The ‘Mars’ Kickstarter page (
)
‘START’ ME UP: Kristen Bell starred in “Veronica Mars” circa 2004 and Kickstarter page (inset) that raised nearly $6 million in a month. (
)
Has Kickstarter — the crowd-funding Web site that just raised nearly $6 million to make a “Veronica Mars” reunion movie — become the ultimate fan experience?
Suddenly the fans of TV shows who dressed up like Spock to attend a Star Trek convention are as fake as Milli Vanilli.
And all because, in the last month, Hollywood has been turned upside-down by an Internet campaign to raise money from the fans of “Mars,” a thinly-veiled update of the Nancy Drew books about a high-school girl (later a college co-ed) turned detective.
The show, starring Kristen Bell, ran for just three seasons to so-so ratings and went off the air in 2008.
But when nearly 100,000 people donated an average $62 each to fund a movie version of the show with the old stars — raising $5.7 million in less than a month — fans suddenly found out they could do more to express their love for the show than buying the official coffee mug.
And Hollywood this week has started to take notice.
“It shows what people will do when they realize: ‘If I don’t help, this thing won’t happen,’ ” says David Marlett, who runs BlueRun Media, a Texas firm that advises TV and movie producers on how to raise money on Kickstarter.
“That’s the power of this thing,” he says. “People giving to make something happen.”
“The studios are very good at measuring the breadth of interest for mass-market ideas,” says Ezra Doner, a New York film and TV lawyer with long experience in entertainment financing.
“But breadth and awareness doesn’t guarantee you an audience,” he says.
For the first time, Hollywood has a way to judge how deeply fans feel about their shows, he says.
“People who grew up with these characters want to see what their lives look like now,” says Doner. And they are willing to pay for it.
Rob Thomas, the creator of “Veronica Mars,” turned to Kickstarter when he could not convince the studio that made the original series, Warner Bros., to finance a movie.
Thomas offered “backers” T-shirts and stickers in return for modest donations.
One $10,000 donor, identified in reports, gets a one-line speaking part (“Your check, sir.”) in the movie.
Crowd-funding for TV shows came of age this week — and not because of a T-shirt offer.
“People are going to look back on ‘Veronica Mars’ and say, ‘Wow, that was the first,” says Marlett. “It’s a harbinger of things to come.”
Who will be next to go to the fans for money?
Matthew Weiner, the creator of “Mad Men,” says he “would love it” — if he decides to make a Don Draper movie after next season’s finale.
“I would totally welcome it,” he told The Post.
“It’s awesome that happened” for “Veronica Mars,” says Jon Hamm, who plays Draper. “I know Rob Thomas and I’m a fan.
“That said, I don’t think there will ever be a ‘Mad Men’ movie,” Hamm told The Post.
Then he softened a bit and added: “If there was some story left to tell, maybe.”