next Trek series pilot in cinemas as double feature from Paramount? - Page 2

Dennis · November 9 2009, 07:24 PM

Herkimer Jitty wrote:

What the producers need to be able to do is to shoot themselves in the head if they think about making assloads of spinoffs in a row.

In the case of the Trek franchise it's not the producers who get to make this decision (presumably because they don't own Trek). The folks in charge of the studio tell them that it's time to develop another.

billcosby · November 9 2009, 07:55 PM

Dennis wrote:

Temis the Vorta wrote:

I think the general public had decided that they have had enough of star trek.

The general public doesn't think anything about Star Trek when they aren't actually watching it. Only we do.

Nope, he's right - the other time the general public thinks about Trek is when they see an ad for it...and the reaction that marketing has to get past at this point is "oh, that old shit again." Abrams has done a lot to rehabilitate it, but there's a long distance from a successful film to attracting a sizeable audience to a TV series week after week for years.

Who are you saying is right?? Dennis or Temis? I think they both make valid points - I also think TV series' which begin with a theatre feature are too risky for studios. It's a lot of bad exposure when they fail.

Anyway, take Abrams-Trek as a prime example. If it was so successful and made many Joe Six-Packs and Trekkers alike pine (pun intended) for more of the same, why didn't they turn that Trek into a new TV series?

And of course, not 24 episodes per season where the quality would suffer. I mean a budget-heavy 12 or even 6 episode miniseries, to air on a major network. Trek was always meant to have an episodic flavor. How many Abrams-Trek films are we expected to get? By the third the audiences will be dwindling no matter how good it is.

Dennis · November 9 2009, 09:09 PM

billcosby wrote:

I mean a budget-heavy 12 or even 6 episode miniseries, to air on a major network.

How many big-budget miniseries have aired on major networks with any success in the last five years or so? The so-called "Big Three (and a half)" are moving away from expensive event programming - economically, they have to. Hell, NBC's just ceded five prime time hours a week to Jay Leno to cut costs.

Plus, of course, Trek doesn't have a particularly successful network track record. Broadcast networks aren't a good fit for space-opera/futuristic type sf/fantasy, so there's no good reason to shoot for that kind of venue other than a kind of misguided lustre of "making it big."

Limited or short-form TV series take root on cable - Showtime, USA, HBO...I don't know what kind of budgets those command, or what CBS Paramount's business position in cable is. Probably less money at USA than HBO, though.

The best place for Trek to flourish for a long time, quite honestly, would be a basic cable series based somewhere like Vancouver and produced along the same lines as the Stargates or Moore's Battlestar Galactica. Trek fans (and the studio) would need to be willing to accept the trade-off of flying economy class in return for a chance at long-term viability. They might have to do with a couple fewer funny foam forehead appliances or space battles.

billcosby · November 9 2009, 10:29 PM

Dennis wrote:

The best place for Trek to flourish for a long time, quite honestly, would be a basic cable series based somewhere like Vancouver and produced along the same lines as the Stargates or Moore's Battlestar Galactica. Trek fans (and the studio) would need to be willing to accept the trade-off of flying economy class in return for a chance at long-term viability. They might have to do with a couple fewer funny foam forehead appliances or space battles.

QFT.

Can you imagine Star Trek on HBO? That would be wild.

billcosby · November 9 2009, 10:30 PM

Dennis wrote:

The best place for Trek to flourish for a long time, quite honestly, would be a basic cable series based somewhere like Vancouver and produced along the same lines as the Stargates or Moore's Battlestar Galactica. Trek fans (and the studio) would need to be willing to accept the trade-off of flying economy class in return for a chance at long-term viability. They might have to do with a couple fewer funny foam forehead appliances or space battles.

QFT.

Can you imagine Star Trek on HBO? That would be wild.

But they do have huge budgets.

The reason the much beloved Deadwood was canned a year early was because of the whopping pricetag - 4 million per episode (the giant cast, location shoots, horses, etc).

jefferiestubes8 · November 10 2009, 04:19 PM

billcosby wrote:

I also think TV series' which begin with a theatre feature are too risky for studios. It's a lot of bad exposure when they fail.

I understand your point.

FYI
There has been an in-depth discussion on a Trek series 6 choice of TV channel over here: What channel should a new Trek TV series be on?

jefferiestubes8 · November 10 2009, 04:26 PM

billcosby wrote:

The reason the much beloved Deadwood was canned a year early was because of the whopping pricetag - 4 million per episode

actually

At a cost of $5 million per episode, Deadwood couldn't justify its existence when it didn't become a ratings hit like HBO's The Sopranos.

SOURCE

Wow $5 million! if only Trek were allowed budgets like this...they could go on location more often.

Stephen! · November 10 2009, 06:46 PM

billcosby wrote:

I also think TV series' which begin with a theatre feature are too risky for studios. It's a lot of bad exposure when they fail.

Maybe. Although as the Ferengi say, "The riskier the road, the greater the profit"

jefferiestubes8 · November 10 2009, 06:58 PM

billcosby wrote:

I also think TV series' which begin with a theatre feature are too risky for studios. It's a lot of bad exposure when they fail.

I wasn't thinking it would be a wide release but more of a promotional 2-day only release from the CBS Television marketing department. Yes maybe in 30 US states or just the top 25 cities. The Internet will take it from there. It is marketing not a product expected to reach the possible 300 million Americans.

with the proliferation of digital projection by 2011 that CBS Home video would try something with the pilot in advance like they did with TOS "The Menagerie" in 2007 in cinemas for 2 nights only to paying cinemagoeers.

I seriously doubt they would expect it to make serious money if only playing say 4 or 6 times at each theater. 2 or 3 times per day over 2 days. It would pay for any digital cinema distribution costs, a small marketing campaign for the 2-day event, and possibly defray some costs of the pilot itself. It would be a marketing choice for advertising the show directly to the fanbase instead of CBS Television or the TV network it eventually ends up on paying for print, radio, & TV advertising for months.

FYI Currently,

7,241 of nearly 39,000 screens in North America are digital

SOURCE Oct. 2009