The process of crowdfunding has been a touchy one among movie fans. Established filmmakers like Zach Braff and Spike Lee have come under fire for wanting to raise money for their films through campaigns on Kickstarter, while the Veronica Mars movie obliterated its goal in a single day. Now, another established director is turning to crowdsourcing for movie money: horror icon Rob Zombie.
The process of crowdfunding has been a touchy one among movie fans. Established filmmakers like Zach Braff and Spike Lee have come under fire for wanting to raise money for their films through campaigns on Kickstarter, while the Veronica Mars movie obliterated its goal in a single day. Now, another established director is turning to crowdsourcing for movie money: horror icon Rob Zombie.
Zombie has been teasing his new film 31 for months. Now that details about the film are coming to the surface – it appears to be something like The Purge: Anarchy, but in a game show setting with killer clowns – the filmmaker is asking for help from his fans. Like any good crowdfunding campaign, there are perks, and some of them are doozies. There’s the standard stuff; for example, for $50, you can get a signed movie poster or a crew t-shirt. There’s a few things that are a little weird, like having Rob Zombie himself follow you on Twitter for $300. And then, there’s some really cool stuff, like screen-used cemetery crosses from House of 1000 Corpses ($1500) or prop masks from RZ’s Halloween ($2000). The granddaddy of them all, however, is the Lifetime Laminate – a pass that guarantees you and a guest admission to any Rob Zombie show for life, for the very reasonable sum of $1000 (the Lifetime Laminate sold out almost immediately, echoing my sentiment that $1000 is a very reasonable price for a lifetime pass, especially for hardcore fans). So, will Zombie get the backlash that Braff and Lee did, or will he experience the same kind of support as Rob Thomas and Veronica Mars? Time will tell, but if early pledges are any indication, Zombie’s campaign will be a success.
Check out the swag and partner up with RZ yourself at www.rz-31.com, and check out his philosophy on crowdfunding in this video.
Rob Zombie, 31, Crowdfunding, Crowdsourcing, Kickstarter, Zach Braff, Spike Lee, Veronica Mars, Rob Thomas