‘Veronica Mars’ Update: Rob Thomas Has Finished a ‘Too-long’ First Draft, Breaks Down Budget

The Veronica Mars movie continues to chug along, with writer/director Rob Thomas confirming that he’s finished a first draft of the script.

On Friday, Thomas offered backers of the project an update including a glimpse at the final page of his draft, which reads: “Outside the office, the motorcycles turn deafening as they accelerate away, and we… FADE TO BLACK.”

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“We’ve been reading your suggestions and comments and trying to respond to them, working on more events and rewards that we plan to announce throughout the final week,” he wrote in the update. “And somehow amid the chaos, I also knocked out a too-long first draft of the script. (#humblebrag) But now it’s down to the proverbial wire, so it’s time to put all the cards on the table.”

While the project’s minimum goal of $2 million was reached in less than one day, and more than $4.5 million raised to date, there is still one week left to continue raising funds for the film — funds that Thomas says are still desperately needed. Read the full explanation below.

Assuring fans that he will not use the funds to “swim around in a mountain of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck,” Thomas explains that a good portion of the money raised will go to those freebies promised to backers, including t-shirts, posters, DVDs and premiere events — and the shipping costs associated — but all the remainder will go to making “in my humble opinion, a really great movie.”

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“For a feature length movie, [$4.5 million] is still a pretty conservative budget,” he writes. “Everything you’ve pledged beyond the initial $2 million gives us more options, and for that I’m eteranally grateful. More backing means more locations, more sets, more actors, and most important of all, more shooting days. The bottom line? That extra support gives us the freedom to make the best movie possible.”

Speaking of freebies, Thomas also promises fans a first look on Friday at the official Veronica Mars t-shirt designs that will be made available to fans.

Read a portion of Thomas’ update below:

I wanted to take a moment to explain something that I could have made clearer at the beginning: $2 million was our minimum goal. It would be enough to get a movie made, but it was never going to let us make the exact movie we really wanted to make, or the one we know you deserve. I’ve spoken to the press a lot in the past month — turns out they’ve been pretty excited about this whole thing — and one thing I’ve explained is that the final script will depend on how much we’re able to raise. $2 million would have been enough to get us back on the screen. When we started, we didn’t want to set our goal higher than that, for fear we might lose our chance to make the movie at all. But because of you, we did go higher. Way higher.

We’re at $4.5 million now. That’s a lot of money. But for a feature length movie, it’s still a pretty conservative budget. Everything you’ve pledged beyond the initial $2 million gives us more options, and for that I’m eternally grateful. More backing means more locations, more sets, more actors, and most important of all, more shooting days.

The bottom line? That extra support will give us the freedom to make the best movie possible. 

That additional money could mean the difference between a movie that lasts 90 minutes, and one that lasts 110. It could also mean the difference between us shooting in Southern California, where the series was shot, and in a less expensive location somewhere else. 

(To be clear, I can’t make guarantees yet about how long the movie will be, or exactly where we will shoot, and the last thing I want is to make a promise I can’t keep. But what I can promise is this: the more we end up with, the more freedom we’ll have, and the better our movie will be. That’s what this is about.)

That’s a long explanation, but we know we’re asking a lot of you. In return, we want you to know that we’re not going to take all of the additional funds and swim around in a mountain of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck. Some of the money we raise will go toward the different rewards and incentives we’re offering, like t-shirts, posters, DVDs, and premiere events. Turns out, a lot of it will also go toward shipping costs to get those rewards out to you. But I promise: after those costs, every dollar we raise will go toward making this movie the best it can be.