When Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell announced a Kickstarter to raise funds for a possible Veronica Mars movie last March, it went from possibility to reality within hours, easily reaching its $2 million goal based mainly on fan power.  By the end of the Kickstarter window, they had raised over $5 million for the project, and Warner Bros. was on board to distribute.  The ravenous Marshmallows, diehard fans of the show, had finally won, and were going to see the beloved cult classic finally get an amazing new chapter.
As the cast started to regroup and a script was crafted, the movie got underway last summer, and Collider was invited to visit the Los Angeles set. As a huge, fluffy Marshmallow myself, it was a dream come to true to be able to go to the set and meet some of the cast and crew, all while inwardly screaming.  During my time on set visiting, I was able to see several of the reunion scenes being filmed, get opinions from the cast and Thomas about how the shoot was going so far, and really dive into what could possibly be going on for Veronica next.  Hit the jump for more info.
First, if you haven't seen the trailer, watch it below: [EMBED_YT]https://www.youtube.com/embed/wq1R93UMqlk[/EMBED_YT] Here are 16 highlights that we learned about the Veronica Mars movie while visiting the set:
  • kristen-bell-veronica-mars The Neptune High 10 Year Reunion is taking place at a swanky bar/club, and The Edison in downtown Los Angeles was used for filming.  From the looks of the place, it’s definitely an 09er-frequented venue, and probably not from the same side of the tracks as Veronica and her father Keith (Enrico Colantoni).
  • Before coming back for the reunion, Veronica had just finished her time at Columbia Law and was out looking for a job at a law firm.  The interview scene from the trailer with Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the opening scenes of the movie.
  • As seen from plenty of previews, Veronica is going to be reuniting with a slew of her former classmates.  Ones we already knew about included her friends Mac (Tina Majorino) and Wallace (Percy Daggs III), Dick (Ryan Hansen), and Gia (Krysten Ritter).  I was most excited to see that Veronica’s high school nemesis Madison Sinclair (Amanda Noret) will be back in full force.  Some people may have grown since high school, but Madison hasn’t.  She still hates Veronica, and finds a particularly cruel way to remind her.
  • The idea and spirit of Pirate Pride is still in tact, and it seems it will never die.  Yes, there is a group utterance of “Ahoy!”
  • Something from Veronica’s past crops up again, and is used to cause extreme public humiliation during the awards ceremony at the reunion.
  • In reaction to this public embarrassment for Veronica, a fight breaks out, including many of the male cast members.  Francis Capra, who plays Weevil, said it was a lot of fun to film, but he in no way could take on all those guys at once otherwise.  And in true Veronica fashion, she is able to break up the fight, and in a pretty clever way.
  • Piz (Chris Lowell) does make an appearance at the actual reunion.  Whether it helps or hurts Veronica is yet to be seen.
  • Some new faces that pop up on the In Memoriam at the reunion definitely raised some eyebrows, and could play a crucial role in how the case unfolds for Veronica once she takes it on.
  • The most heartwarming reunion might be between Veronica and ex-gang member Weevil, who has cleaned up his act and has his own family.  Wallace also has a new love in his life.
  • Logan and Veronica still have that unflappable chemistry going, and Jason Dohring knows it.  When asked who his favorite person to work with again was, he instantly said Bell, knowing that their chemistry on screen is electric, helped by their admiration for each other offscreen.
  • veronica-mars-kristen-bell-jason-dohring All of the characters are in extremely different places since the series left off.  In a similar vein to Veronica, Majorino shared that Mac went of into the business world and has found great success there.  Wallace is still in Neptune, trying to make it work with engineering.  Weevil has his owns his own shop.  And Dick?  Well, Dick, of course, parties nonstop and lives off of his dad’s money.
  • The aesthetic look of the movie is almost identical to that of the show, from the cinematography, to the lighting, to even the composition of the shots.
  • They had been filming for about a week before my visit, and had a planned 23 day shooting schedule.  Thomas definitely said that he felt the pressure was on, but that it was so much easier since the cast already knew their characters so well.  Some of the cast though, such as Hansen, thought it was easier shooting the movie, since the turnaround time wasn’t as insane, and they were shooting in Los Angeles proper this time around.
  • The Kickstarter backers on set definitely got the royal treatment, having their own tent for lunch, and getting to meet and greet with available cast members.
  • Most of the core cast were in the loop about the Kickstarter, as evidenced by Bell, Dohring, and Hansen appearing in a video promoting the Kickstarter, but Majorino, Daggs, and Capra weren’t as involved right from the start.  They checked in on updates throughout the Kickstarter launch, but had no solid ideas about the possibility of the movie until the Kickstarter happened.  Capra was especially inspired by it, having taken the original cancellation after the third season rather hard.  He said the movie has reinvigorated him, and he’s looking to get more involved in his career than ever before.
  • Veronica Mars obviously has very dedicated fans, and Hansen and Dohring shared two of their more interesting fan encounters.  Hansen was approached by a fan at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and Dohring once received a pirate’s chest full of items pertaining to the show.
Veronica Mars is set to premiere at the SXSW Film Festival and will open in select theaters on March 14th.
  • Click here for our on-set interview with Rob Thomas.
  • Click here for new high-resolution images from the film.
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