GARDEN STATE director turns to Kickstarter to get his next movie off the ground.
Zach Braff, arguably best known for his role as J.D. in SCRUBS, has not directed a film since his 2004 debut, GARDEN STATE. In the wake of the success of Amanda Palmer’s THEATRE IS EVIL album campaign and Rob Thomas’s success for the funding for the VERONICA MARS movie, Braff has turned to his fans and admirers to help fund his next film; WISH I WAS HERE.
WISH I WAS HERE is the story of Aidan Bloom (played by Braff), a struggling actor, father and husband, who at 35 is still trying to find his identity; a purpose for his life. He and his wife are barely getting by financially and Aidan passes his time by fantasizing about being the great futuristic Space-Knight he’d always dreamed he’d be as a little kid.
At the time of writing, Zach Braff’s Kickstarter has reached $962,000, and we have thrown a few Euros in to the hat, but in case you need them, here are some reasons you should give Zach Braff your money.
Braff is a helluva writer; GARDEN STATE is a wonderful film about feeling lost in life. ALL NEW PEOPLE is a play about, well, feeling lost in life that had a surprising emotional punch. We want to see what Braff will do next.
Braff is kicking in his own cash too: “I am absolutely contributing my own money to the funding of the film, but I actually can’t afford to cover the entire cost of production.”
The perks! Each Kickstarter campaign comes with perks – which the backers can refuse if they just want to support the project in good faith – and Braff has come up with some great incentives, including tshirts, a copy of the script, online viewing parties and weekly playlists.
Speaking of playlists, the soundtrack for GARDEN STATE, and the later seasons of SCRUBS, were amazing, and the GARDEN STATE OST went on to win a Grammy. We want Braff to curate more soundtracks please!
The geek aspect. It seems that Braff fought to hold on to creative control of WISH I WAS HERE not least because financiers wanted to remove to Comic-Con sequences. We love Comic-Con and we love that Braff gets the whole geek experience.
While we love blockbusters – and we do, check out our review of IRON MAN 3 – we also love small indie films, and Braff’s Kickstarter campaign is the perfect way to be part of something big, and remind Hollywood that there is more than one way to tell a story.
The crew: Braff has already got GARDEN STATE cinematographer Larry Sher onboard for WISH I WAS HERE, and Judy Becker, who has worked on BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and SHAME, will do the film’s production design.
Basically, we love the concept of crowd sourcing funding for a film through Kickstarter, and we want it to be a reality.
Braff has already received a backlash for funding his film this way, and it is hard to tell whether the backers are genuinely interested in the story that Braff has to tell, or whether they are simply supporting him because he is J.D. from SCRUBS, but if this project draws more attention to filmmaking, the impact that fans can have and funding through Kickstarter, we are all for it.
If you have some cash to spare, you can contribute here.
Words: Brogen Hayes