Actress Kristen Bell jokes that the overwhelming excitement will send her into early labor after the Kickstarter campaign for the movie project hits $1M mark in only four hours.
- Mar 14, 2013
AceShowbiz - "Veronica Mars" film is officially a go as its online fund-raising campaign on Kickstarter collects $2 million in less than one day. The effort to bring the long-awaited movie to life raised $1 million in the first four hours, marking the fastest haul in the crowd-funding site's history, before sailing past the $2M mark hours later.
"GUYS!! #VERONICAMARSMOVIE just beat @kickstarter record! 1 million in 4 hours!!! you guys are amazing!!!!!" tweeted Kristen Bell who played the titular character on the TV version. The very-pregnant actress additionally joked, "All this excitement is prolly gonna send me into early labor. #iamsoexcited #veronicamarsmovie."
The show's creator Rob Thomas was equally thrilled. He tweeted, "holy s**t" and "really overwhelmed here," before jokingly sending a message to musician Rob Thomas, the Matchbox 20 frontman, for sharing the same name, "Hey, Rob! This is the first day ever where there's more traffic on my Twitter handle for me than you! It's a landmark!"
The campaign will run for a month and close on April 12. Each of those who make a $10 donation will get a PDF version of the script on the day the movie is released. A $750 donation will earn a ticket to the L.A. movie premiere, and anyone who donates $8,000 will be naming rights to a character. Moreover, a $10,000 contributor will make an appearance on the movie.
The cameo role has been snagged by die-hard fan Steven Dengler, who is an entrepreneur from Toronto. "Super pumped about my speaking role in the upcoming Veronica Mars movie!" he tweeted shortly after securing the speaking role on the upcoming ambitious movie project. "Back it now on Kickstarter!"
According to Rob, Warner Bros. which owns the rights to "Veronica Mars" initially "wasn't convinced there was enough interest to warrant a major studio-sized movie" but they agreed to give their blessing if "there's enough fan interest to warrant a movie." The showrunner says in his online pitch, "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," Rob continues. "It's up to you, the fans, now." He adds, "Keep in mind that the more money we raise, the cooler movie we can make."
Bell additionally says, "You have banded together like the sassy little honey badgers you are and made this possibility happen. i promise if we hit our goal, we will make the sleuthiest, snarkiest, it's-all-fun-and-games-'til-one-of-you-gets-my-foot-up-your-ass movie we possibly can." She adds, "I promise to give it my all."
More than 33,000 participants have helped bringing a total of $2.1 million, and still counting, by Wednesday evening, March 13. As soon as the online funding campaign ends, the movie will begin production this summer for a planned 2014 release.
Previous top movie fundraisers on the Kickstarter are the planned animated project for "The Goon" ($442,000) and "Charlie Kaufman's Anomalisa" ($406,000). Short documentary "Inocente" which received $52,000 from 300 contributors became the first Kickstarter-funded film to win an Oscar at the 85th Annual Academy Awards.
Premiered in 2004, "Veronica Mars" ran its first two seasons on UPN and before airing its final season on The CW. It followed the story of the titular character as a high school student who has instinct of a private investigator. She helped solving crimes from the murder of her best friend to a bus accident that killed her classmates.
