“Veronica Mars,” Kickstarter and you

The big news yesterday? If you were on Twitter, it was a battle royale between the announcement of the new Pope and a Kickstarter campaign for “Veronica Mars.” As far as Hollywood is concerned, Veronica vanquished Francis.

It started with a message from the creator of the former UPN / CW TV series Rob Thomas on a Kickstarter site:

Almost since Veronica Mars went off the air, there’s been talk of making a movie. In that span, I’ve taken different tactics in dealing with the question of whether it might happen. To be clear, I’ve always wanted to make a Veronica Mars movie. I love writing these characters and working with these actors. Kristen Bell has always wanted to make the movie.

There was a moment, a few years ago, when we thought we had a real shot at making it happen. I developed a pitch that revolved around graduation day at Hearst college — Wallace and Mac were graduating at least, Veronica had been sidetracked by freeing Keith from prison. Plus, there was a murder in Neptune that was affecting the beach city’s spring break business in much the same way a great white shark affected the beach community of Amity. I probably stoked fan fervor in my optimistic comments about the prospects. Warner Bros. wasn’t convinced there was enough interest to warrant a major studio-sized movie about Veronica and the project never got off the ground.

After that, I tried to tamp down expectations. I didn’t want to be guilty — at least not twice — of building up hope when the odds seemed so long. Still, without fail, in every interview I do or every place I speak, I get the “will there be a Veronica Mars movie?” question. Even after a couple of years of downplaying the chances, I’d still run across blog postings headlined, “will Rob Thomas shut up about the Veronica Mars movie, already!” I was trying to. I promise.

I first found out about Kickstarter a couple of years ago from an Austin musician friend of mine — Robert Harrison, lead singer of Cotton Mather, the band that gave us “Lily Dreams On,” our closing song of season 1. He financed a rerelease of the band’s fantastic Kontiki album. Later, I was marveling about Kickstarter with another buddy of mine who said off-handedly, “You should use Kickstarter to raise the money to make the Veronica Mars movie.” I chuckled. That seemed like a silly idea in the moment. We’d need millions. But for the next few weeks, the notion was never far from my mind. I started doing the proverbial back-of-a-cocktail-napkin math. The average pledge on Kickstarter is $71. Hell, if we could get 30,000 people to give the average donation, we could finance the movie, particularly if the cast and I were willing to work cheap. The most common donation amount on Kickstarter is $25. Surely, 80,000 of our three million viewers would find that price-point viable!

Of course, Warner Bros. still owns Veronica Mars and we would need their blessing and cooperation to pull this off. Kristen 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. 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. No Kickstarter project ever has set a goal this high. It’s up to you, the fans, now. If the project is successful, our plan is to go into production this summer and the movie will be released in early 2014.

Life has taken Veronica away from Neptune. In the years since spoiling Keith’s chances to be reelected sheriff, Veronica hasn’t taken a case. But something big is about to bring her back home and back to her calling. My goal is to include as many of your favorite characters as possible. It is, after all, time for Veronica’s 10-year high school reunion. Keep in mind that the more money we raise, the cooler movie we can make. A two million dollar fundraising total probably means cross words are exchanged at the class reunion. Three million? We can afford a full-on brawl. Ten million? Who knows… For some reason the Neptune High class reunion takes place on a nuclear submarine! A Hobbit shows up! There’s a Bollywood end-credit dance number! I’ve always wanted to direct Bill Murray. We’ll figure out something cool. Hey, if that total goes high enough, I’ll bet the good folks at Warner Bros. will agree a sequel is a good idea.

Thanks to everyone who hasn’t lost faith.

Rob

Twitter followers noted the remarkable flow of funds by the minute as did social media:

Gawker: $1M in less than five hours

IndieWire: Will “Veronica Mars” fans be able to kickstart a $2M movie

Hollywood Reporter: “Veronica Mars” movie reaches goal of $2M

Vulture: “Veronica Mars” movie actually happening

$2M raised in 11 hours. And the beat goes on: If you go to the actual Kickstarter site, you’ll see [as I write this] the total is $2.7M.

How to sort this out?

On the one hand, it appears this was the only way a “Veronica Mars” movie could get made. So for VM fans, good for you.

On the other hand…

Apart from various knick knacks associated with levels of giving [Limited edition T-shirts!], what rights do Kickstarter contributors have? Will this lead to crowdsourcing feedback on story and script?

Most importantly for most of us who track this blog, what does it mean for screenwriters?

I can’t help but look at this with a very jaundiced eye, not the “Veronica Mars” project per se, but how the buyers and producers of movies will interpret this chain of events. VHS, DVD, online… all representing painful experiences for writers not getting a fair shake in terms of those revenues. Why would this be any different?

To wit: Does this mean that movie studios — before green lighting a project — will now start insisting certain projects needs to prove the presence of a fan base by generating X amount of dollars on Kickstarter?

What are your thoughts about the “Veronica Mars” phenomenon?

Meanwhile the immediate post-mortems are rolling in:

Five reasons “Veronica Mars” experiment won’t be the last time

“Veronica Mars” movie Kickstarter success could change everything

Marketers missed opportunity with “Veronica Mars” fundraiser

UPDATE: Two new articles:

How Warner Bros. Plans To Make It [“Veronica Mars”]

The “Veronica Mars” Kickstarter problem, and ours

UPDATE #2: Another one:

Has “Veronica” Mars Ushered in a New Era of Movie Development

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