Future of Sci-Fi Museum Will Hinge on Financing

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Discovering the bridge of the “Star Trek” Enterprise lying unwanted in the trash in Long Beach prompted superfan Huston Huddleston to boldly go where no entrepreneur has gone before.

The close encounter set him on a journey in which he collected donated sets and props from other iconic science-fiction shows. Then he crowdfunded cash that, he said, will help him launch the first science-fiction museum in the country.

“I was just a geek with a dream, but now that dream is miraculously coming true,” said Huddleston, a TV writer.

The dream, though, will take more than one small step for the man, who said he is still about a year away from opening his mecca for movie and TV lovers, the Hollywood Sci-Fi Museum.

Financing is not yet set. If all goes well, the plan is for a soft launch of an interactive, educational museum and event venue in early 2016, eventually expanding and relocating into a bigger museum space complete with sci-fi restaurant and, ultimately, a hotel by 2019.

But first a location needs to be found, and the hunt is on for approximately 25,000 square feet close to Hollywood movie theaters where big premieres are held so the museum can serve as an after-party venue for splashy events.

“As the top tourist destination in Los Angeles, it makes sense for a science-fiction museum to locate in Hollywood, where it would have the best chance to succeed,” said Leron Gubler, chief executive of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. “New attractions add to the visitor experience, and so we would be very pleased to see this museum open here.”

Gubler is among those to have been consulted by the museum’s site search team.

Though still early in the process, Huddleston has garnered support for the enterprise from stars and fans alike.

A Kickstarter campaign to restore his rusted and damaged starship Enterprise bridge set to museum display standards raised $70,000, and another Kickstarter campaign earlier last year raised more than $93,000 to fund development of the museum. Other donations and online sales of museum T-shirts, hats and patches have brought in an additional $30,000.

And while he has gained traction for the effort, Huddleston conceded he still needs to raise much more money – he won’t specify the exact number – before he can lease the space he needs. To that end, he is reaching out to investors, tapping relationships he cultivated as the son of the late Floyd Huddleston, a songwriter for Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller and Walt Disney movies.

Stars like William Shatner and Benedict Cumberbatch have publicly backed his two crowdfunding campaigns, and he has attracted astronaut Catherine Coleman, a veteran of two space shuttle missions, and Ronald D. Moore, award-winning writer-producer of “Battlestar Galactica” as well as various “Star Trek” movies and TV shows, to his board of directors.

Also signing on is Rhetroactive, a Miracle Mile creative design firm behind downtown L.A.’s Grammy Museum, various Universal Studios theme park attractions and the Star Trek: The Experience attraction in Las Vegas.

“We’re really excited by this compelling project which promises to be a unique, immersive experience,” said Tim Rheault, the firm’s founder. “We have been engaged to develop the experience are now doing strategy and feasibility work on the impressive plans from Huston and his team.”

Treasure in trash

Huddleston’s quest dates to late 2011, when he found the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” set outside a Long Beach warehouse.

“When Paramount sold ‘Star Trek’ to CBS in 2005, they sold off or threw out everything,” he said. “The sets sat outside a warehouse for years because no one claimed them or paid the storage.”

A tip from a former Paramount employee led him to the warehouse, where he was told the set was due to be destroyed.

“I arranged to have it shipped to my house in two moving vans,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with the set at the time, but when I started going around sci-fi conventions and talking about my discovery, so many people would tell me that they had access to other sets and props and could get them for me and soon the idea formed to house all these treasures in the world’s first science-fiction museum.”

Having won over celebrities and crowdfunding fans with the idea, he has now set his phasers on “fund” while he looks for a location. But it won’t be as easy as expecting a famous movie maker or entertainment investor to write a check.

“Just because a project embodies interesting intellectual property does not mean it is going to be funded by venture capital,” says Scott Alderton, founding partner of L.A. tech law firm Stubbs Alderton & Markiles.

Alderton cautioned that the challenges in raising millions of dollars for entertainment, educational and tourist-friendly projects such as this one are great. “Venture investors generally look for large, scalable opportunities that will create significant returns for their limited partners.”

What’s more, a similar project is in development in Washington, D.C. The proposed Museum of Science Fiction is also in fundraising mode, and could draw both attention and money from Huddleston’s project.

Still, he remains upbeat.

“I’m confident tons of companies will see the huge potential in all this and want to be part of it,” he said.

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