Myth: The success of Star Wars resurrected Star Trek
Star Wars was the highest grossing feature film of all time when it was released, so the release of the first Star Trek feature film two years later may make it appear that the huge success of Star Wars triggered the development of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It’s even somewhat of a public lore – depicted as a group of Paramount executives sitting around a big table following the success of Star Wars asking “What do we have like that?” with someone sheepishly replying, “Star Trek” as if it was a long-forgotten asset buried deep in the Paramount vault.
In reality, Star Trek was already a high priority for Paramount.
While the success of Star Wars in 1977 may have given more confidence in the potential success of a Star Trek feature film and granted more resources to it, it wasn’t the primary trigger to develop one. In fact, there had been attempts to bring Star Trek to the big screen going back to 1969 and became serious by 1975. It was a revolving circle of whether Star Trek would be resurrected as a feature film, made for television movie, or a TV series… but all were under consideration in the years preceding the release of Star Wars. Films under early development during that period included working titles The God Thing and Planet of the Titans.
There was a lot of groundwork completed in 1976 for producing Planet of the Titans, including scriptwriting and cast negotiations. Paramount officially announced it as Star Trek: The Motion Picture in early 1977 – months ahead of the release of Star Wars, with filming expected to begin that year on a $7.5 million budget – eventually growing to $10 million. Legendary directors Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Robert Wise – who eventually would direct Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and even George Lucas were approached to direct.
16 days before the release of Star Wars, on May 8, Paramount announced that the feature film was not proceeding. Unbeknownst to the public at the time, the primary reason for canceling it was to make Star Trek, penned Phase II, the flagship series of a planned Paramount Television network, announced the following month, with a feature-length Star Trek premiere launching the network.
Paramount Television was dead before year’s end. It was the failure to get Paramount Television off the ground that motivated Paramount to reslate Star Trek for the big screen but that wasn’t their first instinct. At first Paramount considered producing Phase II as a pilot to be shopped to the existing three networks, only to accept that its own attempt to create a rival network probably wouldn’t go over well to sell Star Trek. The series premiere of Phase II, entitled “In Thy Image,” was largely repurposed into Star Trek: The Motion Picture, with filming beginning on August 7, 1978.
Had Star Wars been Paramount’s primary motivation to turn Star Trek into a motion picture, it wouldn’t have held out for Phase II as long as it did – even going so far as to consider shopping it around to other networks when its own network venture collapsed, let alone the fact that they had serious efforts to make a Trek feature until the very month Star Wars was released.
To think that the success of Star Wars convinced Paramount to dump a huge budget at the first Trek feature film also isn’t accurate. The original announced budget was only $15 million – only slightly larger than the slated budget for Planet of the Titans canceled before Star Wars. The budget eventually swelled to $44 million but that’s a whole other story.
The release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture so soon after Star Wars is by coincidence only.
Timeline of the First Star Trek Feature Film
1969: First consideration of a Star Trek feature film.
1975-1976: Progress on at least two film concepts: The God Thing and Planet of the Titans, including cast negotiations scriptwriting.
Early 1977: Star Trek: The Motion Picture announced, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, Robert Wise, and George Lucas approached to direct.
May 8, 1977: Star Trek: The Motion Picture canceled.
May 25, 1977: Star Wars released.
June 1977: Star Trek: Phase II announced to anchor Paramount Television Network.
Late 1977: Phase II canceled, repurposed into feature.
August 7, 1978: Filming begins on Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
December 6, 1979: Star Trek: The Motion Picture released.
