Well, that was quick. I just read about the project, and headed over to Kickstarter to check it out…and it is already funded! On day one, the $2 Million goal has been reached and the project is already funded. Incredible. The $2 Million is a record in it’s own right, and to get funded so quickly is simply breathtaking. Fans of the TV cult favorite show can now celebrate, The Veronica Mars Movie is a go.
Heck, at this pace, could we be looking at a movie AND a sequel? That would make one heck of a stretch goal, and it seems that if any project could pull it off if this would be the one.
Of course, Warner Bros. still owns Veronica Mars and we would need their blessing and cooperation to pull this off. Kristen and I met with the Warner Bros. brass, and they agreed to allow us to take this shot. They were extremely cool about it, as a matter of fact. Their reaction was, if you can show there’s enough fan interest to warrant a movie, we’re on board. So this is it. This is our shot. I believe it’s the only one we’ve got. It’s nerve-wracking. I suppose we could fail in spectacular fashion, but there’s also the chance that we completely revolutionize how projects like ours can get made. No Kickstarter project ever has set a goal this high. It’s up to you, the fans, now. If the project is successful, our plan is to go into production this summer and the movie will be released in early 2014.”
So, do not get mad at Moby here, but I never watched Veronica Mars. I think it was something like a mystery drama or some, right? In any case, there’s gonna be a lot of stuff online about this, and I’m not the guy to clue you in on all of it, obviously. I do suggest you try following the project on Kicktraq as that site has nice graphs showing the trends and provides news links for fans and backers. I am just in awe of how quickly the funding goal was met and had to mention something about it here.
Kristen Bell and the cast and Warner Bros could easily have paid the $2 Million out of pocket, but this way they now know that there’s a market and it also serves a PR purpose. Could this be the start of a new trend in movies? Wired had an interesting article following that thread, suggesting that with the return of Arrested Development to Netflix and now with the success of this crowd funded-Studio produced movie format, we could be looking at a “whole new avenue” for cult favorites to live on. Wired suggested Firefly as a likely crowd-funded effort (to be sure) but it seems to me that if this avenue of funding TV cult favorite become the new normal, that something Trek will definitely this way come. It is just the next inevitable phase, eh? Variety also mentions the ‘new avenue’ approach and lists the same shows as Wired in it’s article.
Speaking of which, does anyone remember when fans of Enterprise, the last Star Trek series on TV, tried to raise $3 Million to cover the studios risk of a fifth season? They were turned down soundly by Paramount, but perhaps the idea was just a bit ahead of it’s time. Then again, Paramount was not making a lot of good decisions back then. For example, did you know that 5 months of planning went into building a life-size, full-scale replica of the USS Enterprise in Las Vegas? The idea was shot down by then Paramount studio chairman Stanley Jaffe. But this is supposed to be about Veronica Mars, not trek.
Yes, I am suggesting the first $150 Million Kickstarter.
I’m just saying that looking back we can see ample evidence where something like this could have been done long before now. If not for Warner Bros. and the cast and creators of Veronica Mars putting it out there (unlike Stanley Jaffe) we would still be waiting for something like this to come. So kudo’s to them for their willingness to try, the support they are receiving will no doubt reverberate throughout Hollywood. Who knows, maybe this will be the start of ‘a new avenue’ to keeping those beloved cult classics alive. I think I can almost hear a typewriter pounding out another installment of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Almost.
And if you are one of those who complained about that 120K goal for HM4, then all I’ve got to say to you is THIS is what support looks like. The more I think about the whole HM4 effort the more I think Carey was absolutely right. This just put the final nail in that coffin as far as I am concerned.
