Axanar - Crowdfunded 'Star Trek' Movie Draws Lawsuit from Paramount, CBS

It'll be very interesting to see what happens when the studios start going after the funds post-judgment. They'll be able to subpoena bank accounts, track money transfers, and so forth. I'm dying to know where the money went.
 
It'll be very interesting to see what happens when the studios start going after the funds post-judgment. They'll be able to subpoena bank accounts, track money transfers, and so forth. I'm dying to know where the money went.

It would be interesting to find out not only how the money was moved around, but also WHEN various steps were taken.
 
And that's the thing about this stuff: there's always a paper trail.


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Follow the money... ;)
 
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Any news on a summary judgment motion? Anybody know what the deadline to file is for plaintiffs?

Motions filed by each side last night, Some real bombshells in there, including that Axanar is out of money, catching defendants in a lie in their answer to the compaint, and that donor money was spent, in part, on salaries (including $65K to Peters), health insurance for Peters, auto expenses, filling up his and his girlfriend's gas tank weekly for two years, cell phones for Peters and others, TSA Pre-check fees and "tens of thousands" in meals. Peters also tried to pitch Axanar to Netflix and Amazon (no competition with CBS and Paramount there).

Defense didn't rebut any of this, and is still trying to cast this as "a lifelong Star Trek fan doing it all to celebrate his love of Star Trek".

ASA - PM sent.
 
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What surprises me is the backing this thing is still getting online, there's a ton of folks showing support for this thing even when it's dead in the water. If nothing else it shows how little interest fans have in official trek stuff at this moment when a fan project is more popular than a new show and the movies Paramount is making.
 
Do they really know where all the money went? Or do they just know it's all gone now?

Peters could have stashed away a portion somewhere that isn't immediately obvious. Probably not, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility right now. He had enough time with it.
 
What surprises me is the backing this thing is still getting online, there's a ton of folks showing support for this thing even when it's dead in the water. If nothing else it shows how little interest fans have in official trek stuff at this moment when a fan project is more popular than a new show and the movies Paramount is making.

Maybe, maybe not. Yes, you still see some of the original backers standing behind it, as well as some online columnists who view this (however erroneously) as a larger issue of "the studios mistreating the fandom".

But let's not forget that an Axanar surrogate started a GoFundMe two weeks ago to raise money to "keep the lights on" at Axanar - by the time the GoFundme was cancelled a few days later (after significant outcry over why a production that had raised $1.5 million dollars needed more money to "keep the lights" on), only five dollars had been donated. And that wasn't even one of the "Axanar faithful" who stepped up - it was a vocal critic of Axanar (and a former ST-TNG writer) who figured out that, if he donated money, his comments couldn't be deleted from the GoFundme page like all of the other critical comments that were being deleted. So I think Axanar has, by and large, worn out its welcome even with most of the faithful.

M
 
Motions filed by each side last night, Some real bombshells in there, including that Axanar is out of money, catching defendants in a lie in their answer to the compaint, and that donor money was spent, in part, on salaries (including $65K to Peters), health insurance for Peters, auto expenses, filling up his and his girlfriend's gas tank weekly for two years, cell phones for Peters and others, TSA Pre-check fees and "tens of thousands" in meals. Peters also tried to pitch Axanar to Netflix and Amazon (no competition with CBS and Paramount there).

Defense didn't rebut any of this, and is still trying to cast this as "a lifelong Star Trek fan doing it all to celebrate his love of Star Trek".

ASA - PM sent.

So... they earned 1.5 million to complete the Axanar film.... and nothing has been been filmed? Yet, ALL the money was spent on his salary, splurges on food, flights, health care, car insurance... gas for car... cell phones... you know, the basic "living expenses"? How did he expect to make the film if that 1.5 million was for taking care of himself? Was he hoping to beg for more crowd sourcing money if this actually moved forward? Then would he have used more of that new money for himself and continued to plead for more money? I find it hard to imagine 1.5 million is gone when they didn't do anything with the film. I suspect he is hiding some of it somewhere for future living.

And if he used all of it for personal usage... wouldn't that constitute an "income"? WIll the IRS be breathing down his neck for their percetage of 1.5 million?
 
And I can't imagine more than a few hundred grand went into the short film he shot showing off what he had planned. It sounds like he started off with a plan then realized he could milk it without anyone catching on until it was too late.
 
Motions filed by each side last night, Some real bombshells in there, including that Axanar is out of money, catching defendants in a lie in their answer to the compaint, and that donor money was spent, in part, on salaries (including $65K to Peters), health insurance for Peters, auto expenses, filling up his and his girlfriend's gas tank weekly for two years, cell phones for Peters and others, TSA Pre-check fees and "tens of thousands" in meals. Peters also tried to pitch Axanar to Netflix and Amazon (no competition with CBS and Paramount there).

Defense didn't rebut any of this, and is still trying to cast this as "a lifelong Star Trek fan doing it all to celebrate his love of Star Trek".

ASA - PM sent.
Wow. I cannot wait to read this.

[EDIT] -- Just skimmed the highlights. Peters definitely feathered his own nest with Axanar contributors' donations. I hope they at least TP his house. :p
 
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The only things Mike left out there were new tires for Alec's Lexus, his AAA annual membership (the "auto expenses" he mentions), and travel around the world to various conventions to promote Axanar (hence all those TSA pre-check fees). mkstewartesq, I don't think "bombshells" quite captures it -- this is a guy who really took a large number of well-meaning, trusting fans for a very lucrative ride. I'm hoping some of the misguided fans who've been defending him will wake up now, but I'm too much of a realist to really believe many will.

I also hope the donors will band together and file a class-action pajama party against Axanar and Peters for willful fraud, since he represented that the funds would be used to produce a film, as opposed to lining his pockets and underwriting his lifestyle. Maybe the FBI could sleep over too -- wire fraud, anyone?
 
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Motions filed by each side last night, Some real bombshells in there, including that Axanar is out of money, catching defendants in a lie in their answer to the compaint, and that donor money was spent, in part, on salaries (including $65K to Peters), health insurance for Peters, auto expenses, filling up his and his girlfriend's gas tank weekly for two years, cell phones for Peters and others, TSA Pre-check fees and "tens of thousands" in meals. Peters also tried to pitch Axanar to Netflix and Amazon (no competition with CBS and Paramount there).

Defense didn't rebut any of this, and is still trying to cast this as "a lifelong Star Trek fan doing it all to celebrate his love of Star Trek".

ASA - PM sent.

:facepalm
So in other words, a typical "fanfilm" - not.

Smells a bit like Anita Sarkeesian
 
Wow... so he just spent all that donated money on himself and his cronies by the look of it? That's not just breaking the goodwill fanfilm ethics, that's pretty much defrauding the fans that donated.
 
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