The Veronica Mars Kickstarter Movie Starts Filiming

Often after a cult television show finishes airing (usually due to cancellation) there's always talk of a continuation in some shape or form, mostly by the fans who aren't ready to give up on their favourite show just yet, but occasionally the creators/ writers/ actors themselves express interest in keeping the show going. Buffy, Angel & Charmed all got to continue on in comic book form. Firefly got a film, Serenity (although for Whedon fans that'll never be enough). Arrested Development continued online. And even 24 is returning to television in 2014 after being off the air for three years.

However, for all these success stories it's actually very rare for this to happen. Or at least it seemed that way until about a month ago, when Rob Thomas, creator of cult hit Veronica Mars started a Kickstarter campaign to bring back his beloved heroine for a feature length film. Below is the video that Rob Thomas, Ms. Veronica Mars herself Kristen Bell, and other actors from the show Enrico Colantoni, Ryan Hansen, and Jason Dohring appeared in to promote the campaign:

It's safe to say that before this Kickstarter wasn't very well known, but basically it's an online company that provides the tools to raise funds for creative projects via crowd funding through its website. When the campaign started on March 13th of this year Thomas hoped to raise 2 million dollars for the film and this was done within ten hours. By the  time the campaign closed on the 12th of April, rasing $5,702,153 from 91,585 backers. The campaign broke several Kickstarter records in the process, including the fastest project to reach first $1 million, then $2 million; the highest minimal pledging goal achieved; and the largest successful film project on Kickstarter and the most backers on a single Kickstarter project. I myself donated $100 and I personally cannot only wait for the movie to come out, but also for all the great gifts I get for helping to fund the project, inckuding a limited edition movie t-shirt, poster and a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack of the movie that includes the documentary on the making of the film.

It's been just over two months since the campaign ended, and having, as a backer of the film, been kept up-to-date with what's been going on with the pre-production (including casting info, scouting locations etc.) of the film I'm excited to say that the film went into actual production today and the movie has begun filming!

While the reaction to the Kickstarter fad the Veronica Mars Movie undoubtedly started has been mixed (Who is Kickstarter really for?, Why do celebrities need money for backing), it's undeniably an exciting time for not only the future of television, but for the creation of all media in general, and I'm very excited to see what this new era of crowd funding will continue to do in the future.