Paramount Planning ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Fan Event In May

Star Trek Beyond Fan Event

UPDATE: io9 is reporting that this fan event will be help May 20 on the Paramount Pictures lot. Here’s the press release:

HOLLYWOOD, CA (April 14, 2016) – “Star Trek Beyond” director Justin Lin announced today a first-ever fan event to take place on May 20 in celebration of the series’ milestone 50th Anniversary this year and the film’s release this summer.

The one-time only special event, taking place at the historic Paramount Pictures studio lot, will include the premiere of the newest “Star Trek Beyond” trailer, an exclusive first-look of never before seen footage from the upcoming film, a Q&A with Lin and the cast and crew, special guests appearances, and other surprises. The Q&A will be streamed via Facebook Live.

Said Justin Lin, “As a lifelong fan of Trek, we wanted to do something special for the fans and we couldn’t think of a better way to do that than creating an event dedicated to them in the year that we also come together to celebrate the series’ amazing 50th year.”

For those in attendance at CinemaCon in Las Vegas (read: not me) the big surprise coming out of Paramount’s presentation was not anything that was shown, but rather what was not: Star Trek Beyond. CinemaCon is a yearly convention for movie exhibitors (i.e. movie theaters), and every year, the major studios show up with big presentations to tout their upcoming blockbusters in an attempt to convince theater owners to put them on as many screens as possible. With that in mind, the absence of Star Trek, arguably Paramount’s biggest tentpole of the summer, was bizarre. After all, they had producer J.J. Abrams on hand as well as star and co-writer Simon Pegg, why would they neglect to show anything from the film?

Well, according to a report from Collider, it turns out the reason Paramount kept the movie off the table at CinemaCon is because they’re planning a big Star Trek Beyond fan event in Los Angeles sometime next month. According to Collider, the fan event will feature appearances from the cast and filmmakers (though who exactly will be in attendance has not yet been finalized) as well as the premiere of the next trailer for the film.

As excited as I am for this movie, I must admit it’s a bit disconcerting that Paramount is being so cagey with the marketing. This is their big movie for the summer, and they’ve released all of one trailer so far. While the line that they’re ‘saving it for the fans’ might sound good as a sound bite, it’s still bizarre that they didn’t show anything of it at CinemaCon, the place where they’re supposed to be convincing theater owners why they should put this thing on more than one screen.

Either way, I guess we’ll have a better idea of what we’re dealing with once the new trailer is revealed at this fan event in May. As soon as more details are available, we’ll keep you posted.

Star Trek Beyond arrives in theaters on July 22.

Source: Collider

David Daut

David Daut

Though his taste has been described as ‘broken’, David maintains that the Fast & Furious series is the greatest cultural achievement of the modern era.