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Author Topic: Futurama Kickstarter  (Read 3949 times)
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Solid Gold Bender

Urban Legend
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« on: 03-17-2013 23:10 »
« Last Edit on: 03-17-2013 23:26 »

I would like to thank cyber_turnip for his elegant thinking in this post:
We have over 100 episodes of the show now. I've got enough of it to live with.

Plus, this is exactly the sort of incentive the guys making it need to get a feature film off the ground. And I would LOVE to see the show go out with the bang of a feature film. Don't judge the potential of a film on the straight to video films they made, because those were produced as 4 episodes a piece. Of course their structure was messy and they didn't feel as huge in scope. A real, theatrical film would be a different beast, altogether, and I'm sure they'd do a good job with it.

I was going to start a thread on here about the potential for Kickstarter playing into the show's future after the Veronica Mars movie got the greenlight, but I never got round to it. That's a pretty viable final chance to get the show a finale. It costs them, what? About 5 million dollars an episode if I recall? So, in theory, they could make a film for about 20 million - although, I'd rather they spend more money on it than just what they'd spend on 4 episodes, so we get some higher quality animation and so forth. Still, I think $20 million could be raised on Kickstarter - or, at least, enough of a chunk to convince Fox to put some money into things, but that's not taking into account the fees of Kickstarter and taxes and the money it'd cost to ship rewards to people and so forth.

If we're going to help the idea of a theatrical movie for Futurama really spring into action, there isn't a better time to start. We're approaching what could be the last batch of episodes for good, and I agree that it is time for a Futurama movie. I'm still only a 15 year old, so what I can do is limited. But think less about what you can do, and more about what we can do. We have connections to the staff, and together I'm sure we can diligently raise enough funds to help boost a Futurama movie. Please feel free to comment ideas, suggestions, problems and so forth.


We definitely have some things to figure out first. Like who will run the project in general, and is Matt Groening and DXC on board with this. I propose we start out simple and see where this takes us...
DannyJC13

DOOP Secretary
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« Reply #1 on: 03-17-2013 23:25 »

Don't you think we should've waited to make this thread after we find out if the show's been renewed or not? Nothing has been 100% confirmed yet.
UnrealLegend

Space Pope
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« Reply #2 on: 03-17-2013 23:50 »

Yeah, I think we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Like Danny said, we're still waiting on an official statement.
Solid Gold Bender

Urban Legend
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« Reply #3 on: 03-17-2013 23:55 »

Well just keep it in mind. It is true that nothing's official yet, and that applies to us too. But also keep in mind that enough money to contribute to a movie doesn't grow overnight.
UnrealLegend

Space Pope
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« Reply #4 on: 03-17-2013 23:59 »

Also, would it actually take $5 million to produce a movie, or was he using a bit of exaggeration?

(I have literally no knowledge of these things.)
Mr Snrub

Urban Legend
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« Reply #5 on: 03-18-2013 00:30 »

Well if a Digimon movie that'd already been made cost 14 million to release, maybe 5 million isn't that much of an exaggeration.
Eternium

Professor
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« Reply #6 on: 03-18-2013 07:52 »

That's quite a lot of money... And perhaps it's better if we wait a little before we start collecting :)
El-Man

Urban Legend
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« Reply #7 on: 03-18-2013 08:45 »

I agree, wait for the official word. Then decide on a course of action when we know where we stand.

$5M seems like a bit of a low estimate, though. Do we have any official figures for how much BBS, BWABB, BG, and ITWGY cost each?
DotheBartman

Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #8 on: 03-18-2013 09:49 »

^If even if we did/do, it wouldn't make a lot of difference since those were produced as multi-part "episodes" and then released straight to DVD. Assuming we're talking about a theatrical film (or even if it was another straight-to-DVD feature, but not made as part of a "season"), the estimate for it would be completely different. The existing movies probably cost roughly whatever amount of money it takes to make 16 episodes, I suppose.
Anna3000

Starship Captain
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« Reply #9 on: 03-18-2013 15:30 »

Well, the Simpsons movie cost roughly 75 million to produce, and that's not even including marketing costs. I would assume Futurama would be similar, so we'd need a whole lot of money!
Benderino

Bending Unit
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« Reply #10 on: 03-18-2013 18:05 »

I definitely think we should wait to see if it's been renewed, even if it seems unlikely.
DotheBartman

Liquid Emperor
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« Reply #11 on: 03-18-2013 19:18 »

Although it would be costly for sure, no way it would cost as much as the Simpsons movie...bear in mind, that show is already costlier because the actors and producers are able to command bigger salaries. Those involved with Futurama (even Matt) almost certainly wouldn't be able to ask for as much on a Futurama film.
cyber_turnip

Urban Legend
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« Reply #12 on: 03-18-2013 22:46 »

I think we're jumping a gun a bit, here. There's no need to actively plan a Kickstarter campaign until we definitely know that it's the end.

But if it is, then it could be a cool way to go with things. At least, to make sure that the staff know it's an option.

$5 million would be insanely cheap for a feature film, so I don't know if Eric Rogers was just plucking a number out of thin air or if that's actually a reasonable budget. Marketing and distribution costs wouldn't need to be worried about as Fox would almost certainly be happy to take over that side of things, and if not, they could just shop the movie around at film festivals for a distributor.

As Anna3000 said, The Simpsons Movie cost 75 million. A Futurama film would be substantially cheaper seeing as the voice cast wouldn't demand nearly as much, they wouldn't need to pay for people like Tom Hanks to do a voice or Hans Zimmer to write the music, and so forth. That said, to do things properly, it'd be nice for them to be able to really up the ante and produce beautiful animation as The Simpsons Movie did, not to mention all the lovely trappings like reverting to orchestrated music rather than synthesized stuff.
The Illusionist was a staggeringly beautiful film and that cost a mere $11 million and Futurama has a pre-existing infrastructure to work with, meaning that, in theory, it should be cheaper for them (minus the cost of the cast - The Illusionist didn't have any true speaking parts).

Last time I checked, Futurama cost about $5 million to produce, per episode - and that was about a decade ago meaning that inflation will probably have pushed the costs drastically up.

That said, there were obvious budget cuts when they made their way to Comedy Central, so it could be done, in theory, for less.

I could believe $5 million would buy a film on par with the straight-to-DVD ones (i.e. literally an extended episode), but I'd love to see how much it'd cost to produce a real film.

Anyway, whatever it takes to get the show a proper finale.


Also, was anyone else disheartened by Eric Rogers' sounding so positive about the film. If the show wasn't cancelled, I would expect him to say something more akin to "Woah guys, wait for the announcement about new episodes first" or something. Hopefully, I'm reading too far into things.
Anna3000

Starship Captain
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« Reply #13 on: 03-19-2013 01:14 »

Yeah, I thought it was pretty disheartening, too. The message on Futurama Madhouse sounded pretty legitimate, so I don't feel much hope right now.

Like cyber_turnip said though, if they do a movie, they really need to pull out all the stops, give the series a worthy finale, and make it fantastic. I'd honestly prefer to end on Meanwhile, assuming it'll be amazing, rather than have another sub-par movie.
Solid Gold Bender

Urban Legend
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« Reply #14 on: 03-19-2013 01:21 »

Like cyber_turnip said though, if they do a movie, they really need to pull out all the stops, give the series a worthy finale, and make it fantastic. I'd honestly prefer to end on Meanwhile, assuming it'll be amazing, rather than have another sub-par movie.

You either die a hero, or see yourself become The Simpsons.
Anna3000

Starship Captain
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« Reply #15 on: 03-19-2013 01:24 »

Very true, and it would be awful to see the latter happen to Futurama  :(
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