'Veronica Mars' movie gets green light thanks to Kickstarter: The next big thing

Power to the people! "Veronica Mars" will be hitting the big screen thanks to adoring fans. The LA Times reports on Friday that Warner Bros., who owns the rights to the show, questioned whether there was enough interest to warrant a studio-sized budget and declined the project.

So, the show’s creator Rob Thomas along with the star Kristen Bell turned to fans for support and financial backing. Welcome to the world of Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is a Manhattan-based private for-profit company founded in 2009 that provides tools to raise funds for creative projects via crowd funding through its website. Time magazine dubbed it one of the “Best Inventions of 2010” and “Best Website of 2011.”

Kickstarter has funded everything from music, stage shows, indie films and video games. Money is essentially donated to the cause as opposed to being considered having a vested interest in the production. Therefore, none of the profits are shared with people funding the project.

There are usually incentives offered to fans. Thomas and Bell offered quite a range of perks like a speaking role in the film, private screenings of the movie, tickets to the red carpet premiere and a visit to the set during production, where contributors will appear as extras.

The biggest film campaign in Kickstarter history and the fastest to reach the $1-million threshold represents a milestone in Hollywood moviemaking economics.

The ‘Veronica Mars’ kickstarting revolution has received some serious love from fans as the number exceeds $3-million to date and almost another month of collection time remaining.

Wednesday "was one of the most remarkable days of my life," Thomas told The Times. "My attention span was about 4 seconds because everything was piling up. We were seeing all this press pop up, the Kickstarter number kept going up; we were the talk of the Twittersphere. At one point, it was the pope and us trending. I've never been in the eye of the storm like that."

Kristen Bell has certainly moved on to bigger things since her moments playing the lead in the television series with movies like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Couples Retreat” and “Burlesque” whom she co-starred with superstars Christina Aguilera and Cher.

She is the female lead on the Showtime series “House of Lies” which premiered just over a year ago and this talented young actress certainly knows how to keep busy with more projects than you can shake a stick at.

So, how did Thomas get her on board for such a low-budget production? "I've told Rob I'll shoot it on toilet paper in my backyard if that's what needs to happen," Bell said. Apparently this project hits close to home for the actress and refreshingly it is not a matter of the all-mighty dollar for her.

The skit that is shown on the Kickstarter sight to generate interest in donating features the show's stars and creator. With a minimum contribution of only a buck you can claim the right to say that you were part of "the largest Kickstarter project of all time in the universe" and help put an actual movie in motion. How cool is that?

For those of you who don’t know anything about “Veronica Mars,” it was a low-rated show starring Kristen Bell as a teenage “Nancy Drew” who cracked cases under the tutelage of her detective father. The show lasted only three seasons.

Thanks to the amazing support of fans, the movie will be shot this summer for an early 2014 release in a limited number of theaters and made available via digital download.

Perhaps “Smash” fans should be putting their extra change aside just in case NBC cuts it after its second season. The network announced this week that the show has been moved to Saturdays in hopes to help Tuesday night ratings.