Spike Lee may well be a well-known name, but due to the fact he likes to make potentially contentious movies (at least in terms of how much they’ll gross), he often has difficulty finding funding for his movie. He’s now trying to get around that by launching a Kickstarter campaign for his next movie, which is currently known simply as The Newest Hottest Spike Lee Joint.
Lee is hoping to raise $1.25 million from the crowd-sourcing site. While most campaign are at pains to give as many details about the film as possible, Lee is keeping his cards close to his chest, other saying it’s about human beings who are addicted to blood. “Funny, sexy, and bloody (and its not Blacula), he adds.
The director also spoke to Variety about why he decided to go the Kickstarter route, saying about crowd-sourcing that, “I never paid it much attention until one of my students told me about Veronica Mars, and then Zach Braff. I saw those two things and said, Ive got to give this a shot.
He added, “I always tell my students [at NYU], when theyre thinking about their thesis films, Have an idea of how much money you can raise and then let that be the boundaries of your story. If you dont raise your goal on Kickstarter, you lose everything. So, I picked a number where I felt that we could do it, and where I felt I could make the best film I could for that amount of money. Today is day one of the 30 days we have to raise the money, and if God is willing and the creek dont rise, well be shooting in November or December.
He’s positioning his film as an alternative to the studio’s tentpole addiction, saying on the Kickstarter, “I understand now that, with the amount of money it costs to market a film, the studios need films that are going to be tentpoles. But I will go to my grave believing that there are still audiences that want something different. Not to eradicate these type of 3D, blow-up-the-world, Transformers-type movies. Theyre cool, but now it seems like thats the only thing theyre making.
Head over to Kickstarter if you want to help Lee make his movie and take a look at the pitch video below.