‘Veronica Mars’ Movie Gets March 2014 Release Date
The Veronica Mars movie has been given a March 14, 2014 release date, a little more than a year after series creator Rob Thomas launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the film.
“Warner Bros. had this date circled for quite some time and hoped it would stay open,” Thomas told Entertainment Weekly. “Luckily, no other teen detective movie decided to open in the middle of March.”
Thomas launched the Kickstarter campaign on March 13, and the project met its $2 million goal in less than 12 hours. By the time the campaign ended on April 12, over 91,000 backers pledged more than $5.7 million to bring their favorite teen detective to the big screen. Filming was completed in just 23 days this summer, and Thomas is finishing the special effects and putting together the soundtrack.
The Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign shattered several records for the crowd funding website, including fastest project to reach $1 million and $2 million, and the most backers of any project in Kickstarter history. Veronica Mars was also the all-time highest funded project in Kickstarter’s film category, and the third highest-funded project in the site’s history. The highest funded were Pebble Technology’s Pebble: E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android in May 2012 ($10.2 million), and Ouya Inc.’s Ouya video game console ($8.5 million) in September 2012.
According to EW, the original plan was for Veronica Mars to hold a limited engagement run in a few cities before becoming more widely available via video on demand and other digital platforms. But Warner Bros. decided to give the film a wider, nationwide release and allow the marketplace to decide how long the movie will stay in theaters.
“We’re not going to dribble it out there,” Thomas said. He also said that a recent test audience screening went well.
“There are smart ways to do a movie of this size — and we chose none of them,” Thomas said. “We are a low budget movie with big set pieces and 60 speaking roles. A murder mystery in a house would have been more cost effective. But I think we have managed to pull it off.”
The Veronica Mars will find the titular character (Bell) returning to her hometown of Neptune, California, after 10 years to help Logan (Jason Dohring), who has been accused of killing his pop star girlfriend. Also returning are Enrico Colantoni as Veronica’s father, Keith Mars, and Tina Majorino and Percy Daggs III as Veronica’s best friends Mac and Wallace.
