Paramount to drop that Star Trek fan film lawsuit
In a victory for nerds, nerdos, and nerdlingers everywhere, Paramount has reportedly decided to drop its controversial lawsuit against Star Trek fan film Axanar. This comes from Deadline, which says Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin was “instrumental” in convincing Paramount to change its mind. Apparently, he was “outraged” that the studio was going after fans, so he and J.J. Abrams (who will be producing Beyond) decided to throw some of their combined Fast & Furious 6/Star Wars: The Force Awakens weight around and make things right.
Paramount has usually tolerated fan films in the past, but the high level of crowdfunding support (and high level of professionalism) that Axanar had was enough to make the studio feel like its copyright was bring infringed on, so it sued the fan film’s production company in December. The Axanar people fought back with a clever response, demanding to know which specific elements were being ripped off. Apparently, they assumed that Paramount would unable to break down the entire Star Trek universe into a reasonable amount of copyrightable elements. Unfortunately, they underestimated the nerdery of Paramount’s own lawyers, because the studio then released an actual list of every single thing from Star Trek’s decades-long history that Axanar’s production company had taken, calling the fan film’s bluff in a way that would’ve been pretty badass if it weren’t a huge corporation stepping on some Star Trek fans.
That seemed like it would be the final nail in Axanar’s sunglasses case-like space coffin, but the film will live on now that Abrams and Lin have swooped in and saved the day just like Han Solo and Chewbacca during the Battle Of Yavin. On a surely unrelated note, a new Star Trek Beyond trailer just came out, so anyone who was mad at Paramount over this Axanar business can now enjoy it (and buy tickets to the movie) without feeling bad. What a beneficial coincidence!