I’ve always been aware of the widespread love for Veronica Mars, which went from a non-descript show about a teenage girl on UPN to a sort of cult idol. Creator Rob Thomas’ show follows the eponymous character as she solves mystery in her home town of Neptune, California. A Joel Silver joint, the show featured a unique brand structure and stoytelling that earned the show a lot of respect, along with characters and humor that earned it a wide fan base. Alas, it wasn’t wide enough for the show to continue past season 3, once UPN became the CW, and the show was cancelled.
Like your Arrested Developments and 24s and what have you, talk of a movie has followed Thomas since the show’s demise, and it’s something he’s always been positive about. Discussions with studios have never resulted in anything concrete though, until now…
With Warner Brothers blessing, Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell have launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking support from fans to provide a production budget, and to demonstrate to WB that there is still support for this universe. They are asking for $2,000,000 to reach their goal – certainly the largest sum ever set as a goal for a filmmaking project, and the second-highest Kickstarter goal ever* (not including already-unsuccessful projects).
The project rewards include everything from copies of the script, to signed posters, to a speaking cameo role. There are fairly granular rewards, so whether you want to more spiritually support the production or actually dump some real cash into it, there’s something for you.
This is a big deal, and sure to make big waves. As I post this, the project has amassed $55k+ $100k+ in less than an hour, suggesting there’s a strong chance they’ll break $2m in 30 days. If so, this could be another way for shows to make their comeback, and it’s certainly going to make the studios pay more attention. Gaming and tech projects have been breaking goals in the millions for a while now with shocking regularity. What happens when that paradigm comes to Hollywood?
Will you be tossing anything in? Let us know in the comments.
*according to Forbes anyway