Star Trek (film franchise)
The Star Trek film series is the cinematic branch of the Star Trek media franchise, which began in 1966 as a weekly television series on NBC, running for three seasons until it was canceled in 1969 because of poor ratings. Reruns of the series proved to be wildly successful in syndication during the 1970s, which persuaded the series thenowner, Paramount Pictures, to expand the franchise.
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry first suggested the idea of a Star Trek feature in 1969. When the original television series was cancelled, he lobbied to continue the franchise through a film. The success of the series in syndication convinced the studio to begin work on a feature film in 1975. A series of writers attempted to craft a suitably epic script, but the attempts did not satisfy Paramount, so the studio scrapped the project in 1977. Paramount instead planned on returning the franchise to its roots with a new television series, Star Trek Phase II. The massive worldwide box office success of Star Wars in mid1977 sent Hollywood studios to their vaults in search of similar scifi properties that could be adapted or relaunched to the big screen. When Columbias Close Encounters of the Third Kind enjoyed a huge opening in late December 1977, Paramount was convinced that science fiction films other than Star Wars could do very well at the box office, so the studio canceled production of Phase II and resumed its attempts at making a Star Trek film.Principal photography for Star Trek The Motion Picture commenced August 7, 1978 with director Robert Wise helming the feature. The production encountered difficulties and slipped behind schedule. Paramount had approached Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra to handle the films optical effects, but each was busy or unwilling. The production instead went with Robert Abel and Associates, who proved unable to handle the films large amount of effects work. Trumbull was hired and given a blank check to complete the effects work in time the final cut of the film was completed just in time for the films premiere in Washington, D.C. ........
Source: Wikipedia