Dan Harmon, Charlie Kaufman Kickstarting 'Anomalisa' Stop-Motion Film

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Dan Harmon needs your help, and it has nothing to do with keeping Community on the air.

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The talented and controversy-inclined TV producer and writer, now freed from his ties with Sony and NBC, is going the opposite route, and in a big way: he's teaming up with indie auteur Charlie Kaufman Community writer/co-star Dino "Starburns" Stamatopoulos and director Duke Johnson to produce a 40 minute animated film called Anomalisa. To fund the film, which will be produced by Starburns Industries and is described as about "a man crippled by the mundanity of his life," the group has launched a Kickstarter campaign seeking $200,000.

"Our goal is to produce this unique and beautiful film outside of the typical Hollywood studio system where we believe that you, the audience, would never be allowed to enjoy this brilliant work the way it was originally conceived," they write on the Kickstarter page. "We’ve been working in the television and movie industry for years and we just want to make something ourselves. Something pure. Something beautiful."

The Kickstarter offers plenty of enticements for donations, including premiere tickets for $250; a Skype conversation with Harmon, Johnson or Stamatopolous for $2,500; a (sold) 20-page screenplay about the donor written by Harmon himself; and, for $10,000, an executive producer credit.

Both Harmon and Kaufman have some free time. The former was famously dismissed from his own show by Sony after a series of disagreements and public incidents between himself and Chevy Chase, while Kaufman's planned next feature, Frank or Francis, has reportedly fallen through. Harmon recently apologized for his Community antics, saying, "Maybe I'm just a jerk."

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