A few weeks ago Spike Lee was the latest filmmaker to enter the fray as he announced he was raising money to fund his current project, a vampire themed flick that he so far has been hesitant to go into much detail about. Spike isn't the first well known member of the film community to make his pitch for funds on Kickstarter, but the latest in what is an interesting trend.
Earlier this year it came out that Kristen Bell had made a pitch on Kickstarter for a Veronica Mars movie. She ended up raising $5 million. What was most interesting to me at least is that the Veronica Mars movie is being backed by Warner Brothers, who are one of the major players in Hollywood. Ultimately this begs the question of why go to a site like Kickstarter for funding if a major studio is going to be backing the project anyway? Zach Braff (from NBC "Scrubs" fame) also took to Kickstarter and raised more than $3 million for his own project.
I'm assuming Spike Lee heard about the success of these two projects and decided that it was time to throw his hat in the ring. Spike Lee is a very decorated director and his work has often made me think about cinema, specifically as it relates to people of color. "Do The Right Thing" is a classic in my book. "School Daze" was informative and "Malcolm X" was not only educational, but illuminating. "He Got Game" and "25th Hour" with Ed Norton, are also among my favorites.
