‘Project Hail Mary’ Author Andy Weir Says Paramount Rejected His ‘Star Trek’ Pitch: Their “Shows Are Sh**”
www.hollywoodreporter.com
The author of the blockbuster film says Paramount turned down his 'Star Trek' idea and suggested that modern 'Trek' shows have lost their way.

The sigh from me is wondering why Andy Weir felt it necessary to use a platform like ‘criticaldrinker’ to go out of his way to trash recent Star Trek.

“They didn’t accept my pitch so, you know, fuck ‘em,” doesn’t really sell me on putting my dollars and eyeballs towards the success of his movie — no matter a great performance by Ryan Gosling or great production values.

Rather tells me why all Weir’s heros are lone-guy-saves-all-on-his-own tropes.

Quoting Weir in the interview:

Later, Marsden brought up the divisive Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, which Paramount+ recently confirmed will end after its already-shot second season.

“I think we can probably safely never talk about it again,” Marsden quipped.

“It’s gone baby!” Weir cheerfully agreed. “It’s all gone.”

Marsden said his advice to Paramount is to de-canonize everything Star Trek from Enterprise onward.

“Okay, you’re a little more severe than I am,” Weir said. “I’ll give you my opinion and I’m just a consumer. I like Strange New Worlds. I think it’s pretty good. I didn’t hate Enterprise. I thought it was kind of weird. Lower Decks I thought was entertaining and fun. All the others, they can go. And here’s another thing: I pitched a Star Trek show to Paramount and I was in Zoom with the showrunners with all the shows and spent a lot of time talking to [executive producer Alex Kurtzman]. I don’t like a lot of the new Trek. He, as a person, is a really nice guy. But at the same time, those shows are shit. He is a nice guy. But they didn’t accept my pitch so, you know, fuck ’em.”

  • ValueSubtracted@startrek.websiteMEnglish
    0·
    7 hours ago

    It’s probably worth noting that this is what he had to say about fiction in general, and Star Trek in particular, a few years ago:

    I dislike social commentary. Like… I really hate it. When I’m reading a book, I just want to be entertained, not preached at by the author. Plus, it ruins the wonder of the story if I know the author has a political or social axe to grind. I no longer speculate about all possible outcomes of the story because I know for a fact that the universe of that book will conspire to ensure that the author’s political agenda is validated. I hate that.

    Yeah, I didn’t really like the political message aspects of those stories [Stranger in a Strange Land, Brave New World, 1984, The Handmaid’s Tale]. Not that I disagreed with the political point. Just that I didn’t like the political points being there at all. Now, those writers are so good they make compelling and addictive stories despite the political messaging. But that’s often not the case with other stories and other authors.

    You’re not mis-reading me, though. I deeply dislike social commentary. For instance, as a lifelong Star Trek fan, it’s always bothered me that there is a presumed “responsibility” within Star Trek shows to talk about social issues. I just want to watch Romulans and the Federation shoot at each other.