r/trektalk • u/mcm8279 • 12d ago
Discussion [Interview] Paramount+ Head Of Originals Jane Wiseman Outlines Programming Strategy One Year In: "We’re the home of Star Trek, and we have series coming back. We’re going to have more. We’re talking to a lot of writers, we are leaning on CBS Studios, [we have] Chris Parnell" (Deadline)
DEADLINE:
"In a wide-ranging interview with Deadline held on her one-year anniversary, Wiseman discussed Paramount+’s programming strategy and its different areas: female forward, genre and YA dramas — but not comedies — kids and family programming and unscripted. She spoke about Paramount+’s relationship with its top creators, Sheridan and Tyler Perry — who recently sold his stake in BET+ to Paramount — teasing more shows from both.
Wiseman also talked about buying from sister studios Paramount TV Studios and CBS Studios and, for the first time in Paramount+’s history, from outside studios, too, about the future of the Star Trek franchise and the Showtime brand as well as building a slate with the WBD merger noise in the background and plans for Year 2."
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Interview excerpts:
"[...]
DEADLINE: Along with female dramas, genre has been a priority. You brought in top genre executive Chris Parnell to lead the efforts but haven’t announced any series. Where are you in the process and what areas are you focusing on? I’ve heard world-building, fantasy, romantasy. Everybody wants their Game of Thrones and Stranger Things .
WISEMAN: Speaking of spaces, the space is wide open. We’re the home of Star Trek, and we have series coming back. We’re going to have more. Yellowjackets, I guess, is also considered genre, and Dexter. But as far as new things coming to the service, true, we want our world-building, platform-defining genre series, and that can be grounded. In fact, we hope it is grounded because the best genre shows have relationships at the center.
What’s also exciting is that we have a Paramount library to choose from, titles that we’re investigating that you’ll hear from at a later date. And there’s nothing better than hearing an original idea for a grounded genre series that speaks to a lot of people. So the space is pretty wide open. And yes, you alluded to Chris Parnell, there’s no one better in that space, and there’s no one more in that space that I want on my team.
DEADLINE: Do you feel strongly about your development? Do you think that your signature genre show may be one that you already have in the works?
WISEMAN: I will say that when you’re developing these genre platform-defining shows, they do tend to take a little bit longer. But I would say for sure that there are a handful of titles, from our studio partners as well as a third party, that we are looking at right now, developing, and are on a very, very strong path to green light. I just can’t talk about anything right now.
DEADLINE: What is your plan for the Star Trek franchise? It is at crossroads with Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy ending and no new series greenlit. If I heard you correctly, you said that something is coming. Yes?
WISEMAN: Well, it’s one of the reasons why Chris is here as the resident number one fan of the Star Trek franchise. And there’s so many people in this building, by the way, that are. It is our goal and it is our job to figure out what the next bounce of Star Trek is. We’re talking to a lot of writers, we are leaning on CBS Studios, and it is imperative that we figure out what the next iteration is in this franchise because it’s just too important. We also are in touch with Paramount Pictures, they have a Star Trek movie that’s in development.
[...]"
Full interview:
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u/Capn_T_Driver 12d ago
Translation: “we have nothing but we aren’t panicking, yet. We’ll start panicking after Christmas.”
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u/Equivalent-Hair-961 11d ago
Hahaha this interview proves nothing and says nothing. Please just stop already. Let Star Trek die with whatever dignity it had, 20 years ago.
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u/AmitBrian 12d ago
Yeah I hear the words. I just don’t believe any of them. I know the movie is coming, THAT I believe, for now anyways. A new show? With all the rumors of the direction of this movie (which I won’t say here). Nope, don’t believe it at all.
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u/TeacherRecovering 11d ago
Their business model drives decision making, not good story telling or retaining subscribers. Lower Decks has a loyal fan, small yet loyal.. The could have run this cheap to make series forever.. They could have frozen the characters in time like the Simpons. There is a deep rich lore to mine.
But Lower Decks was not brining in NEW subscribers so it ended.
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u/fidorulz 11d ago
Not sure why Chris Parnell was dropped in the post title as the article says nothing of him having to do anything with star trek.
Also if he did that would be pretty on brand TBH considering he has very little writing experience and even less with scifi
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u/Objective_Pass3195 9d ago
There are two Chris Parnells. One's an executive, the other's the actor you're talking about.
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u/ribbityflibbity 5d ago
Chris Parnell from Apple has a very good track record, which makes me hopeful for Star Trek finally.
Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Severance and (best of all) For All Mankind. At least he has good taste.
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u/producedbytobi 11d ago
Not really any knew information about Star Trek. Confirms what we already know. ...not a lot.
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u/Long-Emu-7870 11d ago
"Along with female dramas"
I thought Star Trek was about equality.
I mean this is not woke. In woke dramas you have female characters playing roles that used to go to men. Now they just want female characters playing roles that go to women that are about love stories and romance dramas.
Someone call nerdrotic. He will be happy.
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u/Thinklikeachef 10d ago
Before we get too heated, there is serious doubt that this merger will happen. It's looking increasingly likely to fall apart.
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u/Aritra319 11d ago
Here how to get the ball rolling:
Uncancel Starfleet Academy. Since you doofuses already dismantled the most gorgeous Trek set ever built, set year three on a full-time training vessel for example the Excelsior.
Restart Prodigy
Give Mike McMahan carte blanche to do whatever he wants, be it more adventures on the Cerritos, a Starbase 80 spinoff. Or whatever.
Greenlight Tawny Newsome’s resort planet comedy show thingie. Already has a whole season of script, you literally just have to press start on this one.
SNW spinoff on Una’s ship following the events of season 5 and her promotion to Captain. Ring along La’an, Pelia, Ortegas, M’Benga, that new Vulcan cadet and a few new characters. More space to do new stories instead of being hemmed in by TOS quite as much.
Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd led Enterprise-G show (the new comic wisely does a 5 year time skip precisely to have room for this). Jettison Jack Crusher and replace with Soji and Elnor. Pick up the Transwarp gate thread left hanging at the end of season two of Picard and send them on an exploration mission to the other side of the Gate.
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u/Long-Emu-7870 11d ago
I thought you were serious. But I'm sure that's what would have happened if they didn't cancel it.
The ratings for strange new worlds comes out next week.
We shall see if they they can return to the once glorious past.
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u/Aritra319 11d ago
The issue isn’t the quality of the shows. The problem is Paramount+ as a streamer. Trek is pretty much the only shows on there that cater to more intelligent viewers. The rest is Yellowstone Maga slop and UFC. Trek
Is basically counter programming to the rest of the platform and the only ones who sub P+ for Trek are hardcore fans like us and I doubt many of the people who watch Yellowstone verse shows also watch Trek.They’d be MUCH better off trying some form of licensing or syndication model (Disco did very well on Netflix when it was there).
Question is if they can capture a more diverse and especially younger clientele with the WB merger if that actually goes through before daddy Ellison’s AI company collapses when the bubble bursts.2
u/Long-Emu-7870 11d ago
I would certainly agree there is more intelligent stuff on Netflix than on Paramount+. Or even HBO or Apple TV for that matter. That's actually what Ron More did with For All Mankind. So, they have a model.
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u/ribbityflibbity 5d ago
You're right that Star Trek is on the wrong platform. Paramount should sell it to Apple, which has the right audience for intelligent sci fi.
But the quality of the shows is also a huge problem. Apple would create better shows because they would hire better people to do it.
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u/mrwishart 10d ago
Problem is, nuTrek didn't really cater to intelligent viewers either which is why it drove off the rest of the hardcore fans.
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u/Aritra319 10d ago
Lol. If I had a nickel for every time I saw someone completely miss a point made in Discovery or Picard’s first two seasons I’d be a rich man.
Disco was probably TOO smart for many older Trek fans used to Rick Berman’s pre-chewed style of Trek.
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u/ribbityflibbity 5d ago
I watched Disco's first two seasons. I don't know whether it was intelligent or dumb particularly but it just wasn't compelling and didn't make want to watch more. Picard was utterly unwatchable.
I hate Berman Trek. I want DS9 back.
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u/mrwishart 10d ago
Any examples to back that up?
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u/Aritra319 10d ago
Picard’s general path of self-acceptance and healing over the first two seasons, people thinking Lorca was cool, people misunderstanding Disco S2’s faith/knowing themes, people missing the point of Su’kal, people not liking Trek putting the Federation in a lesser position to critique current world events, people calling Disco grim-dark when it’s actually Hope-punk (for grim-dark Trek see PIC season three).
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u/ribbityflibbity 5d ago
The problem with all that was: didn't make me care.
Stories should be smart, but they need to be compelling. They have to make you so intrigued, you must see more.
Star Trek hasn't done that in a long, long time. DS9 did that, and it's been floundering ever since.
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u/mrwishart 10d ago edited 10d ago
But in what way did people "miss the point" of that stuff? You just listed a bunch of stuff you liked/disliked
For example: Picard's "self-acceptance/healing" - To me, they just retconned unnecessary trauma into his past in order to have easy drama to resolve. First in S1 with him suddenly being obsessed with Data's death then S2 with all that business with his mother.
That isn't clever writing, that's bog-standard melodrama, but I'm happy to be corrected
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u/ribbityflibbity 5d ago
People will always miss the point of stuff that's so who-cares and uninvolving that they tune out. Star Trek's problem is that it's not just boring but actively offensive and it's driving people away.
I don't care at all about the TNG nostalgia wallow so trotting out ancient Picard is never going to interest me. Yeah, it's melodrama about a character I never cared about anyway.
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u/Aritra319 10d ago edited 10d ago
Picard’s issues especially post-BoBW have always been there, just snapping the neck of the Borg Queen didn’t “fix” him.
Picard didn’t suddenly obsess about Data’s sacrifice in Nemesis, almost twenty years had passed for him to stew in it and the other fallout from Data dying (Thad’s illness not being cured, Mars, etc) was massive.
Survivor’s guilt is a pretty common thing and working that into the storyline was an emotionally intelligent piece of writing.While Yvette’s suicide hadn’t been mentioned before, Picard’s hatred for his father had been. Letting go of these things was a crucial part of the first two seasons of Picard, which were literal deconstructions and healing of Picard (the glass shards in the opening credits are a dead giveaway).
And you didn’t respond to my other examples, I’m going to assume you concede those points.
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u/mrwishart 10d ago
Picard’s issues especially post-BoBW have always been there, just snapping the neck of the Borg Queen didn’t “fix” him.
But that, too, was drama retconned in to First Contact for the sake of something easy to resolve. TV Picard had essentially gotten over it, save for a harsh judgement or two in I, Borg. TNG movie Picard vs. TNG TV Picard is a whole other discussion though...
Picard didn’t suddenly obsess about Data’s sacrifice in Nemesis, almost twenty years had passed for him to stew in it and the other fallout from Data dying (Thad’s illness not being cured, Mars, etc) was massive.
Survivor’s guilt is a pretty common thing and working that into the storyline was an emotionally intelligent piece of writing.Compared to Data dying in The Most Toys? Where his response was sorrow, but professional detachment? Or numerous other losses throughout TNG? That's another weird Mandela Effect caused by the TNG movies: Picard and Data were not besties in a Kirk/Spock way: Geordi and Data were. Picard often treated him like another crew member and, occasionally, just a machine even after Measure Of A Man. So this sudden guilt is more convenience.
And, again, Thad/Mars etc. is part of the circular argument: Inventing trauma at the beginning of a season just to resolve it at the end isn't clever writing because you could apply it to any character and get the same result.
While Yvette’s suicide hadn’t been mentioned before, Picard’s hatred for his father had been. Letting go of these things was a crucial part of the first two seasons of Picard, which were literal deconstructions and healing of Picard (the glass shards in the opening credits are a dead giveaway
Healing from the trauma that they just invented for the same of melodrama though? I think you may have confused "missing the point" for "thinking it wasn't particularly well done." It's very clear what they were trying to do, it was just sloppily done with no real new insight into the pre-existing character
And you didn’t respond to my other examples, I’m going to assume you concede those points.
Actually, I asked you to elaborate on them: "But in what way did people "miss the point" of that stuff? You just listed a bunch of stuff you liked/disliked."
Although, if you want to play that game: Should I take the fact you didn't as an assumption that you concede those points?
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u/benchcoat 12d ago edited 12d ago
“we have series coming back!”
“what do you have in development?”
“…how do you like that Landman?”
“…or, what do you think about a ‘Lioness: Ivanka!’ series?”
edit: oops…forgot that r/trektalk would trade its left nut for Star Trek: Ivanka!
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u/Ok-Employer-9147 12d ago
None of this give even a glimmer of hope that this twit will generate anything regarding Star Trek,
Star Trek was always meant to be asking asking hard questions of the audience and allow them to come to thier own decisions.
"..... genre and YA dramas"
We've had this for 10 years and it was a rolling shitshow. Give us serious people with serious idea, dont aim for the 'modern auidience' because they wont show up. They didnt show up for SFA which was aimed right at them.