Star Trek At Comic-Con Update

Last week the news broke that Paramount will not be holding any movie panels (including Star Trek) at San Diego Comic Con coming up at the end of July. Since that time TrekMovie has been looking into the situation and today has an update on what we can expect for the movie and other aspects of Trek

Star Trek 2009 movie
Paramount has confirmed that (as of now) they are not planning on bringing any Star Trek talent to Comic Con to promote the film and there will be no panel discussion. A spokesperson did tell TrekMovie that Star Trek “will have a presence” at Comic-con, at the Paramount booth. The most likely presence will be the release of some new marketing materials. At the last two Comic-Cons there were new teaser posters released and last year there was also a T-shirt. Although Paramount isn’t bringing Trek talent to San Diego for a panel, it appears the entire ‘supreme court’ for Star Trek (JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman) will be there for other projects, notably Fox’s Fringe , Dreamworks’s Eagle Eye and/or ABC’s Lost. It is also likely that Zachary Quinto will be there along with other cast-members of NBC’s Heroes.

Orci and Kurtzman were interviewed by ComingSoon regarding their new film Eagle Eye coming out this fall, and the subject of SDCC, came up, here is what Kurtzman had to say about it

We are trying to get our act together here in the last moments. We’re so focused on editing the movie that we’ve forgotten about promoting it. We’re not sure what we’re going to release it with. We’re trying to figure it out. We’re going to be there for “Fringe” and “Eagle Eye” and for other things. We’re all going to be there, so I’m sure we’ll figure out something before we get there.

Star Trek books and comics
The two publishing licensees for Star Trek (Pocket Books and IDW Comics) are going to hold a panel on Thursday (room 32AB, 4-5PM). Here is the description:

Star Trek without a blueprint. How books and comics keep expanding the boundaries of the Star Trek universe.
Andy Mangels moderator, Margaret Clark, executive editor Pocket Books, Andy Schmidt, senior editor IDW and the writers, Kevin Dilmore, Dave Mack, Scott Tipton and Dayton Ward

Both IDW and Pocket Books will also have booths. Both will have signings at their booths with Trek writers (and artists with IDW), both are currently working on schedules. IDW has confirmed that writers Scott & David Tipton and Peter David along with artists Gordon Purcell and Casey Maloney will be appearing (and signing) at their booth. Tokyo Pop (the makers of Trek Manga) will also have a booth, but it isn’t clear what they will be doing for Trek.

Trek product licensees
Although there will be no panels for Star Trek products, major product licensees will be at the show. These include Diamond Select Toys, Mattel, and Roddenberry Productions. Diamond tells TrekMovie they will be showing some of the latest announced Trek items, but there will not be any exclusives for the show. It isn’t clear yet what Trek prototypes (if any) Mattel will have on display. Playmates (the licensee for Star Trek movie toys) will not be at Comic-Con

Trek celeb autographs
Every year Comic Con hosts an autograph room and usually there are Trek stars available. The schedule has not yet been posted, but there will likely be some people with a Trek connection.

Party at Star Trek The Exhibition
As reported previously, Star Trek The Exhibition opened up at the San Diego Air and Space museum a couple of weeks ago. It will be open during Comic Con and they are planning a lot of tie-in promotions. There will be tons of outdoor advertising for The Exhibit around Comic-Con, inlcluding buses that are skinned to look like Starfleet Shuttles. There will be two Shuttle buses running every 15 minutes from Comic Con to the museum (Wednesday thru Saturday night). Tickets will be available at Comic Con registration and there will be flyers distributed at a number of booths offering discounted admission, free transportation and extended hours. On Wednesday night July 24th there will be a part at The Experience hosted by the 91X radio station…with live band and beer garden!


So…something, but not the big thing

So that is all we know for now. It is disappointing that there will not be a Trek panel from Paramount, but the movie will not be forgotten. And there will be other areas of Trek present, especially with publishing. Also there is likely to be an unofficial panel or two related to Trek. More will be known when the full schedule is released. TrekMovie will provide more SDCC updates as we get closer to July 24th.

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FIRST comments are incredibly annoying.

I’m not sure why they aren’t doing anything this year? Why hype it last year but not this year, the last comic con before general release? Seems like a missed opportunity, things have sure gone quiet on the public front lately, perhaps they don’t want to wear out the hype like has happened for some big movies previously that had tediously long waiting times.

Perhaps in one of Infinity’s Prism of the Myriad Universes they will screen the final cut of Star Trek XI starring Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner…..

L – A – M – E LAME!! LAME!! LAME!!!! – three cheers for Lame!!!!!

first – awesome at least something

Two years in a row, hyping and marketing, and they break momentum now? Weird.

They have really dropped the ball now, They think that w/o any advertising that people will be curious and go to the website! It seems to me that this ‘court’ has many projects and Trek is just one of the many projects. The hype for this movie was high, now it has crashed worse than the D in Generations

The mighty and all powerful Garth has said it all.
He sees ahead (the future) without looking back.
I’m humbled and meek in his awesome presence!
Fools!
Garth has asked me to convey this message.
Though you’re NOT worthy – he wishes you a happy 4th.
By the way…How is your HD TV and sweet sterero
setup? You mentioned it to me a little over a year ago.

Wes, I have to disagree.

Paramount has the best possible hype- rabid fans compulsively checking into blogs like this hunting for any sort of clue or spoiler or just one little image.

They will string us out until we’re darn near starving for info, then they’ll cut loose and send us into a nerd-tastic feeding frenzy from which we fans will give them far more buzz and free promotion that they could possibly ask for.

In other words, they are intentionally creating a calm before the storm so that the storm will be that much more dramatic.

If you ask me, these guys are geniuses.

Throwing something together at the last minute doesn’t sound to good. If your not gonna do it right guys then don’t bother. We fans who have been waiting for years deserve some consideration don’t we?

#6—-It is not even time for it to begin yet. How can it crash? My guess is, the “hype” will begin around X-Mas (but possibly preceeded by as new trailer at the end of Summer/beginning of Fall). If you need more than four and a half months to decide whether or not you’re going to see a movie, there’s something wrong with you.

The “hype” you’re speaking of was only “high” for people like us who scan the web for Star Trek news. Non-hardcore Trek fans (average moviegoers) that I know generally don’t know or care about it, and whether they learn about it now or in December really won’t make a difference as to whether they spend the money to see it in May.

They should make sure the trailer will be attached to BOND as thats THE winter film and its the only film I’m going see late in the year..(think its out early Nov)

EVERYONE is gonna see Bond just like EVERYONE is gonna see Dark Knight so itd be a good idea…

Hopefully it will be an amazing trailer like that fake one sounded…

THEY SHOULD AT LEAST DEBUT…

…a CAST photo, for cryin’ out loud. I’ve considered myself more patient than others where the promotion (or lack thereof) of the new STAR TREK is concerned, but c’mon… what are we gonna get–ANOTHER poster with just a logo and/or insignia??? It’s starting to get old and more than a little annoying.

At least a full cast photo (with Nimoy) of everyone in costume would be enough to get tongues wagging for another few months. Or a shot of the new Enterprise. Enough with the posters and t-shirts, please.

These claims that Paramount & the Trek production crew will have nothing to show at Comicon are very odd, considering the new movie is listed as a “generous sponsor” of Comicon on the Comicon website.

http://comic-con.org/cci/index.php

#9—-” We fans who have been waiting for years deserve some consideration don’t we?”

Honestly?….From a business perspective—no.

You are going to be there anyway.

I think some people here are letting past Star Trek film marketing campaigns color their perspective a bit. Unlike previous Trek movies, with miniscule B-movie budgets, this film is not completely dependant upon geeks who travel across the country to conventions. They have a much more mainstream-type marketing strategy, and with a $150 million invested, they had better.

I deal in “mainstream” marketing nearly every day for my business, and it’s all about timing. This movie is a product. I’m not foolish enough to spend valuable advertising time, space, and money marketing a product I will not debut until May of 2009 right now, and neither are they.

There is no way you can introduce significant “hype” right now, and expect to sustain it until May of 2009. It will, without question, run out of steam well before then. People may even get sick of hearing about it.

Concentrating the hype in a much smaller timeframe will produce a much more effective result.

Beyond all of that, consider that JJ Abrams does not have all of his eggs in the Star Trek basket. He is one of the busiest men in Hollywood. As inferred in the article, he (along with nearly everyone else involved) has a great deal more immediately in front of him than STXI’s release in May 2009. It should be enough that the Star Trek panel will be there in an “unofficial” capacity.

A lot of people don’t get it when I complain of the lack of Star Trek at Comic-con. They think because the film is so far off there’s no need and look at is as just part of the regular promotion. It’s not.

Comic-con is THE event to communicate directly with your fans. It only comes once a year and if you have a big-geek-genre film coming out anytime before July the following year, you’d damn well be smart enough to have a presence at this years con.

Particularly when you’ve already done so much to piss off the fans with a film that has a LOT to prove. This was just another bad decision, plain and simple.

Will John Byrne be there signing Assignment: Earth books? It’s Trek related.

They are not breaking any momentum that has not been broken already. Reacently big title fandome movies like Trek will be get two SDCC panels to hype. The first is the anouncement and pre-production panel (last years panel), and the second is the pre-release, show footage, get crowd really excited for the movie that is ABOUT to come out. That would have been this years panel, but then they moved the release date. That means their big, generate excitement panel needs to be moved to next year. Most likely to the New York Comic Con. In short, while it would generate a coolness factor to have a panel this year it would be wasted advertising money as the real excitment needs to be generated next year.

Byrne doesn’t do conventions anymore.

I’m all for being surprised when i go see the movie but isn’t this a bit ridiculous?

The decision made by Paramount to move the Release Date to 2009 has thrown the whole marketing of the movie out of whack, big time.

Basically, the Christmas date would have been more appropriate for substantial information to be released at SDCC.

Closettrekker is right when he points out that releasing information too early would be unsustainable from a marketing perspective.

I also point out Kurtzman’s comment from the above article:


We are trying to get our act together here in the last moments. We’re so focused on editing the movie that we’ve forgotten about promoting it. We’re not sure what we’re going to release it with. We’re trying to figure it out. We’re going to be there for “Fringe” and “Eagle Eye” and for other things. We’re all going to be there, so I’m sure we’ll figure out something before we get there.

This tells me that regardless of the release date change, they still had to do a lot of work, since they all have other projects booked up for their time.

Yes, it sucks that there’s nothing Star Trek 2009 related, except maybe extra marketing materials, but truth be told, there are many who are now caught like a deer in CCI’s headlights.

Unfortunately, there may be hell to pay by the Supreme Court at Comic-Con this year, dispite the fact that much of it is simply not in their control.

I don’t envy them at this time.

One thing that might have benefitted from Comic-Con, that many here are overlooking, is the release of Star Trek Remastered on DVD (Season 2 in August, Season 3 down the line).

Anthony, have you heard anything from CBS or CBS-Digital? Will Star Trek Remastered be represented?

#15—“Particularly when you’ve already done so much to piss off the fans with a film that has a LOT to prove. This was just another bad decision, plain and simple.”

It’s not plain and simple at all, and I think you mean that they have already done so much to piss YOU off. I cannot think of a single thing they have done to anger me a bit, and I consider myself a huge Trek fan and have been for decades.

“…you’d damn well be smart enough to have a presence at this years con.”

First of all, they will… just not in an “official” Star Trek capacity. JJ Abrams (the director) will be there, Damon Lindelof (the producer) will be there, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (the writers) will be there, and Zachary Quinto (the new Spock) will be there as well.

But I disagree with the notion that not having an “official” Star Trek presence there will be at all detrimental to the project. I don’t believe for one second that you won’t pay to see this movie because there wasn’t a booth that had “Star Trek XI” written on the front of it. Your presence here makes that very inplausible.

#8 Otter,

I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve been starving for a while now.

I don’t check for updates nearly as often these days, because I know there won’t be anything except for a bunch of STXI crew talking about how great the movie looks and how great the script is (and an occasional appearance by Senator Vreenak any time I think I’m actually going to get to see something from this heartbreaking masterpiece). It further rubs my fan bone in the fact that, even though the movie is practically DONE, I’m not important enough to satisfy with a small bit of real material to keep me interested.

The whole thing has me feeling a little taken for granted as a fan.

Call me a WAHmbulance… and I want to stop for a WAHmburger as well.

Not in their control? I don’t buy that. K just admitted to “forgetting”.

Not looking for “promotion”—duh—just looking for pictures. Don’t need a trailer. Cast photo in uniforms and/or shot of the final Enterprise (if it goes through changes during the movie—I’m wanting the the one the movie ends with).

No surprises here… It’s too early to promote this movie beyond what’s happening now. If the original release had been next May all along, I doubt you would have even seen the trailer yet.

Too much sizzle too far in advance decreases the curiosity right when you need it most. Hints in the media, a few pictures, maybe a new poster (silhouette of the Enterprise maybe?) displayed at Comic Con is really what is needed now. It’s not yet time to build the hype. You can keep a dog salivating only so long before he starts to not care and the steak he sought spoils.
IMO, we’ll see trailers start in the November/Christmas movie season.

Fans? They’ve forgotten about us LOOOONGGGG AGGGOOO….

I’m with Lord Garth….LAME!

#14 Closet…

…right smack on the nail-head.
What business are you in? I’m in print advertising.

Well this just confirms that it is Paramount and not JJ that is driving the decision not to do a panel. I know JJ loves SDCC and I am sure he would have enjoyed a panel about ST. Dumb suits.

Methinks someone at Paramount has lost faith in this franchise rebirth. At first, I thought the shift to next Summer was a good thing; now, I’m not so sure – no promotion, little or no word on new trailers, now no presence at ComicCon…there’s a pattern here, and it isn’t good. I can’t imagine Paramount thinking that *not* promoting it is somehow a good thing.

#7 .. It’s fine be alot better with TMP restored Blu-Ray but guess what no Trek Blu-Ray more Lame Lame Lame!!!!! Three Cheers for Lame!!!! Oh look Paramount repackaged and rereleased yet another “highly collectible” version of stardard dvd episodes,.. whooooooooooweeeeeeee!!!!

Okay, so I’m not Zoe Saldana, but I look great in a TOS mini.

Hope to see you all there. Stop by and say hi.

the fact that they’re (JJ and crew) all there but not for trek is just a bad move, it makes it look like they’re more worried about these other projects’ success than Trek XI’s….which is both good and bad if you think about it, but when do they plan on making some revelations/marketing? What events are left? I think it would be best to just forget about this film until January…there’s no use in holding our breath this summer…after the closing of the experience, Trek at CC 2009 is another depressing story…but at least it won’t be completely absent….and there’s always surprises!

The only buzz that counts is the buzz of the opening weekend. I am all for letting this team (who’ve already proven their marketing savvy) run with whatever marketing campaign that they choose to do. I have complete confidence in timing the marketing strategy in the time an amount of their own choosing.
As far as those of you constantly going on about ‘why haven’t they released pics of the Big E or uniforms’, etc., I have one word for you…RELAX!
May ’09 will come and go so fast you won’t believe it. Go out, enjoy the summer and remember to check in here daily for the trickle that will become the flood over the next nine months or so.

Re. #14
Since we fans pay $$$ it isn’t a very good business decision to just sit this one out. This is the last one before it comes out so at least something like what was mentioned before would be cool. A shot of Enterprise or a cast photo. We all know that it’s going to have an original series look to it so nothing major would be given away but the excitement that would be generated would be through the roof.

CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG…

…but didn’t someone on these boards (a few months back) post a link to an old Parade magazine cover photo from December 1978 showing the crew as they would look in THE MOTION PICTURE, a full YEAR before the film was released in Dec. 1979??? Why is something that simple not afforded to fans 30 years later in 2008?

I know that nobody feels obliged to throw me a bone as far as the new movie is concerned. Hell, if it weren’t for this site, I wouldn’t be paying much attention at all. But since I feel that I have invested 2+ years of my time following the progress, it would be nice to get a little tidbit this summer. And honestly, I think I’ve been pretty patient. As have most of the people here. I’m not fed up mind you. I just want something to tide me over because, personally, I can tell that my fervor for the film has cooled off a bit. And I find that to be disappointing, not only in myself, but in the studios decision. I agree that timing can be crucial when promoting a film but another axiom of business is to strike when the iron is hot. I worry a little when I sense the iron cooling off. Another thing the studio shouldn’t count on is that all the Trek fans will automatically show up for the film like it was the Field of Dreams or something. Look at Enterprise. Granted, not many people liked that show, but it does serve to illustrate that Trek fans can turn on the franchise if they aren’t happy about something, be it the direction the show is going or the feeling, right or wrong, of being jerked around. I know that I’m tired of seeing the same old logo for the movie.

Xai, you mentioned that it would be nice to get some pictures or something at CC and I think that’s what the majority of us are asking for. I know that a trailer is too much to hope for and maybe not necessary right now. But doing nothing isn’t helping either. Do I feel a sense of entitlement sometimes? I must admit that yes, I do. I was too young for the first run on the network, but I have been there since it first ran in syndication all the way through to today. I’ll venture that’s longer than the film makers themselves. I’ve seen them all and, along with all of you, have supported Star Trek. It is no small part that we have played in it’s continued existence. Without us it may not be here today.

It seems clear by now that no mattter how good this movie is, it will never live up to the overblown hype and expectations. Get ready for a lot of bitching from fans when this movie comes out.

#30 – I think closettrekker has it right, really. One of the worst things that could happen is for the hype to start too early and then be on a big downswing when the film actually gets released.

It’s frustrating for *us*, maybe, to have to wait longer, but for that big general audience that isn’t yet waiting with bated breath, the studio’s gonna hit tthem with the heavy advertising a lot closer to the release to get them in the seats.

It’s really a more “conventional” (no pun intended ;) ) strategy than a Star Trek film has had in a long time.

25 – They are WRITERS, NOT Marketers. The fact that they forgot to promote it does NOT change the amount of control they have from a marketing perspective.

37 – That was before the Internet, where information travels MUCH FASTER, although it would be nice to get some kind of tidbit.

It should be pointed out also that we don’t know what the new marketing materials will be for the Paramount booth. I expect very little though.

25 – It is also possible that ‘we’ refers to Paramount, rather than them personally.

Is it not up to Marketing to call them up and say ‘We need you to promote the movie at Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego. What can you show us?’

Well it is a matter of opinion, I think “Star Trek” should have SOME presence. I don’t think it’s a waste of marketing dollars because I believe in permeating the collective consciousness. Albeit, there’s still plenty of time to do that, it never hurts to start early. AND no, it’s not just the geeks who are exposed to Comic-Con, watch any of those crap shows like ET or Access Hollywood. They now capture many of the things going on during that con. Either way the movie will be a success, but from someone with a marketing and sociology background you want to get the word out fast. HENCE, the teaser on Cloverfield.

I’d like to see Paramount do a “post mortem” panel at next year’s Comic-Con. Fans should be able to address what they did like — and didn’t like — about the new movie.

The “Supreme Court” should attend. :) Actors optional, although I’d like to see them there. They could always discuss the DVD release, too. (IF a reason is needed to justify a panel for a movie that will have already been released for two months at that point.)

#36—Calling it “a bad business decision” implies that people will spend less money at the box office in May 2009 because there was no official Star trek presence at this con. That’s absurd. The only people who will even remember such a deatil 308 days from now are such big geeks that they will probably be first in line to see it anyway.

Are you willing to boycott STXI because the STXI “Supreme Court” and Zachary Quinto will be there “officially” to promote other projects which are more immediately forthcoming? If not, then it’s not really a “bad business decision”, is it?

You are confusing the emotional effects of your “fanboy” impatience with the tangible effects of real world business and marketing decisions.

If I spent the same money and time advertising the products I plan to debut in May as I did the products I have planned for September, I’d go out of business very quickly. They have every reason to be there promoting “Fringe”, “Lost”, and (in Quinto’s case) “Heroes”, and very little reason to be there promoting STXI. I’m sure they will be happy to entertain questions about it (although probably in the same “not giving anything away”-type manner), and perhaps even reveal a new poster or announce the new trailer or something, but that’s about it.

Star Trek fans are going to be at the box-office in May whether their presence at the con is “official” or “unofficial”. So explain to me exactly why it is you believe this is a “bad business decision”, as opposed to simply being disappointing news to a impatient geek who is planning to attend the Comic-Con.

And if you want to build some hype, have a free showing following the panel. Make it a fund raiser, or an open event.

For all my b—-ing and moaning for example no Gary Mitchell, etc, etc — I do believe we will see a very good movie. Based on what we know about the storyline, perhaps one of the best ST movies ever. Having said that I’m growing very impatient with this shroud of secrecy. Why can’t the powers that be “slip us” at least a couple of group shots in uniform just to serve as a visual appetizer. This has been my biggest pet-peeve!

I’d like to add that, although it’s not the fault of this production, there has been a bit of negative publicity for the Trek world this year. The remastered project HD fiasco, Startrek.com getting shut down, the online game failure, the movie’s release getting moved back to May 2009, ST:TE shutting down, and now not much presence at CC. Maybe this is making the “natives restless”, and that’s why we feel a bit “good news starved”.

Just a thought.

8. “In other words, they are intentionally creating a calm before the storm so that the storm will be that much more dramatic. If you ask me, these guys are geniuses.”

I was one of the guys who had a knee-jerk reaction the last time this ComicCon thread came up. I was really pissed that Paramount wasn’t planning anything this year, but think I’ve changed my opinion on this now. It probably is a good idea not to hype the film this far in advance and just let people forget about Trek for awhile. It has been, after all, only a few short years since ENT went off the air and the longer period for the ground to go fallow, so to speak, may produce better results in the long run.

Even after that fake trailer business yesterday I think JJ and the supreme court know it’s way too early to start pumping out more teasers and trailers and nonsense. I’d rather wait for a fully-realised trailer with some finished effects shots than something either a.) like the current teaser featuring a sequence most likely not even in the movie or b.) a trailer with temporary, unpolished effects shots.

Again, the way to go with this is spark the public’s interest at the appropriate time, not bash them mercilessly over the head with advertising way in advance the way Lucas did with the Star Wars prequels. Incidently, I went and saw “Wall-E” yesterday in a full theatre (and yes, go see it, it’s great) and when the trailer ended for the new CGI Star Wars ‘movie’ (just the TV series pilot I understand), there was virtually no reaction from the audience. To me, it was just, “Ugh, more of this again?” Especially coming this soon after Lucas’ rather bland recent Indy effort. Meh. Trek has suffered too much in the past from oversaturation. Us diehards have had our curiosity piqued (just look how often folks post, “JUST GIVE US THE DAMN TRAILER, ALREADY!!!!” on this site), they know they’ve got us. Let them remind the public at large about the movie maybe around Christmas. Or even later.