'Garden' paid: Zach Braff's Kickstarter campaign reaches $2 million goal

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Zach Braff, native son, looking to make good on Kickstarter, to make another 'Garden State.'

(Frances Micklow/The Star-Ledger)

Original report, April 24:

A fan of the movie "Garden State"? Want more?

South Orange-born Zach Braff, the movie's director, is turning to the online fundraising platform Kickstarter to make it happen. The early indication is that it's working.

In the first day of fundraising, Braff has already received more than $700,000 for what would be his second director project, "Wish I Was Here." He's asking for $2 million, and has 29 days left in his appeal. As of this afternoon, he has more than 10,500 backers.

"Garden State," the 2004 film you might know for its soundtrack as much as its plot, starred Braff, Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard and Ian Holm, with an appearance from Method Man.

"Wish I Was Here" wouldn't be a sequel to "Garden State," but it would be Braff's next feature-length project as a director.

Last month, a similar Kickstarter appeal to finance a "Veronica Mars" movie proved an overwhelming success. More than 90,000 backers pledged a total of $5,702,153, while the goal was actually only $2 million. That campaign became the fastest Kickstarter appeal to get to $1 million and $2 million as well as the third highest-funded project in the site's history.

"After I saw the incredible way 'Veronica Mars' fans rallied around Kristen Bell and her show's creator Rob Thomas, I couldn't help but think (like I'm sure so many other independent filmmakers did) maybe there is a new way to finance smaller, personal films that didn't involve signing away all your artistic control," Braff wrote on the Kickstarter page.

The script for "Wish I Was Here," which Braff says was penned by both him and his brother Adam, again stars Braff, this time as Aidan Bloom, an actor and family man who is struggling. After his sick father can no longer pay for his childrens' private education, with the local public school looking grim, he decides to home school them, devising an unconventional curriculum.

Addressing the popularity of the "Garden State" soundtrack, Braff said that backers will "get access to weekly song picks by me, and be the first group to stream the soundtrack." He included a sample of him beatboxing, because he doesn't have any rights to music yet. Other perks for financing the film are premiere tickets and set visits.

Braff's video appeal for "Wish I Was Here" (see embed above) features guest spots from his "Scrubs" co-star Donald Faison and Jim Parsons from "The Big Bang Theory." In it, Braff explains that his first movie was actually mainly backed by a fan of "Scrubs" who had deep pockets, and wasn't even in the movie industry. He describes "Wish I Was Here" as being "in the tone of 'Garden State'."