Kick To The Eye: The Goon Movie Story Reel Kickstarter Funded

Some readers have privately wondered, after we reported earlier this year that there was still hope to see a movie version of The Goon by creator Eric Powell, Producer David Fincher, and Blur Studios, why we hadn’t made any mention of the Kickstarter project started by Blur in October to fund the $400,000 creation of a story reel to shop the project around again to investors in the hopes of getting the full movie (estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars) made.

Well, the answer to that is simple: we like to at least pretend that there is some kernel of journalism behind what we do here, and it would be impossible for us to be objective about the Goon Kickstarter because, in short, I contributed to it.

At greater explanatory length, I contributed a lot to it.

At even greater explanatory length, my pledge was enough to obtain one of the higher-end rewards offered for the project, which didn’t go for what you’d call short money. And it would have felt wrong to skew opinions on a story that, depending on how it went, would lead to me either obtaining something for which I have lusted for since I started reading The Goon, or to my ability to have the pledge be returned upon failure of the Kickstarter and therefore making me able to afford heat for the winter.*

However, it is now safe to discuss this story, because Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Saving Time, The Goon Kickstarter surpassed its goals by more than ten percent, meaning that a full length, animated storyboard, with Clancy Brown voicing The Goon and Paul Giamatti as Franky, will be produced.

Does this mean the movie’s been greenlit? Well, not exactly.

Honestly we were dubious–first of all we need 35M to make the film at the level we want to make it and it deserves–and that kind of funding isn’t what Kickstarter is structured for. But fans kept asking Eric…. and Eric kept asking us…. and we kept failing to get the job done through traditional channels.

Finally we came up with–we hope–a way that we can create something that will move the ball forward and do it at a cost that falls within the realm of what we could reasonably ask the fans for via Kickstarter. We know it would be GREAT if it was the finished film, but it’s just not possible, but we believe this can really move the needle.

So what we’re really talking about here is an animated storyboard that will hopefully lead to someone with 35 million dollars to take the long view and give us 75 to 120 minutes of stuff like this:

“The Goon” Movie Proof of Concept Trailer from Goon Kickstarter on Vimeo.

Now, some might question exactly how an existing animation studio would use 400 large of fans’ money to produce said story reel. And make no mistake: there were some who questioned the entire project, arguing that Kickstarter wasn’t the place to raise production funds for a movie optioned by the guy who makes ten bucks every time someone says, “First rule of $NAME_OF_ORGANIZATION? Do not talk about $NAME_OF_ORGANIZATION.” Well, Powell and the Blur people laid it out, and it looks reasonable to my untrained eye… but what stuck out to me was the salaries of four animators for eight months. Which is a timeframe that coincides nicely with 2013’s San Diego Comic-Con (provided they start drawing right fucking now).

And now that the project is funded, and we have contributed enough to possibly start demanding Executive Producer credits on the movie, we will have access to the Blur Studios production blog when it goes live, which we will report on as news becomes available. And, if my math on when production will be finished is right, and Blur screens the reel around SDCC 2013, when we’ll be on the West Coast to see it, well, maybe we can even report on that as well.

* This is an exaggeration. I can afford my pledge handily… but it means that the only original art that I will be returning with from the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con will be by Amanda’s Cousin Billy. And that I will only own a flat-panel television before 2014 if I back over my projection TV with a steamroller. Still, for the piece Powell promised me via email? TOTALLY worth it.