'Star Trek' Fan Film Lawsuit Settled, 'Axanar' Will Be Released In 15-Minute Segments

The Star Trek fan film Axanar is moving forward again. Axanar Productions raised $1 million via crowdsourcing to produce a feature-length fan film with production values beyond your typical fan project. After the movie had started shooting, CBS and Paramount filed a lawsuit, claiming the fan film violates the rights of their intellectual property. Despite directors J.J. Abrams and Justin Lin urging the studio to drop the lawsuit, it continued, but it's now settled.

Below, learn more about the Star Trek fan film.

Axanar Productions and Paramount won't go to trial. A part of the settlement is that the owner of Axanar Productions, Alec Peters, makes crystal clear that the fan film and its prequel, A Prelude to Axanar, "were not approved by Paramount or CBS, and that both works crossed boundaries acceptable to CBS and Paramount relating to copyright law." The film's producers will have to make "substantial changes to resolve this litigation," including turning the feature-length fan film into two commercial-free 15-minutes segments.

For future productions, Axanar Productions must follow the fan-film guidelines issued by Paramount. Here are a few of those rules:

1. The fan production must be less than 15 minutes for a single self-contained story, or no more than 2 segments, episodes or parts, not to exceed 30 minutes total, with no additional seasons, episodes, parts, sequels or remakes.

2. The title of the fan production or any parts cannot include the name "Star Trek." However, the title must contain a subtitle with the phrase: "A STAR TREK FAN PRODUCTION" in plain typeface. The fan production cannot use the term "official" in either its title or subtitle or in any marketing, promotions or social media for the fan production.

3. The content in the fan production must be original, not reproductions, recreations or clips from any Star Trek production. If non-Star Trek third party content is used, all necessary permissions for any third party content should be obtained in writing.

4. If the fan production uses commercially-available Star Trek uniforms, accessories, toys and props, these items must be official merchandise and not bootleg items or imitations of such commercially available products.

Axanar broke a few of the rules. Against the wishes of rule no. 5, the production company hired professional actors and crew members, some of whom had already worked on official Star Trek productions. A fan production, according to Paramount's guidelines, can only involve amateurs.

Over 10,000 Trek fans supported the fan film on crowdsourcing sites. The story takes place 21 years before the first episode of Star Trek, "Where No Man Has Gone Before," and is about legendary Starfleet captain Garth of Izar. We'll likely get more updates on Axanar and when it'll continue production, but at least after over a year of this lawsuit, it's finally come to an end for both parties.

Here's a clip from the fan film: