James Franco Slams Zach Braff’s Kickstarter Campaign [Video]
James Franco and Zach Braff may have starred as friends each other in Oz The Great and Powerful, but the two have different opinions when it comes to the recent trend of directors and actors using crowdfunding campaigns to fund new projects.
Braff turned to Kickstarter to fund his second feature film, Wish I Was Here. The Scrubs star set a goal of $2 million, which the campaign raised in just four days. At the end of the 30-day funding period, the campaign had raised $3,105,473 from 46,520 backers.
Franco, on the other hand, used Indiegogo to fund a big screen adaptation of his novel, Palo Alto Stories. The campaign started on June 18 and has raised $156,810 at the time of this writing. The final goal is $500,000 by July 17 at 11:59 PST.
Unlike Braff’s campaign, however, the funds for Palo Alto Stories will go to charity.
“My intention is not to go on Indiegogo and ask people to donate money that will then eventually go into my pocket,” Franco told Back to the Movies. “I have no desire to do that. These are projects that are near and dear to my heart and these are filmmakers who are very, very talented, but they’re young. So no one is going to give them a shot. I really want to give them a shot because I know they deserve it and they’re very talented.”
Franco plans to donate the proceeds to Art of Elysium, a non-profit organization that encourages working artists and musicians to dedicate their time and talents to helping children battling serious medical conditions.
“It’s a great cause,” Franco said. “It’s something that I’ve given my own time and money to, and so if I can get these movies made for these filmmakers and, in addition to that, give to this charity, I feel like we are doing two great things.”
[Photo credit: Featureflash / Shutterstock.com]
