Paramount and CBS are suing professional quality fan film Axanar

For decades, Paramount and CBS have tolerated and even encouraged fans of the Star Trek franchise to use their imagination at will, but on Tuesday they sued the crowdfunded Axanar production

Axanar is a feature film, but will be broken down into four episodes following the four acts of the script. With an overall budget of approximately $960,000, that means each episode will cost approximately $240,000. Add to that a portion of the ongoing studio costs, and the cost of Indiegogo, payment processing, and perks (see below), and we are setting a goal of $330,000 per episode, or $1,320,000.

We can make Axanar one act at a time, if needed (although we’d prefer to make it all at once!). So, we are setting our first goal at $330,000. There will be stretch goals at $660,000, $990,000 and $1,320,000, with each stretch goal meaning another episode will get made. If we raise the entire $1,320,000, then we will have what we need to make all of Axanar.

Ananar productions is talking with top Intellectual Property law firms in the US today discussing taking on Axanar Productions on a pro-bono basis. I can say they were quite interested in representing us as they knew about the law suit and had already decided that this was going to be a very high profile case that could shape intellectual property law for the entertainment industry.