Ever since Veronica Mars ended on TV in 2007, Kristen Bell and creator Rob Thomas have talked up a movie version, but as the series was never a big hit on television, it didn’t seem like Warner Bros. would ever take a punt of a film. However Thomas & Bell never gave up, eventually striking on the idea of going to Kickstarter and seeing if they could get $2 million to greenlight a Veronica Mars film.
The crowd-funding campaign has been more successful than either Bell or Thomas could have dreamed, raising the full $2 million in less than 12 hours. Many are already calling it fastest and largest fund raiser in the history of crowd-funded movies.
As a result of the success, Bell and Thomas have announced that the film now has the greenlight. While the Kickstarter money will go towards production, it was as much to prove to Warner Bros. that there is enough interest to make it worth them putting up the rest of the cash. The studio is now committed to a summer start date for the movie.
Rob Thomas commented, “My mind is blown. I’ve been fantasizing about this taking big and had to tell myself, ‘Stop it, Rob, you’re being silly. You’re setting yourself up for disappointment. And now today has exceeded the wildest pipe dream I let myself entertain. Holy cow. We better make a good movie. These amazing fans have stepped up. We better deliver.”
Kristen Bell added, “I knew Veronica Mars fans were cool, but I had no idea they could rally with such power. They are unstoppable – just like Veronica. I will have a permanent blush on my face, feeling so lucky to be associated with this entire thing.
The plan is for the movie to get a limited theatrical release as well as a VOD release. Rob Thomas added that the studio was eager to try out this Kickstarter campaign, “Kristen Bell 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.”
You do realize that the whole Kickstarter thing is just PR fluff. For some reason Warner decided to put good money after bad and make a movie of the once lowest-rated show on network television (the politics of big studios never cease to amaze).
The Kickstarter was just a way to get some free publicity and gushing press coverage as the press just can’t help but want to endorse any new internet fad (even if it’s not real) and applaud the “little guy” (who is really a bunch of Hollywood royalty and a Big Studio.
The really sad thing is that not thousands of filmmakers are going to waste their time with Kickstarter campaigns and see their hopes crushed when their project fails to raise more than a few thousands (which is what you can reasonably hope to raise from Kickstarter if a studio doesn’t pay for it).
Postscript: Rob Thomas and Kristen Bell should be ashamed (particularly Rob Thomas who is clearly the orchestrator of the whole thing) as they will cause untold misery to many filmmakers who don’t happen to be Hollywood insiders like themselves.
Incidentally Rob Thomas is a perfect zero for infinity when it comes to creating a hit TV show. Yet he keeps working all the time as Hollywood can’t get enough of his flops. That tells you why there’s so many bad movies and TV shows currently being made.