Five Other Dead Shows That Could Try Crowdfunding for a Movie

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past day, you’ve heard that Veronica Mars managed to raise $2M to shoot a movie in under half a day. It speaks to how committed its fanbase is, and also that the show can be made into a movie with a relatively low budget and a willing and available cast. I got to thinking about what other dead shows could benefit from crowdfunding, and here’s what I came up with.

Jericho

I thought that Jericho had great potential as a show, but killed after a season and a quarter, it sort of had to rush to a conclusion. There’s been a movie rumored in the works now for a while, but perhaps fan support is the only thing that would actually make it happen.

Estimated Budget: $5M

Cast Availability: High

Firefly

Firefly is one show that immediately jumped to mind when all this Veronica Mars stuff was happening. It’s probably the only other killed too soon show out there with a bigger fanbase, so it could try for the same crowdfunding treatment. But high costs and a busy cast would make this quite hard to pull off. Serenity barely made its money back when this happened the first time, and I don’t think fans could raise the cash alone for either another film or to continue the series.

Estimated Budget $25M

Cast Availability: Low

Freaks and Geeks

This was perhaps Judd Apatow’s greatest creation, before he hit it big with raunchy R-rated comedies. This may seem like a weird one to resurrect, but I think he could manage it. He’s still friends with all those guys, even if some of them, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, James Franco, went on to be big stars now. The picture above shows it would be possible to get the gang together again.

Estimated Budget: $2M

Cast Availability: Medium

24

Running for eight seasons, 24 is hardly in the “killed too soon” category, but I do think it’s one that could generate a fair amount of fan support if it needed to. The movie is rumored to be very close to happening, but I’ll believe that when I see it. Crowdfunding could be the extra  push it needs to become a reality.

Estimated budget: $15M

Cast Availability: High

Arrested Development

Yes, I know that Netflix has picked up the show for a new short series, but they always wanted to end things with a movie, and I do not believe that was part of the most recent deal. If Netflix won’t bankroll that (and why would they, if it was supposed to be in theaters), perhaps its fans could. Though would they still care after they get their miniseries? I’m not sure.

Estimated Budget: $10M

Cast Availability: Medium