The next Spike Lee joint will be a Kickstarter production.
Following in the footsteps of “Veronica Mars” and Zach Braff, Lee has launched an online campaign to finance his next feature film using the fund-raising site Kickstarter. The Brooklyn filmmaker yesterday unveiled his bid to raise $1.25 million over the next month.
Lee offered few details on the film, but said it would be about “the addiction of blood.”
The 56-year-old director said he was inspired to crowd-source the film after hearing from a student of his that the “Veronica Mars” movie raised $5.7 million on Kickstarter and Braff’s film pulled in $3.1 million.
“When I heard about that, I said, ‘Oh, snap!’ ” Lee said in a video posted on his Kickstarter page.
Though filmmakers, including David Fincher, have been involved with Kickstarter projects, Lee — the director of “Do the Right Thing” and “Malcolm X” — is easily the most established filmmaker yet to use the service to raise money for a feature.
Kickstarter, which takes a percentage of donations, has found both supporters (enamored by the ability to circumvent the usual means of film production) and critics — who call it digital panhandling and lament that backers, unlike typical film investors, get no cut of any eventual grosses.