Paramount Reportedly Eyeing Will Smith For Big Star Trek Role

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Will Smith in Trek? What the ****ing **** is Paramount thinking here?!?!?!

https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/...tar-trek-role/

/Ok, I know that I talked shit on DC for their casting for Batman and it seems I'm gonna probably eat crow on that. So... I'm doubling down and hopefully I am equally as surprised by the trailers if it actually happens.

[Buehler445]

Woof.

People are stupid. I don’t know anything about Discovery, but man those OTA network shows are bad. Why someone would watch Big Brother over Star Trek even middling Star Trek boggles the mind.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

I just posted this in a Star Trek related thread but thought it fit here as well
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Unfortunately, there's been a lot of discussion over at Paramount about dropping Star Trek movies altogether because they don't make the studio any money, while taking up a substantial amount of their yearly budget and stage time.

The TV series aren't doing well, either, and just barely enough to justify their existence. There's been an internal debate as to whether or not Star Trek should exist in any new format moving forward because it just doesn't have enough appeal (i.e., viewership) to justify the continuation of the IP.

CBS is now airing the first season of Discovery on the CBS TV network, which will also help to determine its fate on the small screen and so far, it's not looking good. It had 1.7 million viewers and a .2 rating Thursday night and was beat by reruns airing on NBC and ABC. The ratings were also lower than a Bull repeat that aired two weeks prior in the same time slot.

Freaking Press Your Luck had 3.5 million viewers, followed by Match Game with 2.9 million viewers, both of which easily beat Discovery. Big Brother scored 4.5 million viewers a few days later and costs a fraction to produce as Discovery or any Star Trek series.

I’m starting to feel like trek is an IP past it’s time.

I’m guessing the average age of the typical fan must be like 40-70.

Not exactly the most appealing demo.

[Easy 6]

Will Smith is a garbage actor, a hollowed out, soulless shell of a human being... a paint by numbers Hollywood robot imitating human emotions at this point, I wouldn't even rent anything he's in these days

[Jamie]

I don't know, maybe Star Trek would succeed if they actually made good some Star Trek. They keep trying to force it into being this big budget action franchise, and that's just not what it is. When people ask me why I prefer Star Trek to Star Wars, my answer is The Inner Light is better than any Star Wars movie. And the people in charge of Star Trek now not only don't aspire to that kind of story, they'd reject it if it was handed to them. "Too boring, add a 150 ship space battle and at least one graphic decapitation."

[unlurking]

Originally Posted by Buehler445

Woof.

People are stupid. I don’t know anything about Discovery, but man those OTA network shows are bad. Why someone would watch Big Brother over Star Trek even middling Star Trek boggles the mind.

By locking Star Trek behind a paywall, you immediately limit potential viewers. OTA reruns aren't going to make up for that. I doubt anyone that watched via All Access or pirated it tuned in for the marathon.

If you are going to do a paywall, you better have some damn good content. I know a dozen people with Disney+, and zero with CBS. I doubt most people know what kind of content is behind the CBS paywall, other than Trek. Everyone knows the Disney paywall includes Disney/Marvel/Star Wars/Pixar/etc.

[Easy 6]

Will Smith is Will Smith in... WILL SMITH

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by unlurking

By locking Star Trek behind a paywall, you immediately limit potential viewers. OTA reruns aren't going to make up for that. I doubt anyone that watched via All Access or pirated it tuned in for the marathon.

If you are going to do a paywall, you better have some damn good content. I know a dozen people with Disney+, and zero with CBS. I doubt most people know what kind of content is behind the CBS paywall, other than Trek. Everyone knows the Disney paywall includes Disney/Marvel/Star Wars/Pixar/etc.

Completely agree 100%. Paramount always makes the wrong decisions regarding their IP, especially with Star Trek.

What they should have done was to create a great show and air it on CBS. If it connected with an audience, continue to air it on CBS while simultaneously creating new Star Trek shows that would air exclusively on CBS All Access.

Instead, they created a show without any fan feedback at all, put it behind a paywall and expected all Trek fans to immediately sign up, because Star Trek.

So dumb.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by unlurking

By locking Star Trek behind a paywall, you immediately limit potential viewers. OTA reruns aren't going to make up for that. I doubt anyone that watched via All Access or pirated it tuned in for the marathon.

If you are going to do a paywall, you better have some damn good content. I know a dozen people with Disney+, and zero with CBS. I doubt most people know what kind of content is behind the CBS paywall, other than Trek. Everyone knows the Disney paywall includes Disney/Marvel/Star Wars/Pixar/etc.

If it weren't for ION TV, I'd probably have CBS All Access. But I have ION so I get all my cop shows.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Completely agree 100%. Paramount always makes the wrong decisions regarding their IP, especially with Star Trek.

What they should have done was to create a great show and air it on CBS. If it connected with an audience, continue to air it on CBS while simultaneously creating new Star Trek shows that would air exclusively on CBS All Access.

Instead, they created a show without any fan feedback at all, put it behind a paywall and expected all Trek fans to immediately sign up, because Star Trek.

So dumb.

They have not understood what makes Trek Trek for a long time. How did they miss their 50th anniversary?

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by unlurking

I know a dozen people with Disney+, and zero with CBS.

I have both. I've watched a ton of stuff on CBS All Access (caveat: I don't have cable, so any CBS show I want to watch I watch on the app...). All I've watched on Disney+ is The Mandalorian 3 or 4 times, the final final season of Clone Wars, the last season of Rebels (I cut my cable before it aired...) and Rise of Skywalker. There's literally nothing else on Disney+ that I want to watch, and there hasn't been for months. But Mando's back in a month so I kept it. Once the Marvel shows get rolling, maybe it's a different story. But for now I'm probably canceling Disney+ the week after the Mando finale.

I think a new Star Trek show might have worked as part of a streaming platform if they dropped it all at once. Make it a binge event (that's ultimately how I watched it...), maybe even limit it to 10 episodes. But put it out weekly like it's a regular TV show so you force the few people that do want to watch it pay for your app for 6 months? Yeah, no thanks. Just put it on the ****ing network and sell ads.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

They have not understood what makes Trek Trek for a long time. How did they miss their 50th anniversary?

Because Viacom/Paramount was run by an insane tyrant in Sumner Redstone, who cared about nothing and no one other than his yearly bonuses. I'll never forget the day that I had to "lay off" (fire, actually) two of my employees while Redstone bragged about his $80 million dollar bonus. I was enraged but couldn't say a word because that's just how it's always been run.

I'll also never forget the day Redstone fired one of their best creatives in Tom McGrath, the guy that led Viacom through the Paramount acquisition and produced such classic movies as The Princess Bride and Stand By Me (among others) because he didn't bid enough money in order to acquire Myspace.

Myspace!!!

Now that Redstone is dead, and CBS/Paramount/Viacom have completely re-merged, it's possible that they'll finally have leadership that understands the importance of their IP, although I wouldn't expect that to happen anytime soon.

They've failed repeatedly with Star Trek, completely botched Jack Ryan (which was well done by Amazon but Paramount could never seem to make it work with consecutive movies and all of their Jack Ryan's over the years), botched the Transformers series and so on.

It's a gigantic entertainment company that's run like a Mom & Pop shop. I can't even begin to list the number of gaffes that company made during my 10 year tenure, let alone, the number of gaffes made since I left in 2004.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I have both. I've watched a ton of stuff on CBS All Access (caveat: I don't have cable, so any CBS show I want to watch I watch on the app...). All I've watched on Disney+ is The Mandalorian 3 or 4 times, the final final season of Clone Wars, the last season of Rebels (I cut my cable before it aired...) and Rise of Skywalker. There's literally nothing else on Disney+ that I want to watch, and there hasn't been for months.

For a guy with kids, Disney+ is a godsend. Not only have we watched every Star Wars program, from the animated series to the Lego series and The Mando but all of the Marvel films, some of the Marvel specials, all of the Pixar films and shorts, all of the Pixar related programs and of course, a ton of the Disney IP, whether it's Mickey Mouse from the 1930's through the most recent series, movies, shows like Brain Games and Weird But True and so on. We even watched Mickey Mouse Club episodes from the 1950's!

That said, we're a huge Disney family and have had Disneyland Annual Passes since 2010. Network TV has a dearth of programming that's suitable for children but with Disney+, there are nearly endless options.

[unlurking]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I have both. I've watched a ton of stuff on CBS All Access (caveat: I don't have cable, so any CBS show I want to watch I watch on the app...). All I've watched on Disney+ is The Mandalorian 3 or 4 times, the final final season of Clone Wars, the last season of Rebels (I cut my cable before it aired...) and Rise of Skywalker. There's literally nothing else on Disney+ that I want to watch, and there hasn't been for months. But Mando's back in a month so I kept it. Once the Marvel shows get rolling, maybe it's a different story. But for now I'm probably canceling Disney+ the week after the Mando finale.

I think a new Star Trek show might have worked as part of a streaming platform if they dropped it all at once. Make it a binge event (that's ultimately how I watched it...), maybe even limit it to 10 episodes. But put it out weekly like it's a regular TV show so you force the few people that do want to watch it pay for your app for 6 months? Yeah, no thanks. Just put it on the ****ing network and sell ads.

Like Dane, most of my friends have kids from babies to teens. Disney+ has content for all of them. My kids out of the house, which is probably why I don't have it. While I'm a huge Marvel fan, I also don't rewatch content much so a single theater viewing is fine for me. I don't have CBS, but I do have Hulu and other than Trek I'm not aware of what, if anything, I am missing. I usually do HBO about 3-6 months a year since they have a ton of shows I really like but not enough to justify a subscription when the weather is nice. Although I've had almost a year this time. Thanks covid. Basically I just think we've reached "peak streaming". lol

[FemdomFilmFan]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

While Pegg gets criticized by the fervent Trekkers for his portrayal of Scotty (his Scot accent is different, apparently). He is beloved for the screenwriting he did to turn a Kurtzman actionfest into a ponderous/introspective movie in Beyond (love the character pairings/foils in that movie).

The Khan reboot gets rightfully **** on for Into Dumbass, but it was a perfectly fine reboot otherwise with some real high moments. I vastly prefer it to the SW reboot, for instance.

[DaneMcCloud]

Josh Hawley seems to have the right idea but of course, his Star Trek movie has been cancelled.

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“What I love about Star Trek is that it’s not a war story. It’s not a story in which might makes right. It’s a story about exploration. It’s a story about creative problem solving. My favorite moment in all of Star Trek is in Wrath of Khan when Kirk puts on his reading glasses to lower Khan’s shields. It’s a brief moment that is so exhilarating because he’s using the best tool he has, which is his mind.

As much as I like the Chris Pine movies, they were mostly about running from one end of the ship to the other to put out a fire, to stop a thing, and then before he could catch his breath, he had to do something else. They’re much more action movies and what I wanted to get back to was this idea of humanity justifying existence in the universe by showing its best qualities.”