Project "Captain Worf" apparently still lives!
It was in mid-2012 when we announced that "Star Trek: The Next Generation" & "Deep Space Nine" star, Michael Dorn, revealed that he was pitching a movie/TV series centered around the character we all mostly know and love him for, Lt Commander Worf.
"I am serious. I think there is a place for it. Straight to DVD or straight to cable. Who wouldn’t want to have this kind of thing going on? It is going to help their movie [J.J. Abrams’ then upcoming ‘Star Trek’ movie]. The fans aren’t going ‘we are going to see this movie, but we aren’t going to go see the big movie in the theater," Dorn said at the time.
He added that he was writing the screenplay himself, and when asked what story the film/series would tell, he said: "He [Worf] is captain of a ship – a Federation ship. He is out there in the front lines basically chasing terrorists."
He further shared that he’d make it edgy and dark, and that some cast members from his "Star Trek" days would be in it, although it’ll mostly be made up of new characters.
And as for actually pitching it, Dorn said the following: "I have couple meetings I want to do before that. First with Rick Berman, who produced all of our shows, just to see what he thinks. Then my manager. And I know people at SyFy. And I’ll just start gathering information. If anything happens it is going to be next year because I have a bunch of stuff to do this year. I have already started writing the script and excuse my language, but it’s f—ing great."
A couple of months after that, Dorn gave an interview to Trek News, in which he was asked about the progress of his Worf movie/TV series, and he had this to update us with: "I had come up with the idea because I love the character and I think he’s a character that hasn’t been fully developed and hasn’t been fully realized. Once I started thinking about it, it became obvious to me that I wanted to at least put it out there, which I have, and the response has been pretty amazing. We’ve been contacted by different individuals–I can’t say who and all that–about wanting to come on board and be part of this. Also, there’s all the political stuff going on with the new movies, with J.J. Abrams and Paramount and all that stuff, which I have no clue about and what it all entails, but that’s where it is right now. Interestingly enough it has gotten traction. I was very surprised, I was on a movie not too long ago, where one of the producers was basically lobbying to be part of it. He was like “Michael, I’d love to write it, if you haven’t.” So at this point, my agents and my manager are looking at all the avenues and trying to figure out which is the best one […] Like I said, in this business you never know and I’ve been through pitching things and I never want to do that again [laughs]. It’s pretty brutal, but definitely I think once again, if Paramount or CBS or anybody thinks this is a viable thing, they’ll jump on it."
So it looked like his meeting with Berman went well, and got his blessing; and he was getting some interest, which meant that it was something that just could happen, if all went well. But he seemed to know what he had, and understood the business, realizing that he needed to stay grounded about the whole thing.
He launched a Kickstarter campaign back then set up to raise $750,000 for the project, but it didn’t meet its goal, as I recall.
Skip ahead to this week, 3 years later, to Dorn’s revelation in an interview with Cinema Source, that his proposed Captain Worf project is still very much alive!
A "#WeWantWorf Campaign" was officially launched on May 1st (although I’m only just now learning about it) which will run through the end of June, in an effort to "show CBS that the Time has Come for STAR TREK to Return to Television with a Campaign that Would Have Made Gene Roddenberry Proud!"
According to Dorn, his Work project would take place after the events of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," but before those of "Star Trek: Nemesis," adding that Worf would have a tough Starfleet love interest, and that the character (Worf) would have no real allegiance to either the Klingon Empire or Starfleet, having moved on into a brand-new phase in his life.
Further, according to Cinema Source: "Dorn’s idea for the show would have a somewhat different Klingon society, too, with humans and Starfleet officers having been integrated into the daily life of the Klingon homeworld, Qo’noS’."
Dorn mentioned that CBS and Paramount showed some interest in the idea, but not enough to financially back a pilot. Dorn even shared a number – $3 million; how much he’d need to kickstart the project.
You can learn much more about the #WeWantWorf Campaign here: https://www.sweetesbakeshop.com/wewantworf/.
Below you’ll find a recent video interviews Dorn gave to Cinema Source: