Independent film director Spike Lee is appealing directly to his fans to fund his next movie, in a move inspired by the successes of Rob Thomas and Zach Braff.
The Oscar-nominated director has launched a Kickstarter campaign in search of $1.25 million to finance a mystery project, explaining that the film industry has turned away from the sort of movies that he has made for nearly 30 years.
“With the current climate in the Hollywood studio system, it’s not an encouraging look for independent filmmakers,” he wrote, explaining his reasoning for starting the campaign. “I’m not hating,” he added, “just stating the facts. Super heroes, comic books, 3D special effects, blowing up the planet nine times and fly through the air while transforming is not my thang. To me it’s not just that these films are being made but it seems like these are the only films getting made. To the studios it seems like every film must be a home run on a global scale, a tent pole enterprise, able to spin off sequel after sequel after sequel after sequel after sequel after sequel.”
Lee, whose film credits include Do The Right Thing, Jungle Fever and Malcolm X, teased that the new film’s story was about “Human beings who are addicted to blood. Funny, sexy, and bloody (and it’s not “Blacula”).”
After 2012’s Red Hook Summer, which earned mixed reviews from critics, Lee directed the upcoming remake of the Korean horror film Oldbo, The movie, which stars Josh Brolin, had a creepy marketing presence at this weekend’s Comic-Con. His last several films have been less-than-successful; Red Hook Summer earned just $340,000 at the box office, while 2008’s Miracle at St. Anna, a movie set in World War II, made just $7 million on a $45 million budget.
Lee is offering a long list of prizes to donors, ranging from a thank you tweet and updates on the production from Lee himself (to $5 donors), all the way up to an evening spent eating dinner and watching the Knicks from Lee’s courtside seats at Madison Square Garden (that’ll cost you $10,000). A $5,000 donation, meanwhile, earns you an Associate Producer credit on the movie.
Rob Thomas’ Veronica Mars, which attracted pledges totalling $5.7m from 91,500 donors, and Zach Braff’s movie, Wish I Was Here ($3.1m from 46,000 donors) both had a plot outlined at the outset of their respective Kickstarter campaigns, but Lee has offered donors no plot or premise to his proposed movie, other than the mysterious “addicted to blood” hint.
Kickstarter is a web-based resource for filmmakers, musicians, artists and designers to raise money to fund projects. If people like a project, they can pledge money to help make it happen. Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing — projects must reach their funding goals to receive any money. In essence, it is TV’s Dragon’s Den for the Web, with the Dragons being anyone who wants to support a project. To date, an impressive 44% of projects have reached their funding goals.
