Saw a story about this at slashdot:

 

Star Trek: Renegades

 

It's an IndieGoGo campaign to fund a pilot for a new Star Trek series.

 

As our name suggests, we’re Renegades!  We are attempting a bold new concept in television – create a full new Star Trek pilot episode to present to CBS as a possible online or cable series, rather than just pitch an abstract idea to a studio exec and hope we catch him on a good day.

 

The Renegades team recently completed a successful Kickstarter funding drive, where we raised our minimum goal to produce this pilot.  But, it was only the minimum. 

 

Since that time, we have completed the script, and it is much more ambitious than we originally envisioned.  We quickly realized the minimum budget amount we raised will not be enough to complete our production – at least not to the standards we want.  We’ve already made a few cuts in the script with regard to characters, locations and visual effects.

 

I was all set to blast them for being delusional internet Trekkie nerds, but then ... hmm ... they have a lot of the right people on board, so it's more than a YT fan-effort. Could be something. They're already funded tho, so I think I shall pass on that front.

 

And I'm pretty doubtful that CBS would go for it, really....if Paramount wanted another weekly ST series, I think they'd create their own. I think they're better off with sticking to movie reboots. But who knows.

Sounds like the ferengi have come up with a way to scam credits from humans in this sector. Something is not right with that project. 

 

Hopefully I'm wrong. The "@format" for film and video these days is definitely an option, but something about Renegades is triggering a yellow alert on the bridge. 

Of course it could be lost money... on the other hand, there's quite a few ST veterans along for the ride (or even organizing it) There's one thing however: Are they allowed to freely use the brand "Star Trek"? This surprises me, considering this is a TV/cinema franchise, and we all know from what corner the single most aggressive copyright protection lobby is funded...

This project seems a bit odd.  The Star Trek license is hot right now.  The movies are huge blockbusters.  If the studios really wanted to launch a new TV show, they would probably just do it.  I don't think a low budget pilot is going to win them over.

I think these guys have a better idea of if it'll take than I do. That's not to say I'm not intensely skeptical.

Adrienne Wilkinson, wasn't she in Alpha Protocol?

Hmm, so they want crowd funding to pitch their own idea rather than go through regular channels? .... why? They idea doesn't even seem particularly crazy or difficult to pitch, fairly standard (and kinda like the Stargate Universe spinoff). Seems strange that so many trekkie actors together wouldn't be enough in itself.

You'd be surprised how hard it can be to get an idea through official channels/agents sometimes. Especially if you aren't a mega-power known quantity. Good chance you'll never make it through the door to even pitch something.

 

Course, I *am* a bit unclear why having a filmed episode would increase those chances vs. sending a written proposal. But to be honest, maybe I missed something since I didn't read the entire website page, because I'm lazy, and because it's not like I'm going to give them any funds myself.

As a series Star Trek has been dead for quite a while now and it's not like there are a whole lot of Star Trek type shows being aired lately .The most recent one I can think of is Stargate Universe and that was cancelled due to poor ratings (Not knocking it btw, SGU was one of my favourite shows at time). Maybe that genre is considered a bad investment now when shows like The Sopranos and Mad Men pull in big numbers without all the cost of special effects and makeup? I can see how a pilot that has already managed to generate enough interest to fund itself would be a more compelling pitch than just a flat pitch. Fingers crossed anyway, 

 

Course, I *am* a bit unclear why having a filmed episode would increase those chances vs. sending a written proposal. But to be honest, maybe I missed something since I didn't read the entire website page, because I'm lazy, and because it's not like I'm going to give them any funds myself.

 

This is just a guess but I think part of the reason is that whoever is on the receiving end can actually see what the show would look like and that the team pitching is capable of pulling off their vision, and also in this case they're already proving that their pitch has an audience and is someway towards being self-sustaining, rather than the producers just rolling the dice and seeing if it works.