Cash Markman made a movie. Whether it was going to be titled Sex Trek or Millenium 2000 , or something else, addressed a matter of who's the owner or originator of it. Right now, judging from the ad slicks, it looks like it's going to be called XXX Trek. The feature's on the Erotic Angel line.
The title was originally going to be a Sex Trek one, and that didn't sit very well with Moonlight Entertainment.
According to Gary Miller at Moonlight, where the Sex Trek series originated, director/writer Cash Markman pitched the idea of a Sex Trek feature to K-Beech Video. What was Markman doing that for, Moonlight wanted to know?
Miller: "Years ago Mark [Stone] and I being Star Trek fans said, hey, let's do a takeoff, we're fans. Director Scotty Fox got a hold of Markman who actually wrote some episodes for the TV series. We had Markman write a Sex Trek script. We liked the way he wrote." [Markman says he already had the script in tow.]
Markman subsequently turned out a total of five features for the company. Fox directed the first three; Stone, the last two. Markman evidently had another script. He approached the Moonlight guys with it last December. Miller said Moonlight wasn't too hot in jumping on the Sex Trek bandwagon again. Stone says he wasn't ready to do the project with Markman, that he [Stone] wasn't ready with the money.
Miller: "But he [Markman] was determined that he was going to shoot this movie with someone. He hooked up with Kevin [Beech]. Kevin then told Mark that Markman said it was alright with Moonlight, that Mark doesn't care one way or the other if Markman pitches Sex Trek to somebody else. Which is total bullshit."
Stone: "Cash Markman was totally out of line on this one as a matter of morals. I actually found out about the whole thing when my editor called me and said, 'Hey, you're not going to believe this. But I'm editing a Sex Trek feature.' I was fucking burned. I called Markman. I asked him if he shot a Sex Trek feature. He told me yeah, but that he wasn't going to call it Sex Trek. He was going to call it Millenium 2000. I thought fine, let it drop. Then I find out that Markman shot not only one, but two features when he told me he had shot just one. I never thought Markman was an out and out asshole. Like he's got this big dick or something. There's a certain etiquette in this business. It's a small community. I don't go putting out Buttman movies."
Miller: We found all this out from Randy Spears and Kelly Holland who's shooting a behind-the-scenes feature on it for European TV. Spears told us Markman hired him to play Capt. Kirk. [Spears has played the role before in the Moonlight series.]
According to Miller, there was supposed to have been a conversation between Markman and Stone where Markman was to have said, "A lot of people in this business think they own certain titles - but they really don't."
Miller: "Markman was determined to do it come hell or high water. He told Kevin he wanted to do it. Kevin said great. But then we found out that Markman shot the movie and sold it to Beech. Beech is a friend. We don't have problems with those guys. We don't care as long as you're not calling it Sex Trek. Who gives a shit? What does it really matter in the grand scheme of pornography? We left it at that. But the next thing you know we're hearing that it's going to be called Sex Trek. We said, 'What the Fuck?' Mark called Markman and got some bullshit crap. Mark then called Kevin who said he was told it was alright with Moonlight to call it Sex Trek. We go, 'What the fuck' Kevin then told us he never would have done it, but Markman said it was fine with us. Which is bullshit. Then Markman called Mark and said it was too late, the ads couldn't be changed that it had to be called Sex Trek. Mark then talked to Kevin, again, who said Markman said it was alright with us to leave the ad the way it was! Markman is determined to put out this Sex Trek movie no matter what. The years have withered away his memory. According to Markman, he's not only the writer, but it was his original concept to do a take off on Star Trek. No. The original idea was ours and ours to begin with."
According to Miller, Moonlight and K-Beech have since come to an amicable accord.
Miller: "Like there isn't a billion ideas out there. But Markman was determined to do this Sex Trek movie. maybe he was stuck for ideas. One of the reasons why we haven't shot any more of them, is that Playboy, which is the only game in town for cable versions, doesn't want anything to do with it. They're [Playboy] paranoid about getting sued by Paramount. When your biggest gun says it doesn't want it, it's no big of a thing. I don't know that science fiction is always the best theme for a porno flick even though Sex Trek did do well for us."
Markman has some slightly different ideas about the issue. Markman: "I came up with Sex Trek [1987] two years before it was brought to Mark Stone. It was my title, my idea. I wrote the script for Dick "Debbie Duz Dishes" Aldrich [for a now-defunct adult company]. They never shot it. I bought it back. I showed it to [director] Scotty Fox. Scotty took it to Mark Stone. I've been trying to get him [Stone] to do another one ever since Randy Spears came back. This was actually a script written for Spears. It was the funniest one of them all, but Spears left the business. We never did shoot it. Mark kept stalling and stalling. Finally, I went to him [in December]. I told him I'd finance it. I'd do it myself, but I'd give him first right of refusal. He refused. He said he didn't want it. He said he was doing gonzos and that the "Sex Treks" never sold well for him. I told him I had it pre-sold to cable companies that he'd make money off this thing. He said no, so I told him I was going to shop it around. He said, 'I don't like that. But there's nothing I can do.' I said that's right. If you change your mind, give me a call. I went to K-Beech and asked them if they wanted it. They said absolutely. I shot two of them. Stone called me. He heard that I just shot it. He asked me what I was going to call it. I said if it were up to me, I'd call it Sex Trek, but Kevin's thinking of calling it Millenium 2000. He said, oh good. They [K-Beech] then changed their minds and decided to call it Sex Trek."
It was susbequently re-titled XXX Trek. But, relative to the issues of ownership, Markman asks, "How do you own a parody?"
Markman: "Mark's been saying to me it was his idea. I asked him, "How was it your idea when I sold it two years before you got it? He said, "We thought of doing it, too.' I said, yeah, and so did Saturday Night Live. It's a parody." Markman said his idea was to call the two new features Sex Trek: The Maneater and Sex Trek: The Final Orgasm. They're really quite good. These are pretty damn close. Scotty [Fox] had the costumes, but I got the sets. We built that ship. It looks so close to the original ship, it's scary. Mark had his chance. I told him, if you cancel something, that something may move on. He didn't want to make any more, but he didn't want anyone else to make them. I own my ideas. I told him you didn't pay me enough for me not to do anything more with this. But, anyone, I'm glad we came to a peacable solution over this. Everybody likes Mark."
Stone: "I like Markman, too, but in this case he was unexplicably jerky."
