UPDATE Thursday 11:45 am: Zach Braff has raised $1.5 million in 24 hours. He’ll hit his goal of $2 million today.
Earlier: I can tell you exclusively that former “Scrubs” star Zach Braff’s long in the works indie film “Wish I Was Here” is finally coming together. And it will co-star Katherine Heigl. Braff has decided to launch the film on Kickstarter today, but I’ve known about it for some time. “Wish I Was Here” will be Braff’s first directing effort since the beloved “Garden State” with Natalie Portman.
The goal on Kickstarter is $2 million. Stacey Sher and Michael Shamberg, who produced “Garden State” but are also well known for Quentin Tarantino’s movies, are back as producers. Of course, “Wish I Was Here” will cost several million more than $2 mil, but this is a good way to show public enthusiasm for the project. It will attract investors.
When you put a project on Kickstarter, the way to get donors is to offer trinkets, etc. “Donor incentives: here range from personal copies of the script to access to weekly behind-the-scenes video to invitations to the premiere and even a speaking role in the film. I was going to make a joke about win a date with Katherine Heigl, but she’s married and is a mom, so that wouldn’t work out.
Here’s the press release info on “Wish I Was Here”:
“Wish I Was Here” is the story of Aidan Bloom (to be played by Braff), a struggling actor, father and husband who at 35, is still trying to find his identity; a purpose for his life. He and his wife are barely getting by financially and Aidan passes his time by fantasizing about being the great futuristic Space-Knight he’d always dreamed he’d be as a little kid. When his ailing father can no longer afford to pay for private school for his two kids (5 and 12) and the only available public school is on its last legs, Aidan reluctantly agrees to attempt to home-school them. The result is some funny chaos, until Aidan decides to scrap the traditional academic curriculum and come up with his own. Through teaching them about life his way, Aidan gradually discovers some of the parts of himself he couldn’t find.
