Thursday, March 14, 2013

12 Hours To Finance Veronica Mars

When Rob Thomas first went to Kickstarter to try and get funding for the movie version of Veronica Mars that Warner brothers said had no support, he gave himself 30 days to raise the $2M needed to make the movie. It took 12 hours. As I type this, almost 42,000 people have given a little over $2.5M of their money to get Veronica Mars made. You also know those 42,000 people will go see the actual movie so right there that is way more than any Jessica Simpson movie and $42,000 would be more than Kristen's last movie with Dax Shepherd made. Rob said after they reached their goal so fast that his mind was blown Kristen Bell, who stars as Veronica said they she will have a permanent blush on her face because of this whole thing. Could also be the pregnancy. The movie is set to start shooting in the summer and be released next year. Warner Brothers did agree to pick up the cost for everything not related to production, so they are not completely awful, but they were in a no lose situation so they are not completely great either.

68 comments:

ethorne said...

Yayyy!!!

auntliddy said...

I like it!!

Katie said...

I love this show!!!! I gave $50 and got some

Steampunk Jazz said...

How great for the fans! All I can say is, it better happen because it does not pay to mess with fans, too many networks have learned this to their detriment. Firefly, anyone? You will be Tarred and Feathered for Eternity on any board a fan lands on. Play it straight Warner Brothers or Pay the price...

dee123 said...

Why the partial snark in this Enty? Did Kristen turn you down? Also that film with Dax and Kristen was called Hit & Run it was made for $2 million and made almost $15 million.

That said as a Veronica Mars fan i can't wait. Payday next week they will have $50 from me.

discoflux said...

This is going to be REALLY interesting. I'm super excited for this!!

Goodnight said...

Just read this in the daily fail. I never saw the show but the fans must be super dedicated for this to happen. I'm not sure how they can make the movie work when the show was based on the character being a high school student, but I hope for the sake of the fanbase it works out.

Henriette said...

Can I help pay for an X-File movie? I hope Chris Carter does this. He's having problems with Fox for a third X-Files movie.

Goodnight said...

Ooh, I'll pitch in for that, henriette!

X-Phile 4 Lyf

VanityAcefake said...

Yay! I'm so happy to read this.
I loved Veronica Mars.

LottaColada said...

Rob Thomas as in Matchbox 20? Lol that can't be right, can it?

Never saw the show but that's a hilarious way of showing the studio how wrong they were.

Cathy said...

I read about this yesterday; they raised the first million in under four hours. The gifts at each level of contribution were pretty impressive as well.

Amber said...

I saw all this going on yesterday, but I've never seen Veronica Mars. It's cool that so many people want to be a part of it, though.

Katie said...

Rob Thomas is a douche

Jessi said...

I loved this show! Veronica and Logan forever!

Sincerely,

Way too old to have a crush on a couple of teens, but I do!

Anonymous said...

I haven't ever watched Veronica Mars, but I adore Kristen Bell. She's amazing. I'd watch her in performance art consisting of her wearing a cardboard box standing quietly for hours at a busy downtown intersection, and I'd be entertained.

timebob said...

lol @Lotta not the singer, they just share the same name.

I am over the moon about this, I loved that show and was so bummed when it was canceled.

AKM said...

Never saw this show. Sounds like one I'd like, though. With only 64 epis, I could watch the whole thing pretty quickly, no?

I agree, Anna. Wasn't she good in GRACIE'S CHOICE? I will watch that Lifetime flick -- with Anne Heche! -- every darn time it's on.

Colleen said...

This makes me SO happy. I contributed on the $35 level yesterday afternoon. I'm so excited right now.

Unknown said...

For those who are wondering how they will do this since it was set in high school. A few of the articles have said that Thomas will be writing it to take place at a high school reunion.

And, NO, it is not the Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20. Although, if anybody is an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan, there is a great episode where the Matchbox 20 Rob Thomas does a cameo with Sinbad the comedian and the faces he makes are pretty hilarious. It almost made him almost likable. Veronica Mars Rob Thomas is heads and tales above him, though.

I am also curious about the snark in this article about Hit and Run because that movie made hella bank considering its budget.

LottaColada said...

@mayor timebob, lol hey you never know!

Laura said...

I gave some $ yesterday and I'm so excited! I may even see it twice lol.


Desiree said...

YAY! My daughter and I love this show. I missed the donation, but I'm awfully glad that it got the money it needed!

VargasGirl said...

Not the matchbox 20 guy, he's also responsible for the genius of party down. I'll kick in for that movie!!!

VargasGirl said...

Lol that is a great ep if always, I'm laughing right now thinking about it.

VargasGirl said...

I hope with Rob's success with this he will do the same for Party Down, I'll be in for 100 , for that one!!!

mooshki said...

Thank you for posting about this, Enty! ♥ I am SO excited!!!

mooshki said...

If there had been a Season 4 of VM, they were going to do a jump into the future anyway, with Veronica working at the FBI.

Dee123, Enty hated 'Hit and Run.' This isn't the first proof I've had that Enty and I have very different taste in movies! You don't have to pay your contribution right away - it gets taken out of your account at the end of the pledge period, so I think it's April 12th. I was also going to wait until I got paid until I saw that. I also pledged $50, because I like the package you get with that amount.

Lelaina Pierce said...

^I haven't seen Veronica Mars, but Mooshki, I immediately thought of you yesterday when I saw this in the news. :)

mooshki said...

:) You should watch it, it's truly awesome. (Well, except for Season 3, lol.)

Brady88 said...

There's a great vid to go along with the kickstarter page

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/559914737/the-veronica-mars-movie-project

Can't wait for the movie!!

Jessi said...

I love Kristen! Silly rom-com, Veronica Mars, whatever. I think she's adorable!

H888FUL said...

Oh NOOOO I do not want to have to look at or hear about that rat faced bitch Kristen Bell and her ugly chinless husband. She looks like Avril Lavigne and they both need to disappear forever. But of course she's breeding with the chinless wonder so I guess she's gotta make those dollars so they can pay for that poor child's inevitable plastic surgery.

Unknown said...

@888, this mixed with your racist comments about Mexicans in the Lindsay Lohan article makes you no bueno.

g.strathmore said...

It has been reported that the first $1 million was contributed by cast members and producers of the Veronica Mars show. It's still cool that fans contributed the second million, though.

Unknown said...

@g.strathmore, where has that been reported? And what studio do you work for?

Sherry said...

Annie: DON'T even respond..Like singing to a pig, wastes your time and annoys the pig.

I thought Kristen was cute in Sarah Marshall but I never saw any of Veronica Mars so I'll probably pass on the movie too.

Unknown said...

I disagree @ Sherry. It's not like singing to a pig, at all. Have you ever seen the look that a pig gives you when you sing to it? Adorable!

Awwww, you should really give at least one episode of Veronica Mars a watch before you completely discount the whole franchise. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Anonymous said...

i wonder if this right here will start a movement of us financing movies we want to actually see. Ive neevr watched veronica mars, but seeing this im interested in watchin what all the fuss is abt

MissInfo said...

I had never seen the show until sometime last year. They show back to back episodes on Saturday and sometimes Sunday's on the Soap channel. I am HOOKED!! She was in her 20's playing a 17 yr old...she might be able to play it off if she's supposedly playing a college student. She might be able to pass for a 21 or 22 yr old. Yay!! I'm excited!

Xander Simon Dyle said...

for people who have not seen Veronica Mars...
It is a seriously well written mystery show, with shades of Buffy The Vampire slayer wit and snark.
There are also adult themes within the high school themes (Veronica's parents, teachers, etc.)

Season One is great, but Season Two is even better. But you have to watch it all in order in order to fully appreciate it.

It would make a seriously awesome weekend DVD marathon!

PS Always take Backup! :-)

dia papaya said...

Thanks Xander!

I am so happy for Kristen Bell! What a huge thumbs up. Fans know what they want. HWood can suck it!

Now if only we could get this to happen with Firefly! I want that show back in the worst way. Nathan Fillion, this fan is waiting!

AKM said...

IMDb is reporting that it's a go! All the money has apparently been raised.

librariantobe said...

In case anyone is interested in watching the show, The WB's website has the entire series up online for free:

http://www.thewb.com/shows/veronica-mars

Sherry said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sherry said...

@Annie LOL! Somehow I don't think this pig is adorable at all.

And I actually saw part of one epi but it wasn't to my taste.I was surprised it had Kristen Bell in it because I'd seen Sarah Marshall previously and had no idea she even did TV.

ino said...

I wonder why Kristen Bell and the other people on the show didn't just finance the whole thing themselves. It's not like Kristen's broke. Why ask the fans for the money? I guess it's great that the fans feel involved, but now they're financing the project and then paying again to see it?

Colleen said...

Does anyone know when the video on Kickstarter was filmed? It had to have been before Kristen Bell was pregnant, right? Or before she started showing? I wonder if her pregnancy delayed the project...

Anyone know?

CC said...

You don't have to pay again to see it. I paid $35 and that gets me a digital copy of the movie when it comes out, which I'd rather see at home anyway. $35 seemed really reasonable to me for what you get, so I pledged last night.

But I'm kind of kidding myself. What really made me do it was that Logan was in the promo video. He turns me into a puddle. I don't know what it is, I don't get crushes on celebs, but whoa .... he works for me.

Olive said...

I was wondering the same thing, Colleen. :)
Veronica Mars was a great show. So sad still that it's gone.
Party Down is so wonderful as well. I'd love that movie to bits.
Thanks, Enty! xo

Lian said...

Video on the Kickstarter website was filmed in February of 2012. That's how long this thing has been in the works!

Considering I donated when the amount raised was around $400K, I'm not sure about that first million statement.

The Black Cat said...

Chris Carter needs to do this, John Carpenter needs to do this, any quality movie maker needs to do this because currently, the major studios have stupid people working for them making stupid decisions about what they think which types of movies are being made.

g.strathmore said...

@Annie Hall, I read it on Dlisted I think. They were also auctioning off a speaking role for $10,000 and other goodies. I think it's a good idea to throw some of their own money in. Why not if it gets the movie made?

CharRicho said...

SO excited! I'm a forensic investigation student and Veronica Mars is an all-time favorite show of mine! So rude that it ended when it did, but I'm super super happy about the movie!

janele said...

I usually boycott anything with Scientologists in it, but I had to give a minor exception with Jason Dohring, who plays Logan on Veronica Mars.

His dad was the creator of NeoPets and the Dohring family is one of the super families of the Scientoloturds.

I find it amusing that anything Scientology-related was scrubbed from their Wiki articles, despite it being on there a few years ago.

OT: As much as I'd like a Buffy movie, I also know that the Kuzui couple still own the rights. I hope they don't try to do a Kickstarter campaign for their own version of another slayer movie.

Erik said...

I love Veronica Mars and will totally go see the movie.

dee123 said...

Wow! It's now over 3.1 million!

Kloie said...

Not trying to be snarky, but why wouldn't Kristen have $2 million to donate?

Jenn said...

I loved Veronica Mars, Kristen Bell played her so snarkily, and smart. I started watching it after Stephen King gave it a great review in that article he used to write for Entertainment Weekly. I'll go see it.

mooshki said...

The reason it took so long after that video was filmed was that they had to work out all the legalities and get Warner Bros. to go along with it since they own the rights.

I read an interesting article about how it wouldn't necessarily be as easy to do this with another canceled show, because they mostly just have to work around K.Bell's schedule since she the show is centered around her. An ensemble show like Firefly would be really hard to get everyone's schedule worked out. Also, I think it was the lowest budget show on network tv at the time? So they didn't have to raise that much money.

I think part of the deal with Warner Bros. was that they had to raise the $ from the fans to prove that there was enough interest in the movie. After all, they're probably going to end up throwing in a bunch of money on marketing and the like.

I don't know why anyone would expect K.Bell to throw in $2 million of her own money? I don't think she's probably that rich, and she's obviously already contributing by getting paid a lot less than she would if she did a regular movie.

Amy in MI said...

I love this show and am so excited. Although I was one of the few who hated Logan

H888FUL said...

Annie, I am a racist and I'm ok with that. The "notracists" usually have zero experience with vibrant diversity (and no, your token minority friends from college that act white don't count, sorry) so I'm not worried about it. I understand that nothing is worse than racism in today's mixed up world and being !OUTRAGED! over it is like a status symbol that shows how morally superior, enlightened and educated you are...at least until you end up in the wrong part of town or it moves into your neighborhood and you get to see it in real life. I can understand, it looks so great on TV and in movies but real life isn't a Hollywood production.

Sherry, I'm crying because you dislike me, really it just breaks my heart that some fat catlady from a gossip site doesn't think I'm cute :(

Stephanie23 said...

I'm excited for this as I loved the show! Am I the only one who loved weevil???? And of course Keith mars!

Speakeasy Jane said...

I love when the trolls claim to be so proud of their racism yet feel the need to hide behind pseudonyms. Ignorance and unintentional irony...it doesn't get much more laughable than that.

NL said...

LOVE this show. Have watched all three seasons at least four times. I'm glad they raised $ to show that there is, in fact, interest. (For my money I'd give for this movie and Firefly!)
I hope the plan doesn't have Veronica off in the FBI and it's all Kristen Bell and none of the rest of the cast. I am still in love with Jason Dohring (even watched Ringer to see him as a teacher) and had a weird bad boy crush on Weevil. Keith Mars, yay.
God, I could go on and on I keep trying to convince people to watch it and despite my evangelizing they just don't 'get' it. I like to think if it had come out 7 or 8 years later with all of the channels doing series with much lower overall ratings that VM would have found a nice spot to live. Of course as mentioned before, they planned to ship V off to the FBI and drop much of the cast. Sigh

Jazzy said...

I just finished watching every Veronica Mars episode on SoapNet. I love the show and I'm so happy they're doing a movie!!!! I hope Veronica and Logan are together in the film or atleast have a baby together.

librariantobe said...

@Annie, don't worry, I didn't like Logan, either. And I actually liked Piz and Veronica together. Now please excuse me while I join the Fan Admission Protection Program.

chachi said...

Aaaaagghhh!! The spoilers! The spoilers!!

I just started the series a couple days ago, and would not have guessed that LOGAN ends up being The One!!

Am loving the series, and will continue to view even tho I now know to watch out for Logan sending his "smoldering" look her way :)

Great show!!

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