‘Veronica Mars’ and Kickstarter: Is this the future for crowdfunded movies?

The creators of the cult TV series "Veronica Mars" proved yesterday that a rabid fan base and an effectively marketed Kickstarter campaign can combine in incredible ways. The Veronica Mars Movie Project -- a planned big screen spin-off of the short-lived but well liked Rob Thomas-created television series starring Kristen Bell -- broke crowdfunding records this week, reaching its stated goal of $2 million within hours of going live and becoming the largest film project to be funded in Kickstarter history. As of noon Thursday morning, the project has raised nearly $2.7 million and still has 29 days to add to that impressive total.

So what does this mean for other fan favourite TV shows that were cancelled before their time? Or, for that matter, movies begging for sequels they never got? Could the tremendous success of the “Veronica Mars” project pave the way for a crowdfunded movie revival of Joss Whedon’s “Firefly” or put Mulder and Scully back in fan-financed action for another “X-Files” case?

The answer is: maybe.

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There are a few factors that worked in the favour of the Veronica Mars Movie Project that simply might not apply to potential “Firefly” or “X-Files” movies.

Foremost among the factors is budget: being set in small town California in the present day, the “Veronica Mars” TV show was relatively inexpensive to produce. It’s likely that the movie version – even with the comparatively impressive budget it will no doubt accrue through Kickstarter over the next month – will also be a fairly modest effort when stacked up against most major Hollywood productions. Even if the project raises between $4 million and $5 million, that would still put it firmly in indie budget territory. For science fiction properties like “Firefly” or the “X-Files,” that sort of budget just isn’t workable.

The first big screen outing for Whedon’s “Firefly” -- the 2005 film “Serenity” -- cost about $40 million to produce. That’s cheap as far as Hollywood sci-fi films go (and Whedon definitely got the most bang for his buck with the film), but even with the level of fame and prestige the director earned thanks to the billion dollar plus success of “The Avengers” last year, raising anything close to the budget of “Serenity” purely through crowdfunding would be nigh on impossible. Despite a huge and devoted fanbase, “Serenity” didn’t even make back its budget. Sure, star Nathan Fillion continues to be a popular actor thanks to his show “Castle,” but are there even enough Browncoats on the planet to support another “Firefly” movie?

Given its somewhat broader appeal and Earth-bound setting, a property like “The X-Files” seems like a better candidate for “Veronica Mars”-style crowdfunding. That said, the last cinematic adventure of Mulder and Scully -- “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” – cost $30 million to make. That's an almost impossibly lofty Kickstarter goal.

Even with that $30 million budget, “I Want to Believe” looked like a glorified episode of the TV show at times. The production clearly struggled to make ends meet, and it showed. The prospect of another “X-Files” with an even lower budget might not be an attractive proposition – even for hardcore fans. Still, star David Duchovny recently said that he wants to play FBI agent Fox Mulder again, confirming that he, co-star Gillian Anderson, and creator Chris Carter are all on board. Duchovny also asked fans to demand a third “X-Files” movie with a letter-writing campaign, but perhaps crowdfunding the next film is a better option.

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One potential avenue for Kickstarter projects like this is to use the crowd sourced funds as seed money to attract further investment from producers and/or studios. A high-profile Kickstarter campaign would demonstrate to those possible producers, as well as to movie studios, that the project has sufficient interest and buzz to be a profitable enterprise. Fans pledging a few million dollars on Kickstarter (and setting the Internet aflame with buzz in the process, as they did with “Veronica Mars”) could easily convince film production companies to invest comparable amounts in a project. Perhaps a joint fan/producer model is the way forward for projects requiring bigger budgets.

Of course, there are some down sides to crowdfunding. Raising cash through a site like Kickstarter has the potential to cannibalize potential box office for fan favourite projects like the “Veronica Mars” movie. By pledging to back the film, a fan has in effect already bought a copy of the finished movie. Backers are the primary audience, so while a Kickstarter project like this may raise enough money to get made, there are no guarantees that completed movie will actually make a profit.

Can a fan-funded “Veronica Mars” movie appeal to a wider audience than just hardcore fans and backers? And will fans and backers actually pay to see “Veronica Mars” in theatres when they’ve already been given (and paid for) a digital copy or DVD of the film? This is all mostly uncharted territory for moviemaking, so we’ll soon find out.