David Cross has decided to take a different approach in releasing his directorial debut Hits through a new Kickstarter campaign. The film – which stars Matt Walsh, Meredith Hagner, James Adomian, Derek Waters, Wyatt Cenac, and more – is slated for a theatrical release in February, but Cross turned down multiple distributors because “their plans for the film were a little lackluster.” Instead, he’s set up a Kickstarter where fans can back the distribution costs for a release both in theaters and an experimental “Pay What You Want” release on BitTorrent. Here’s an excerpt from the Kickstarter page:
We want you to decide how much tickets cost and you pay artists directly, not distributors or studios. This is an experiment, a first of its kind to see if we can make it more sustainable for both fans, and filmmakers. In order to do this in theaters as widely as possible we need your help to raise $100K. We are distributing ourselves and there are costs associated with making all of this happen. In addition to theater rental fees, we need to cover our marketing and publicity efforts. We ideally want to be in 50 markets, but the more money we raise the more theaters we can be in, so if we go over $100k, we’ll just expand our plans, which would be great!
The crowdfunding campaign is full of some great rewards for backers, from a personalized mix CD made by Cross himself ($200 or more) to the opportunity for him to be your child’s godfather for just $7,500. Tucked away in the rewards is also the most concrete confirmation of a 2015 Mr. Show reunion yet:
Pledge $5,000 or moreBE IN MR. SHOW - We’ll be shooting sometime in March/April in Los Angeles and we’ll feature you as a background player. Then, come to the taping and stick around for a meet and greet. Who knows, maybe you’ll even get some “face time”???
Cross also has a $5,000 reward to be in the third season of The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, which he says starts shooting in London in May. Head over to the Kickstarter page to see more details and hopefully buy yourself a spot in a David Cross project.
