When Matthew Lillard needed a distributor for his directorial debut, “Fat Kid Rules the World,” he knew he had an alternative to the traditional Hollywood studio: Kickstarter.
“Mainstream Hollywood doesn't know how to make money on a movie like this,” he wrote on the crowdfunding website. “They don't believe that there is an audience, and we mean to prove them wrong.”
As studios become more risk-averse, filmmakers of all stripes are turning to Kickstarter, as well as other online crowdfunding sites like IndieGoGo, to fund production, marketing and, in some cases, distribution.
That includes everyone from "Raging Bull" screenwriter Paul Schrader to a relative unknown like Rob Hugel.