Why Courteney Cox Didn't Use Kickstarter To Fund Her Directorial Debut
Instead, the former "Friends" actress chose to fund the film herself. She explains her reasoning to Vanity Fair:
I think I would have been uncomfortable doing a Kickstarter. Don't get me wrong - I need to make the money back [on this film] if I want to direct another one. But I believed in this project that much. I initially tried funding like normal companies do - but it's hard to get actors without financing and financing without actors. I could have gotten financing, I think, but it would have taken me a year or so and I knew after reading after the script that this was something I wanted to do right away.
The first-time feature filmmaker debuted her dark comedy at this year's TriBeca Film Festival to mixed reviews. It stars Elisha Cuthbert, Olivia Thirlby, Kate Walsh, and Sean William Scott as a suicidal man traveling to his hometown to make amends.
While it remains to be seen whether Cox can recoup her personal investment into her passion project, Kickstarter CEO Yancey Strickler is still a firm believer in going the "Veronica Mars" way.
"I think that a lot of artists who never before would have thought Kickstarter could be for them were suddenly made aware that the scale of this is actually - well, we don't even know how big this is. Maybe there isn't a limit," Strcikler explained to EW after the success of "Veronica Mars." "This whole system is just a blank canvas for people's dreams and for the enthusiasm of the internet."
Strickler added, "Something like 300 Kickstarter films have opened theatrically, one has won an Oscar [2013 Best Documentary Short winner Inocente], over a thousand have played at major festivals. Ten percent of Sundance, Cannes, Tribeca, and SXSW have been Kickstarter-funded films in the last couple years. But Hollywood-scale movies? That has been new ground for Kickstarter, and it's certainly one that I expect to continue."