As we reported just a few hours ago, Veronica Mars series creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund their long-gestating film treatment with a goal of $2 million. That goal has been reached in a mere ten hours, while it also set a Kickstarter record by drawing in $1 million worth of pledges in less than four-and-a-half hours.
As for Veronica Mars itself, the UPN series aired for three seasons becoming a cult and critical favorite. The heavily noir-influenced plot followed the cases of a high school/college student moonlighting as a private investigator. Now it looks as if there’s hope for the feature film going forward…but at what cost? Hit the jump for more.
You can head over to the film’s Kickstarter page to get more informed, take a look at the swag and even make a pledge. Most of the pledges came in at $100 or less for various kickbacks if/when the project gets off the ground. Surprisingly, most of the high-end pledges ($1,000+) were all spoken for, including a $10,000 spot that promised a speaking role of a waiter who gets to say, “Your check, sir.” Money well spent for one Veronica Mars fan apparently. It’s a banner day for all fans who used their money (or at least the promise of it) to influence the production of a major studio film before that film even comes close to a theater.
About that studio…Warner Bros. will reportedly be assisting with distribution, marketing, publicity and legal via Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, according to Deadline. So where will funders pledges actually go? Well, 5% of the money raised will stay with Kickstarter itself for nebulous fees. Since WB is still the rights holder for the project, Thomas and Bell got their approval to go ahead and drum up interest via the Kickstarter service. If they reached their $2 million goal, then the studio would sign on.
So basically a group of roughly 30,000 committed fans pledged their dollars to a massive studio in exchange for a bit of swag and the chance to pay more money in the future for a ticket and eventual home video release. This is all-win on the part of the studio, and for the fans who were willing to shell out the extra cash to show that their passion for the project was worth rewarding, good for you. It’s just unfortunate that this may set a precedent going forward where fans are now asked to pay to show their allegiance to a film before the film is ever greenlit. If the pledges at least came with a promised ticket to the film if/when it saw theaters, the whole thing would be a little more palatable.
Before today, Kickstarter was one place where indie filmmakers could use crowdsourcing to get the necessary funds for their films; now it might be just another way for studios to test the waters of a project by asking audiences to pay upfront. This model is highly skewed towards fandoms who are willing to pay well above market price for the average movie ticket in exchange for a little bit of hope that their favorite project will see the light of day. Time will tell if today’s event will be seen as a nice win for the little guy or a harbinger of things to come.
The Veronica Mars movie now plans to start shooting this summer for a 2014 release.
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I’ll admit, I was surprised at how quick this hit $2,000,000. Hell, at this rate, I expect it’s possible this could potentially reach between $7,000,000-$10,000,000. The good thing about Kickstarter is that if the project fails to reach its budget, the person who donated gets their money back. Although it would have been nice to make one of the kickbacks a code to receive a ticket, since the kickbacks don’t begin until $10. Either way, I’m excited with this and the potential of this.
But it does come with a “ticket”: I pledged $50 and I get a digital copy of the film and a DVD with extra features. (And a poster and a T-shirt, too!)
A good point. The $50 range might be the most economical for the swag you get. For the almost 10,000 people pledging $25 or less, however, they’ll still have to pay to see the movie in whatever version it’s released in.
I like that this happened.
I have disposable income and am willing to contribute.
I hope studios are paying attention. A lot of fans are willing to do more to move these projects along.
Personally I think the Veronica Mars film is a terrible idea. Bell has gotten too old to play the character.
Veronica will not be a teenager in the movie. She’ll be in her late 20s.
oh god…this is bad news.
get ready for all those forward thinking execs and producers who’ll jump on this “GREAT” idea……how long until we have these studios setting up kickstarter pages to raise a couple extra million…..
sure…they’ll say it’s going towards the budget, but really? its just free money right?
Wait until studios either buy out Kickstarter or start their own crowd-funding companies (since Kickstarter takes a 5% fee off the top). THEN we have a real problem.
I have disposable income.
I want to contribute. I hope studios notice this and give me that opportunity.
I couldn’t agree more. I’d jump at the chance to contribute to projects like Deadwood, Arrested Development, Zoolander 2, Firefly, or any number of other exciting properties.
Jesus Dave, cynical much?
I thought it was pretty balanced actually, merely cautionary. Great for fans, uncertain for the future.
so how do we start the deadwood kickstarter campaign?
This seems like big news in the movie industry to me. A show like Veronica Mars raised $2 million in roughly 12 hours. Imagine what a film or series which is more popular or has a more rabid fan base could do.
I would be very surprised if we don’t see more of these studio projects in the near future.
I know we already got one great movie but.. Firefly immediately comes to mind.
Maybe sixseasonsandamovie could work after all.
Exactly.
If this can raise $2 million in 12 hours, what can Firefly do? …in particular in light of Whedon’s new found fame.
I’m glad to see that this film will come to fruition. Anyways, let’s give Joss Whedon a call and tell him to start a Kickstarter campaign for Firefly. We can bring back the TV series, or…we can get a sequel to Serenity. Either one is good, really.
I have yet to finish season 1,but I’m liking it a lot so far.
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Kind of lame that the page is still going after the goal is met. It’s almost at $2.5 Million.
guess you have never backed kickstarter before, they can add stretch goals for better effects, better music, paying the cast, worldwide distribution etc. just cause it got the $2M doesn’t mean it should stop, by collecting more money they can make the project even better. look at some of the video games that went well beyond their goal, they increased platform support, language support and more. the goal is just bare min to get the project done.
Seriously, do this for EVERY damn film that needs it. Serenity 2, Dredd 2 and 3, the TSCC conclusion, the Deadwood HBO movies, etc.
This is a great day for filmmakers and audiences!
Dave, your concerns are noted, but I don’t think we should be too concerned with studios leaning on Kickstarter too much. I think Veronica Mars is an exception here because the series’ creator and star agreed to do this, and the studio was willing to give their blessing and provide marketing support. And the series already had a built-in fanbase. If someone, even if they are famous and have industry credits, tried this for an entirely new project, they then might face resistance from the public, who would think, well, you’re famous and rich why are you begging for money from us?
And this won’t work for Firefly… in this series’ case, Joss Whedon himself has already shot down the possibility. Basically, the creators and main actors in that property aren’t interested and have moved on in their careers. I imagine the same thing would happen with many other cancelled series with cult followings — either too much time has passed or the principal people involved have moved on with their careers. Look at the challenge that Netflix had in getting the Arrested Development cast back together — frankly, it appeared a number of them didn’t care to resume the series for another season.
If this is a stronger way for fans to get their voices heard, I’m all for it. At the end of the day, however, the fans deserve to get what they’re paying for. In this case, thousands of people thought that ~$35 was worth the price of seeing their show turned into a movie (and 1 person thought $10,000 was worth it). That’s great.
However, I worry about studios relying on crowd-sourced funds as an interest free loan in order to produce movies at little to no cost/risk to them, bilking said fans on the end and pocketing the profits. It may free up studio money to take risks on other original smaller films or it may drown those out completely in an effort to turn a quicker profit with a guaranteed audience. We’ve already seen studios respond to micro-budget movies with big box offices and nostalgia-leeching franchises as a business model; I doubt they’d look past this.
There’s a lot in the works at the moment. We’ll see how it all shakes out!
Kickstarter is like any tool. It can be used for great good, like finally getting a Veronica Mars movie made. But, in the hands of studio execs, it can also be used for evil.
I’m going to start a kickstarter for Samurai Jack Movie, anyone in?
Me! Take my money!
@Dave Why do you keep saying ‘swag’ so much? Did you just discover the word?
Is twice in the article and once in a comment too much? Perhaps you prefer booty? How about bundle, festoon, plunder or spoils?
How about a SLIDERS Kickback campaign? At the very least to have the series concluded in comic form like Angel Season 6 in IDW!
Sliders? Sold!