UPDATE, Wednesday 12:32 p.m.: The "Veronica Mars" movie project has topped $1 million in pledges on Kickstarter, putting the project more than halfway toward its $2 million goal.
Previously….
Fans have been craving a "Veronica Mars" big-screen adventure ever since the cult series finished up its CW run six years ago.
Thanks to the power of crowd-sourcing, the youthful sleuth so memorably played by Kristen Bell may finally make her movie debut.
Bell and creator Rob Thomas have launched a Kickstarter page with the goal of raising $2 million in a month. If they get it, they say that Warner Bros., which owns the rights to the series, has agreed to pick up the cost of marketing and distribution if they're able to show enough fan interest.
"I am currently the happiest blonde in a hamster ball the world has ever seen," Bell writes on the Kickstarter page. "We have been waiting so long to make this movie dream a movie reality, and it’s because of YOUR commitment, YOUR persistence, that we finally have a chance. We just have one more step to go. You have banded together like the sassy little honey badgers you are and made this possibility happen."
And she promises that "if we hit our goal, we will make the sleuthiest, snarkiest, it’s-all-fun-and-games-‘til-one-of-you-gets-my-foot-up-your-ass movie we possibly can."
For the uninitiated, the noirish "Veronica Mars" followed an aspiring private investigator through high school and later college as she was tutored in the art of deduction by her detective father. It was never a ratings blockbuster, but it did inspire a passionate following.
Thomas said that if the goal is reached, the movie will be shot over the summer and post-production will happen in the fall, with a 2014 release date. Backers of the film will get digital copies within days of its release.
To entice fans to open their wallets, the "Veronica Mars" team is promising set visits, premiere tickets, DVDs of the show's first three seasons and video greetings and voicemails from the cast. The size of the gift is dependent on the size of the donation.
So far it seems to be working. In less than 24 hours, the project has raised more than $400,000 from more than 5,000 backers.
