WWI #49: Fan of a Movie Franchise? The Story of Alec Peters, the Man Who Raised Over $1 Mil to Make His Own Star Trek Movie!

Carlos Pedraza is a journalist, writer and independent film maker uses his investigative skills coupled with his love of Star Trek to bring us the story of Axanar. Axanar is the brain child of a man named Alec Peters. According to Carlos's website axamonitor.com:

'Peters is a serial entrepreneur and winner of Ernst & Young’s 2004 Young Entrepreneur of the Year. He graduated from the University of North Carolina School of Law, and is a former collegiate volleyball coach. In 2013, Peters portrayed Garth of Izar in the fan series Star Trek: New Voyages and was to reprise the role in the planned feature-length Axanar, which he co-wrote and was set to produce, though he decided to re-cast the role with a younger, to-be-named actor. Peters wrote the original story for Axanar 25 years ago and decided to produce it as a feature film after his experience with Star Trek: New Voyages."

Unfortunately for Peters, the success of his crowdfunding campaign and the growing visibility of his production brought obvious scrutiny from Paramount/CBS officials who filed suit. This set the stage for an ongoing legal battle between both parties.

Fan films alone are an interesting topic. Carlos calls his time working on various Star Trek fan films projects as his "film school." Actors, writers, directors spend hours of their time and money creating mini-storylines or off-shoots of their favorite series and characters. Most of the time, the big studios look the other way as there is no competition and no financial reward for the projects. What happens when these films get too big? Listen to find out!