Kickstarter appears to be a more and more popular way of funding a film, as Spike Lee has used it to fund his latest project. He will have raised over $1.38 million, which includes a $10,000 donation from Steven Soderbergh. Lee has said the film will be about ‘humans who are addicted to blood’, but aren’t vampires. If that’s even possible. But there’s already a cast forming, including Stephen Tyrone Williams and Zaraah Abrahams, who have just been joined by BOARDWALK EMPIRE’s Michael K. Williams.
Here’s how Lee announced the casting on Kickstarter. No, we don’t know why it’s all in capitals:
‘Ladies And Gentlemen, We Have Added A Great Talent To Our Stellar 2 Leads. My Main Man Brooklyn’s Finest, Michael K. Williams Has Joined The Cast Of My Newest Hottest Joint. Who Can Forget The Wailing Warning Of “Omar’s Comin’!!! Omar’s Comin’!!!”? Michael Killed It. I Feel That His Portrayal, His Complexity And His Humanity Of Omar Will Go Down As One Of The Greatest Characters Cable TV Has Seen. Omar In THE WIRE Was Not The Usual Bland, Black, Ghetto, Street Thug We’ve Seen 8 Million Times. Nah Son, This Was Some Totally New Sh*t. I Had The Pleasure Of Working With Michael In My Film MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA. Now My Brooklyn Bro Is Doing His Thang As Chalky White On BOARDWALK EMPIRE. We Ain’t Playin’. We Ain’t Shuckin’ And We Ain’t Jivin’. Going To A Higher Level And Like Stevie Sings “HIGHER GROUND.” And Dat’s Da “OMAR” Truth, Ruth. YA-DIG? SHO-NUFF.’
Lee has come under some criticism for using Kickstarter, given his celebrity status and possibly denying smaller, less-well known projects the chance of funding. However, Kickstarter has said:
‘Spike Lee brought three decades of fans to Kickstarter when he launched his project. He introduced many of them to this new way of funding creative works, and to the thousands of other projects that are funding on Kickstarter. Of Spike’s backers, 47% had never backed a Kickstarter project before,” they said. “In the past 90 days alone, more than $21 million has been pledged to filmmakers on Kickstarter not named Rob Thomas, Zach Braff, or Spike Lee. Even without counting these projects, it’s been the biggest three months for film ever on Kickstarter!’
But, what we’ve got to remember about Kickstarter is that it’s funded by the fans. If the fans want to give their money over, whether it’s to Lee’s project or for a small budget independent movie, shouldn’t they be allowed to?
Source: Firstshowing
