Veronica Mars and the Power of Kickstarter

A recent Kickstarter campaign for a movie based on the formerly popular show, Veronica Mars, received an inordinate amount of money. The Kickstarter raised well over the target $2 million in under 12 hours, a Kickstarter record. Needless to say, the film will be going into production soon, and is set for a limited release in 2014.

Fans of Veronica Mars are most likely beside themselves with glee (almost as much as Kristen Bell is when she sees a sloth. Almost.), as they have waited 6 long years for some Mars news. While Kickstarter isn't a new thing to filmmakers (over 30 films are Kickstarter funded at this year's SXSW and YouTube channels are no strangers to the site), this recent Kickstarter project does have fans of other long-cancelled shows eagerly anticipating a possible Kickstarter of their favorite show.

However, fans of Terriers, Pushing Daisies, Firefly and Chuck need to chill out. Seriously. Don't get so excited. The odds of a Kickstarter campaign for any of these shows are marginal at best.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Bryan Fuller (creator of excellent but defunct TV shows such as Pushing Daisies, Mockingbird Lane, and Wonderfalls) tempers fans' excitement when he tells of the harsh realization from his agent that "Pushing Daisies is going to take a lot more than $2 million to make a movie." Seeing as how a single episode of Daisies cost ABC studios nearly $4 million a show, it's not too difficult to say that a Daisies movie would cost around $10 million. This obviously makes it a longshot for any Kickstarter potential.

As for the other projects, Firefly fans should be happy with Serenity because that's all they're going to get. Terriers producer, Shawn Ryan tweeted this:

Very interested to see how this Veronica Mars kickstarter goes. Could be a model for a Terriers wrap up film.
— Shawn Ryan (@ShawnRyanTV) March 13, 2013

...which inevitably put Terriers fans in a frenzy. Chuck fans were teased when Zachary Levi tweeted an idea to start a Chuck Kickstarter. However, Levi expressed his concern with a possible Chuck project, as it could prove difficult to get non-Chuck fans to see the film, and even harder to convince studios that non-Chuck fans would even be interested in one. 

Don't get me wrong, this Veronica Mars Kickstarter thing may be the start to other similar projects taking place, but unfortunately I don't see it becoming such a big thing for other cancelled TV shows. It is simply too expensive of an undertaking, and it would prove too challenging to engage non-fans of a show.

It also helps that Mars producer Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell along with the rest of the cast were very enthusiastic about the project. Other TV shows may have more difficultly recruiting its former stars and crew.

In the meantime, Mars fans rejoice, and even Arrested Development fans can thank Netflix for backing a 4th season of the show and an eventual movie.

Believe! It's back!

What do you think, has the Veronica Mars Kickstarter paved a way for other TV shows to get their own wrap-up film?