Star Trek Beyond - Part 3

[Dark Raven]

I definitely don't think Quinto has the same kind of charisma as either Leonard Nimoy, or his co-stars Chris Pine and Karl Urban. He just seems to be missing something that his two co-stars have, whereas in the original Shatner, Nimoy and Kelly all had that charisma.

There's also something about Quinto that makes his Spock look less iconic, whereas Nimoy just had an iconic look. Quinto sometimes looks a bit more like a generic Vulcan you could've found in another series or on Vulcan when Spock was visiting.

 

[The Batman]

The original crew is part of the marketing. The nostalgia train that has been running hot in Hollywood is based on the most recognizable parts of the brands.TOS visuals and Shatner/Nimoy's larger than life personalities are what has marketed Trek to the wider audience.

By the time TNG, DS9, Voyager came around, Trek was moving into fan and niche territory. The same way comic books moved into the direct market.

They could have just used Pine and Co. to do Untold Stories of the 5 year journey but they choose to reboot the franchise. People talk about how DC needs a Feige, but Trek needs someone who respects Trek enough to break it down and rebuild it.


Putting it into this era was the right thing, but Pine and Co. won't ever be able to match Shatner's crew in terms of being marketable. Spock will always be Nimoy. They need to tell new stories with a new crew.

Pine and co can't match the marketability of the original actors...despite the fact that the pine/quinto films are some of the highest grossing films in the franchise. Uh huh.

The problem with this topic is that people talk as if their subjective problems with the current film franchise are the same as the General Audiences.

Promotion/marketing is a huge problem, and I assume not good enough overseas too where it is floundering. A new cast might be an option for the long term future but I think this crew needs to fully succeed over a few more films for people to be interested in that anyway.

This. Like I've been saying, if the classic characters can't succeed, it's, IMO, baffling to me how you could argue that a new crew would suddenly do better. It's something fanboys want more than the GA.

 

[Dark Raven]

I think there should've been more Captain's logs in Beyond. If this had been the original series, Shatner's Kirk would've had a personal log just after their ship had been destroyed and they ended up on the planet.

 

[elgaz]

To be honest, I think the whole concept of rebooting an iconic franchise and recasting everyone is fundamentally flawed anyway. With some little known property, it doesn't matter - but the original Star Trek is part and parcel of modern culture. It's hugely, hugely iconic. There have been books, fancy dress costumes, caricatures, comedy acts dedicated to Spock, Kirk and co. It's impossible to have new actors play these roles without drawing comparison, and 9 times out of 10 the old adage that 'the original is best' rings true. It's not even the same as something like James Bond, which is known for a succession of actors inhabiting the role and which still endless comparisons about who's best.

With that said, I think they've still done a sterling job of working with what they have and not only making the roles their own, but still paying some kind of homage to the originals. I just think it's as good as we can realistically expect for a modern cast. Quinto does lack some of the sharp features and edginess that Nimoy had, that is true, but let's be honest - I can't think of many other Hollywood actors who would carry it off at all, can you? We're never going to get a Nimoy clone.

I've said it before and will say it again, I don't think the cast/crew is the issue here - it's that the modern audience is used to spectacle when it comes to sci-fi now, and I don't think these modern ST films have enough of that. They're very familiar to us now and seeing an Enterprise vs XXXXXX space battle - no matter how well shot or epic it may look - is not new. Some fresh thinking needs to be directed at ST.

 

[Gabe99]

'Star Trek' Before J.J. Abrams: The Secret Projects That Were Almost Made
Homer's 'The Odyssey' in space, a new animated series and Christopher Walken (yes, Walken) as Kirk’s great great grandfather. Here's a look at the five-year missions that almost were before the 2009 reboot.

ERIK JENDRESEN (writer, Star Trek: The Beginning):

Shortly after Band of Brothers, I got a call from my agent, who said, "Would you be interested in getting into Star Trek?" And I said, "No." I don't really like science fiction. I'm kind of an odd purist that way. If it's not Jules Verne or H.G. Wells or Edgar Allen Poe or Arthur Conan Doyle, I'm not that interested. But they didn't take no for an answer. [Producer] Jordan Kerner called me back and said, "Would you come consult?" And I said, "Sure." I loved two things about Star Trek. The first was this sort of Horatio Hornblower aspect to Kirk. All of that boldness. It's sort of a throwback to a great kind of literary figure and hero. Second, I realized I loved the fact that the stories were always, at the time, of political or social relevance. There was a message behind them all. And it was kind of lovely. I really respected that.

I decided to tell them something that I thought they'd never go for: Imagine this baby as a trilogy. It should be something that fills that missing place in the canon. It was sort of like having an encyclopedia. This encyclopedia is missing the letter T. There's a gap. And interestingly enough, at least for the original series, an inciting incident that's referred to but we've never seen is the Earth-Romulan War that started the whole thing. I'd ever so loosely fashion the first one on The Iliad. And the sequel would be ever so loosely based on The Odyssey. I would love to leave the hero and his crew stranded and having to make their way slowly back to Earth having no idea whether Earth exists or not. It's going to take them years to get back on this crippled ship. And that journey in the sequel to the prequel would also involve some of the interesting moments that harken back to the original series.

GLEN C. OLIVER (film & TV critic, Ain't It Cool News):
Jendersen's Star Trek: The Beginning was massive in scale and rich in emotion. The script felt complex thematically, and suggested settings which were more vibrant and sprawling than anything the Trek movies had shown us to date. The Beginning was, fundamentally, a classic World War II-esque tale focusing on a young and somewhat rudderless Tiberius Chase, who we infer was a forefather of James T. Kirk, forced to quickly define his purpose in life when Romulans show up to smite Earth as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Vulcans.

JENDRESEN:
I was so looking forward to the second one, because it was going to be a chase from Romulan space. And also, the great notion being that most of the Romulan fleet would be heading back to Romulus from Earth so they are sort of on a collision course with the whole Romulan fleet. I was looking forward to inventing the adventures of Odysseus on his way home— back to Penelope.

I did have one person in mind when I wrote it. But it's a tertiary character. Tiberius is Kirk's great-grand father. So his great-great-grand father is Tiberius' father, Otto Chase, who leads this group of xenophobes, and I was just absolutely convinced there was only one guy to play him. And that was Christopher Walken.

This could work. Just change the main character's name from Tiberius Chase to Balthazar Edison.

 

[Pink Ranger]

'Star Trek' Before J.J. Abrams: The Secret Projects That Were Almost Made
Homer's 'The Odyssey' in space, a new animated series and Christopher Walken (yes, Walken) as Kirk’s great great grandfather. Here's a look at the five-year missions that almost were before the 2009 reboot.

"The line ... must be ... drawn .... here. This ... far ... no further ... woow."

 

[Consona]

I don't think cast or rebooting is the problem, I think problem is these rebooted films do not tell any interesting and compelling sci-fi/human/hopefully-you-know-what-I-mean story.

Am I right, rebooted Jim, Spock and Khan?

 

[rayc1971]

well looking at the numbers they are not going to draw even where do they go from here with this franchise

 

[Mysteryman]

well looking at the numbers they are not going to draw even where do they go from here with this franchise

A sequel with a much smaller budget would be my guess.

 

[Kathemy]

A sequel with a much smaller budget would be my guess.

They'll have to find intelligent writers then. Can't hide the plot behind 1hr+ of special effects.

 

[Gabe99]

well looking at the numbers they are not going to draw even where do they go from here with this franchise

The Mirror Universe!


Summer Box-Office Wrap: Why Hollywood's on Red Alert Despite Near-Record Revenue
The sequelitis virus infected a number of big-budget franchise installments, except for a precious few (think 'Captain America: Civil War' and 'Finding Dory'), while horror also helped save the day and Disney dominated.

Paramount's Star Trek Beyond is another franchise installment that's trailing the last film in its series, 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness ($467.4 million). Star Trek Beyond has earned $243 million to date worldwide and will need to be a sizeable player when it opens in China next month to land in the black.

"This summer there have simply been too many sequels, reboots, remakes and even re-quels that have failed to measure up to audience expectations," says box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "This has created a negative perception of what Hollywood has to offer, and despite solid overall revenues and what will likely be the second-biggest summer on record, a long-term trend like this could erode goodwill and consumer enthusiasm over time."

BOM:
Domestic Total as of Aug. 30, 2016: $151,391,338
Production Budget: $185 million

 

[Iceman]

How can it erode consumer goodwill when consumer viewing habits that have helped shape that trend? Lots of good non-sequel films have been released and seen unspectacular returns.

 

[Kathemy]

Star Trek Beyond has earned $243 million to date worldwide and will need to be a sizeable player when it opens in China next month to land in the black.

Frankly that's just dishonest journalism, though I guess she wants to put an at-least somewhat positive spin on it. It wouldn't land in the black even if it scored STID and ST09's China numbers combined and doubled.

 

[Gabe99]

Huahua Helps ‘Star Trek’ Find its Way in China

“Star Trek Beyond” may be late in getting to China – it releases Friday, some seven weeks after its U.S. and most major international outings – but when it does it won’t be lacking support on the part of Chinese film industry players.

Indeed, in a sector where the government sets release dates for Hollywood imports and requires that they are handled by a state-owned enterprise (China Film Corp.), the release of “Star Trek’ highlights some of the changing permutations of private sector involvement as the studios get more involved in film marketing within China.


The Paramount Pictures film counts Alibaba Pictures Group as one of its backers. So too Huahua Media, a two-year old Chinese company that has a growing role in movie marketing, but next wants to carve out a role as film investor and importer.


For the past week, Huahua has been promoting “Star Trek Beyond” through “Happy Camp,” one of China’s top rating TV variety shows, backed by Hunan Broadcasting. Prior to that scripted elements of “Happy Camp” were produced at Paramount Pictures and exclusive cast interviews recorded.

Hollywood studios frequently attach a local Chinese celebrity to be the brand ambassador for a film. In the case of “Star Trek” Huahua hitched up two, “Happy Camp”’s husband and wife hosts Xie Na (aka Nana) and Jason Zhang Jie. As well as a tabloid-friendly marriage, the pair have a cool 120 million Weibo (social media) followers. Zhang recorded the Chinese theme song for the movie and performed it on a music tour. The power couple and “Happy Camp” were also part of the “Star Trek Beyond” promotional event at Comic-Con.

“There are cultural differences between (Hollywood and Chinese) films. And Chinese audiences have had only limited interaction with foreign stars. So Chinese brand ambassadors can sum up the movie for the Chinese audience and act as a cultural translator,” says Huahua CEO Wang Kefei. Huahua also rounded up close to 100 other local businesses as partners on the movie. Notable among these was China International Broadcasting Network, giving it access to apps, ISPs and streaming services.

Huahua was previously part of the marketing mix for “Transformers 4” and for Dream of Dragons’ “Cloud Atlas.” Both were films where the Chinese box office exceeded the North American numbers, and Huahua has been attached in some fashion to all of Paramount’s titles in China since.

“Our strength is in marketing, but our next moves are into investment in tentpole movies,” says Wang. “We learned from ‘Cloud Atlas’ that Chinese elements and resources can lead to a bigger success. So, we also want to be equity owners and ultimately share in the profits.” Huahua’s plans call for it to be involved in the import of five movies over the next couple of months, including one more Paramount movie.

Others in the pipeline are structured differently and include U.S. and British independent titles. Huahua was importer of Aug. 12 European animation release “Song of the Sea” (garnering some $2 million to date) and it will next bring in U.K. comedy “Absolutely Anything.” Both are flat fee import deals. “Ultimately, we also aim to be more involved. We are looking at investment in three or four movies where we will seek co-production status. And for those, British and American movies are our priority areas,” says Wang.

 

[TheComicbookKid]

Pine and co can't match the marketability of the original actors...despite the fact that the pine/quinto films are some of the highest grossing films in the franchise. Uh huh.

The problem with this topic is that people talk as if their subjective problems with the current film franchise are the same as the General Audiences.

The fact that the movies are making money yet Nimoy/Shatner gifs/t-shirts/promtional material are what people see when they search for Star Trek stuff to wear.

One of my my co-workers was wearing a funny Nimoy Trek shirt.

There will always be a reliance on the TOS tell sell Trek is the problem. With a new crew, it simply frees consumers up to only be able promote the Trek brand these new actor's faces on shirts/mugs/or posters.


The prequels made money but no one is searching out Anakin merchandise instead of Vader from the original trilogy. Rey toys and stuff were in high demand, not just slave Leia. Obi-Wan stuff that sells isn't Ewan.

This. Like I've been saying, if the classic characters can't succeed, it's, IMO, baffling to me how you could argue that a new crew would suddenly do better. It's something fanboys want more than the GA.

That's like saying Iron Man can't outgross Batman or Superman cause he hasn't been a cultural icon for 70 plus years.

Oh right. He can.

 

[rayc1971]

A sequel with a much smaller budget would be my guess.

how much smaller can they go cant see them going below 150mill for budget

 

[Iceman]

I hope there is some truth to that suggestion that the films justify themselves by supporting awareness for the rest of the Star Trek product catalogue. Otherwise it's difficult to see how they would keep making them with such low returns.

 

[Mysteryman]

I hope there is some truth to that suggestion that the films justify themselves by supporting awareness for the rest of the Star Trek product catalogue. Otherwise it's difficult to see how they would keep making them with such low returns.

I wouldn't be surprised if they marketed the next film as the last movie with this cast.
Of course if the movie does well, they could reunite the cast later

 

[MadVillainy]

I'd be surprised if they make another one with this cast

 

[Doctor Jones]

As far as I'm concerned we're better off without another one with the sound of that potential story. As great as this movie was, I think the show is gonna bring it back where it really belongs given where tv is right now.

 

[TheVileOne]

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't keen on the Chris Hemsworth premise either. But we'll see what happens.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

$9.3 million OD in China. +160% vs. STID's OD. So not bad...

 

[Lord]

They'll have to find intelligent writers then. Can't hide the plot behind 1hr+ of special effects.

The script was pretty good this time though. Into Darkness had the weaker script, yet made much more money. An inteligent script isn't always what makes a film be successful. That's why most people complained about this summer season's movies, yet, gave more money to the likes of Suicide Squad and Independence Day 2, while ignoring good major budgeted films like this one, Pete's Dragon and Kubo.

 

[regnak]

The script was pretty good this time though. Into Darkness had the weaker script, yet made much more money. An inteligent script isn't always what makes a film be successful. That's why most people complained about this summer season's movies, yet, gave more money to the likes of Suicide Squad and Independence Day 2, while ignoring good major budgeted films like this one, Pete's Dragon and Kubo.

I do wonder if BC made a significant difference in that overseas. If so it would bode well for Dr. Strange.

 

[Lord]

I do wonder if BC made a significant difference in that overseas. If so it would bode well for Dr. Strange.

I'm guessing it was a mix of him and good marketing. Aside from the psoters, i don't think this film's marketing hasn't been nearly as good as the one for the previous films.