The other night I was speaking with Christopher Mulrooney, founder of the Trek To The Troops organization, and he told me of a new fan film project he was developing. It is called “Wagon Train From the Stars.” If that rings a bell with some of you it is because in 1963, when Gene Roddenberry was pitching the idea of a new series to TV execs, he told them it would be like “Wagon Train in the Stars.” During that time the television western series “Wagon Train,” starring film great Ward Bond, was a major TV hit series. That show Gene was pitching turned out to be the most successful SF franchise in history — “Star Trek.”
Chris, who now lives in California, going to college and working as an extra in various television shows and big screen films, has already found a producer who is interested in the project. He also is in contact with different actors from the various Star Trek series’ to see if they would be interested in portraying roles in the film.
According to Chris, “Wagon Train From the Stars” will be a SF film with an old western feel. While he is hoping to get actors from the Trek franchise to come on board, he says that his script will not be another Star Trek clone. Details are sketchy at this time, as Chris is writing it now and doesn’t want to give anything away before submitting it to the prospective producer, but it will have visitors from space dropping in on Earth during the days of the Wild West.
The budget for this film has been projected at around $25,000 (USD). When completed it will be offered as a free online download and possibly sold as a DVD at cost and shipping. Donations will be accepted and will go straight to the financing of a possible second fan film that will be based 10 years after the “Star Trek: Enterprise” era.
Since this is a fan film project volunteers are needed. If you have film experience and would be interested in taking part in this “Wagon Train From the Stars” project you can contact Chris Mulrooney by sending an email to mulrooney@trektothetroops.org.
As this develops more we here at Slice of SciFi will keep you posted.
Still writing away with the Script still keeping some parts open for Drop ins for other actors that we hope to recruit for this fun film Idea. I'm Currently starting the 18th Page of script right now. It's a pretty much rough draft. Once the entire script is written I will have a professional Script write look through it and fix it up a bit.
Also my Friend Sarah Char is working on some CGI 3D Modals for some of the shots and once some are tested and created we might have a teaser even before we go into production.
Keep you all posted.
Chris