CBS recently outlined its new rules for fan films, particularly for those involving the Star Trek franchise. And for productions such as the fan film Axanar, the new rules completely restrict the way these movies can be made.
Axanar executive producer Alec Peters released the following statement about these guidelines:
"After a review of CBS and Paramount's announcement of their guidelines for Star Trek fan films, I'm really disappointed that this set of guidelines represents the studios' best efforts on behalf of fans. These guidelines appear to have been tailor-made to shut down all of the major fan productions and stifle fandom. In no way can that be seen as supportive or encouraging, which is very disheartening.
"While CBS and Paramount claim to want to encourage the passion of fans to produce 'reasonable fan fiction', the restrictions presented do just the opposite, willfully ignoring over 40 years of fan works that helped buoy the Star Trek franchise through some very lean years and enthusiastically spread the magic of the franchise in more plentiful times.
"Around the franchise's 50th anniversary, we would have hoped CBS and Paramount would have taken this opportunity to unite with Star Trek fans in celebration of their creativity, not seek to crush it."
CBS' new rules insist that all fan productions should come in at 15 minutes or less for a single story, with no more than two parts, which should not come to 30 minutes total and with no additional sequels or episodes allowed. CBS also prohibits fan productions from using the words "Star Trek" in their titles, although they must have a subtitle stating that that they are a "Star Trek fan production." And using the word "official" for anything is completely out.
Fan films also must use officially licensed Star Trek merchandise, including uniforms for costumes, as well as prop replicas. This means that handmade props and/or costumes are not allowed.
But the rules grow even stricter: a fan production can only use amateur actors, and actors from previous official Star Trek productions cannot take part in a fan film. Those actors also cannot receive any kind of compensation. CBS also outlines the budget that fan films can have, limiting it to just $50,000 (and any crowdfunding campaigns cannot exceed that).
The full list of rules are available on StarTrek.com.
It seems certain that CBS put these rules in face to halt production on Axanar, although CBS doesn't name the fan production directly. Not only does Axanar seek to make a full-length feature film, but it also uses professional actors, including some from previous official Star Trek series.
What's most interesting is that CBS released these guidelines after J.J. Abrams, who is in charge of the current Star Trek movie franchise, told fans that the lawsuit against Axanar was all but over. Instead, CBS decided to continue pursuing action against the Axanar team.
