So you don't have an animation studio in that position where they create a proof of concept and then have to follow it up by shopping it around to studios. Obviously Pixar is owned by Disney, Dreamworks is its own thing. If you look at Blue Sky they're owned by 20th Century Fox. JF: And the other difference is, with a lot of the other animation studios, they have a parent company that they're run by so they're not necessarily shopping their projects around. I've seen shorts that sometimes people do for the love of it and then they get turned into films but I've never seen anybody do quite this.
I'm sure it's been done, but I've never seen it. TM: I can't think of anybody-doing animation at that level is fairly expensive and time-consuming and I haven't seen any other studios do an animation test directly to pitch a film. RB: It's played out in a very public way, because people liked the animation and so it's been passed around on the Internet, but is the way you guys did this kind of standard operating procedure or was it a special case that you made this short piece of finished animation as a pitch? Maybe 2008 or 2009-ish is when we made the initial contact with Eric and brought him out here and got together with David Fincher and talked about making this into a feature film. Jeff Fowler: I think we auctioned it a little earlier. The film, though, didn't come around until three years ago. Tim Miller: I think we started reading the comic from day one. Russ Burlingame: How long have you two gentlemen in particular been involved with this project? We're going to run it by Blur, and if they're down, you'll get a full, in-depth recording of the conversation on an episode of Panel Discussions Friday morning.
There's a ton more to this conversation, too, but we're making strategic cuts, here. Plus, now everyone can stop asking Eric Powell why they don't just fund the thing with Kickstarter.īlur's Tim Miller and Jeff Fowler joined us to talk about the film, the fundraising campaign, and the challenges they've faced along the way.īut first, of course, check out the trailer to get a sense for what we're talking about. The folks at Blur are pretty convinced that this story reel could be the missing piece to interesting a studio. Not that even this much is "easy." But Fight Club and The Social Network director David Fincher is attached to the film, which helps open a lot of doors. This will make selling the film to a potential backer much easier, which is necessary becuase the actual budget for an animated feature film, especially one that matches up, quality-wise, with what Blur have offered in the trailer and sample scene that's been floating around the Internet for a while, costs substantially more than you can easily raise on Kickstarter.
That's right, folks-Eric Powell's beloved Dark Horse Comics series The Goon is still winding its way toward the big screen, and the most recent step in that journey is that they've launched a Kickstarter campaign aimed at raising $400,000 to provide Hollywood studios with a test reel-rudimentary animation, music and sound effects.
It's Halloween, so what better day to consider the merits of a movie that features violence, zombies, and the occasional knife to the eye?