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Star Trek's fortunes will wax and wane, as they always have. Having hard times while building a stellar reputation; making millions with a "spectacle adaptation" that keeps it guaranteed the franchise must go on out of simple corporate inertia.
Star Trek's fortunes have always been highly ironic, just like many of the best episodes of the original show and TNG.
MONTEZUMA sounds like a kick-ass idea. Spielberg has to jump back on the spectacle train sometime, and not in a studio.
Frankly, I consider Ridley Scott a far better director for this kind of material. He loves to deal with creating entire environments. And Pre-Columbian Mexico would certainly be an entire environment!
CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE actually ends where the real adventure story begins. As the troop comes over a hill, far in the distance can be seen the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, sitting out in the midst of the lake, pyramids and buildings gleaming in the sun. And that's where it ends....
MONTEZUMA, presumably would have all that, and more. Or it should.
Amazing story.
Though, the few times I've been to Mexico, the subject of the Conquest is still very touchy, especially considering the bloodthirsty nature of the violent Aztecs beforehand, coupled with the bloodthirsty ruthlessness of the Spanish afterward. No one comes out very heroic, though some individuals' actions do.
Aside from histories, the best version of the story I ever read was a novel, called "The Great White Gods," written by Edward Stucken, in 1934. Tells the story from both sides, though the English translation, from the original German, tends to present the Aztec names in translation, such as Cuahtemoc becomes Down Darting Eagle, etc.
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I'd like to see that press release.
While we're talking about animated Trek, I'd like to put in a good word for Alan Dean Foster's "Log" series of novelizations of the animated screenplays. I haven't read them in years, but I remember they were exquisitely detailed, thoroughly fleshed-out realizations of the stories which the aired episodes themselves sometimes only hinted at in their allotted twenty-two minutes. Paramount could do worse than to explore some of these ideas in future live action movie installments. After all, part of the concept behind the animated series was to take advantage of the cheaper animated medium to depict things which were too expensive or complex to show on the original series. Special effects technology and Star Trek budgets have come a long way since then. Foster's still alive and writing, BTW.
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And portions of it were referenced on Enterprise, but fans apparently debate that series place in the continuity as well. Pheh. Fans.
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D.C. Fontana has gone on the record as calling the guy a twip . . .
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