The Veronica Mars Movie Project has been the talk of the pop culture internet today. It’s revolutionary and somewhat controversial – if the Kickstarter reaches $2 million dollars, they’ll make a movie to wrap up the series. Creator and showrunner Rob Thomas made a deal with Warner Brothers, who owns the show – fans fund the movie and Warner will distribute it
It quickly became the fastest-growing Kickstarter film campaign, and they literally reached their goal as I wrote this post. (Anything above the goal will also go towards making the film.)
Veronica Mars, for the uninitiated, was a TV series that ran for 3 seasons (2004-07) on UPN and the CW. Starring Kristen Bell in the title role, it was a show ahead of its time, a high school film noir set in a town filled with elevated levels of class conflict and, yeah, those slow-brewing season-long arcs that are now all the rage. (Thanks, Lost!) And, no, it might never have recaptured the glory of the first season – one of the best seasons of broadcast TV ever, IMO – but fans were still sad to see it go.
A few months ago I discovered the show rerunning on SoapNet, and got addicted all over again, so this could not have happened at a better time for them to take my money. Yes, I donated. I’m not going to tell you to do so too, but I do suggest you go watch season 1. (Watch it for free at theWB.com, or it’s free to stream on Amazon for Prime members.) I hope you won’t be disappointed.
Season 1 of Veronica Mars was possibly the best season of television of all time. It’s nearly flawless. Season 2 I adore, too. Season 3 was weaker but there were other things going on that created issues… Anyway. I’m over the moon about this.
Can’t. Wait.
I backed it, too, but I’m a little disappointed: If all it took were 2 million dollars, why couldn’t Bell and Thomas do it by themselves? Sure, they have now proved to Warner Bros that there’s an actual demand for a film, but asking your fans to pay for something you could easily pay for yourself seems a bit off.
(Especially for all the fans outside the US who don’t even get any of the Kickstarter rewards for their support.)
Still: VM was a great show and I’m looking forward to its continuation/completion.
Now let’s get Joss Whedon on the phone and kickstart Serenity II.
Honestly never watched the show. Might try it since it’s on Prime though. But something about the idea of the studio making the fans fund it so that they can turn around and make the money off it REALLY bothers me. Do the people who donated get free passes to the movie or do they have to fork over another ~$12 to actually see it? Sorry VM fans, but you’ve been played.
Anyone who pledges $35 or over gets a digital copy of the movie on release; $50 gets that plus a DVD.
Doesn’t look like they’re planning a big theatrical release – I suspect fans who don’t donate or live in/travel to places like New York or L.A. will end up mainly watching it via iTunes/Netflix/etc.
Saw that. So the fans who didn’t pledge can wait and pay $15 for the digital copy a little later? Makes perfect sense.
Well, it’s not like we don’t know what we’re getting into. :D