‘Veronica Mars’ sets crowdfunding record

A Kickstarter campaign to finance a Hollywood film has set a new benchmark for a fan-funded movie project, showing there is a path to production for characters and stories that already have a large, passionate following.

The makers of Veronica Mars, a television series that stars Kristen Bell as a student who is also a private investigator, raised more than $2m in only 10 hours on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform to finance a film based on the characters.

Instead of a financial stake in the movie, donors who have contributed cash will receive “rewards” such as DVDs, copies of the script, T-shirts and even production credits on the film, depending on the amount of their donation.

The project represents a change in direction for the crowdfunding film model. Other producers have used crowdfunding to get their films off the ground but these have tended to be independent films. Inocente, winner of the best short documentary award at this year’s Oscars, was funded through Kickstarter. The film raised more than $52,000 with donations via the platform.

Veronica Mars is different because the film’s producers already have a distribution agreement with Warner Brothers, the studio that financed the TV series, which ran for three years between 2004 and 2007.

The film also has a ready-made fan base in viewers that watched the show when it was on the air on the CW television network.

“Warner Bros. still owns Veronica Mars and we would need their blessing and co-operation to pull this off,” wrote Rob Thomas, the creator and producer of Veronica Mars, on the project’s Kickstarter page. “Kristen [Bell] and I met with the Warner Bros brass, and they agreed to allow us to take this shot.”

The project has already exceeded its goal but Mr Thomas wrote that additional money raised would be put to good use in the film, paying for more expensive scenes and effects.

“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!”

Kickstarter has grown as a crowdfunding platform, raising more than $500m for creative projects since its launch three years ago. More than 35,000 projects ranging from books, video games, music and art have received funding from donors that have used the platform.