After nearly a decade of waiting, a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign and months of building anticipation, “Veronica Mars,” (the winner of the 2014 MTV Movie Brawl) was finally unveiled to the public at SXSW.
After an official premiere earlier in the day, the cast and crew of the TV-to-film adaptation headed half an hour north to the Alamo Drafthouse for an even bigger premiere: the one held for Kickstarter backers.
Once they arrived at the theater Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls), Ryan Hansen (Dick Casablancas), Chris Lowell (Stosh ‘Piz’ Piznarski) and the rest of the cast and crew sat down with MTV News while an excited crowd of backers looked on and snapped pictures.
“The first one was important, cause we love Austin, we love SXSW and it was a great way to kick it off,” Bell told MTV News. “But this is the first of the real premieres for the fans, that are for the fans, because they’re the ones who made this movie.”
Most shows don’t come back to life seven years later; and in particular not fan favorite, though extremely low rated shows like “Veronica Mars.” Yet Bell never gave up hope that her plucky teen sleuth would get a second shot at the big time.
“I always thought this day would come,” Bell said. “Maybe I’m crazy, I don’t know. I just was very optimistic about it. I felt like the story wasn’t over, and I’ve wanted a movie since the day the show was cancelled.”
Surrounded by fans, Bell became a little emotional reflecting on her nearly decade long journey to the Alamo Drafthouse.
“I’m thrilled that this is how it came about,” Bell said. “It was worth all the times we almost got to make it over the past seven or eight years. The fact that we can see this much love for the project is just really special.”
Slightly rowdier was the group of men in Veronica’s life, who took the time to snap pictures with the crowd before sitting down with MTV (and frequently shouting out to them throughout the interview).
“I mean, it’s pretty exciting to see this film with the actual people who paid for it,” Lowell said beaming.
“It’s like seeing the film with your bosses,” Hansen quipped right back.
Despite raising over $5.7 million on Kickstarter, and even the hundreds of fans gathered in person for a mere glimpse of bad-boy Logan Echolls, Dohring still sees “Veronica Mars” as the little movie that could.
“It was sort of a backyard home video,” Dohring said, “that the fans gave us that kind of support and energy to make the movie. I already consider it a success because we made a great movie for the fans who gave us the money for it, so that completes it… Regardless of what it does at the box office.”
So they’ve got to be feeling the pressure, right? With millions on the line, not to mention nearly 92,000 backers, the pressure must be immense. Not so, says Lowell.
“Instead of pressure, it’s more like a lot of support,” Lowell clarified. “Feeling like you’re doing something people are already invested in makes coming to work that much easier. It makes the set that much less stressful and nerve-wracking, you know?”
Not wasting a moment, Hansen joked right back, “Well, I felt a lot of pressure. I’m glad you felt carefree and everything, but having the backers on set watching you like, ‘We paid for this. You better do a good job.’ “
Showing off the rapport he and Hansen haven’t lost over the past seven years, Dohring joked, “Ryan threw his arms around the backers and was trying to hook up with as many as he could.”
“I made sure to sleep with a lot of them,” Hansen joked right back.
Though we don’t know how successful the (happily married and 100% definitely joking) Hansen was after the premiere, we do know that leading into the premiere they were already a success.
Stay tuned for plenty more on “Veronica Mars” as we lead into the big opening on March 14.
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