Vonnegut documentary seeks $250,000 via Kickstarter

After devoting more than 30 years to making a documentary film about Kurt Vonnegut, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" director Robert Weide is turning to crowdfunding to finish the job.

Weide is seeking $250,000 for "Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time" through Kickstarter.com, with a deadline of March 10. At midday Monday, the campaign was nearing $100,000 in pledges.

Emmy-winning director and screenwriter Weide, a Vonnegut fan since high school, first proposed doing a documentary about the Indianapolis-born author in 1982. He began filming in 1988, when Vonnegut made a train trip from Albany, N.Y., to Buffalo.

The film includes a 1994 visit to Shortridge High School, where Vonnegut reminisced about rigging "car bombs" to torment teachers.

Known for iconic novels "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle" and "Breakfast of Champions," Vonnegut gave his consent to Weide after the filmmaker mailed an unsolicited letter to the author.

Beyond connecting with his subject for a film, Weide became close friends with Vonnegut, who died in 2007 at age 84.

"He didn't act like a celebrity," Weide said in promotional video for the film. "He didn't act like a big shot."

But with thoughts that the project was no longer objective, Weide decided to become a character in his own documentary. Don Argott, who made 2010's "The Art of the Steal" and 2012's "The Atomic States of America," became the co-director of "Unstuck in Time."

"As reluctant as I am to be on camera, it seemed like the only honest approach," Weide told The Star last February.

The film carries the tag line, "The story of an author's life becomes the story of a filmmaker's lifetime."

Weide, a California native who directed more than 20 episodes of HBO sitcom "Curb Your Enthusiasm," earned an Academy Award nomination for 1998 documentary "Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth."

In a 2001 interview with The Star, he talked about Vonnegut's enduring appeal.

"The way some people have their musician or their painter or playwright or filmmaker, I finally found the guy who spoke directly to me, really got under my skin," Weide said. "I loved his humor, I loved how he approached these huge topics on the one hand with some sort of cynicism but all filtered through this wonderful sense of humor."

Among the perks for those who donate to "Unstuck in Time":

•Vonnegut's syllabus of "books that everyone should read," $15 or more.

•One-year membership at the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library in Indianapolis, $25 or more.

•Shooting script for "Mother Night," a 1996 adaptation of the Vonnegut novel that Weide wrote and produced.

•Outline of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode "The Doll," with director's notes and autograph from Weide, $140 or more.

•Lunch with Weide and producer/director Judd Apatow was offered for $5,000, but that perk has been purchased.

Call Star reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.