Runnin’ Scared dropped by Lee’s studio in Fort Greene to ask him about the project. We talked about the importance of crowd-funding to independent artists, his upcoming remake of the Korean blood ballet Oldboy, and his upcoming date with Steven Soderbergh at the Garden.
You say in your Kickstarter video that you were motivated by the big Veronica Mars and Zach Braff successes.
I’ve been a professor at NYU for the past 15 years. I teach the third-year students, the ones getting ready to do their thesis film. A lot of them have used Kickstarter to get their completion funds for their films. But the amounts have been $5,000, $10,000, $20,000.
One student told me about two recent developments where there was a TV show Veronica Mars that was cancelled, and they went on Kickstarter and they raised 5 million to do the Veronica Mars movie, and Zach Braff raised $3.5 million to do the follow up to his film, Garden State. So that’s when I had to look at Kickstarter in a different light, and this might be a vehicle for myself.
What did you think of Kickstarter before?
I thought it was great, but I didn’t think I could have used it, because I didn’t know that you could raise the amount to do a feature film.
It hit the news on Tuesday that Steven Soderbergh gave $10,000. Are all the donations coming in those big amounts?
I want to give a big shout out to Steven Soderbergh because I didn’t even solicit it. He just did it.
It’s all adding up. From $5 to $10,000. Everybody gets a reward for every amount that you give. So for $10,000 I take you out to dinner, you get to sit with me courtside at the world’s most famous arena and watch the New York Knicks. So thank you Mr. Soderbergh, we’re going to have a great time, have a great dinner, and the Knicks will win. Guaranteed.
What is your response to the criticism that established arts shouldn’t use Kickstarter?
That criticism is bullshit. The founders of Kickstarter told me, “Spike, Kickstarter is for everybody.” They did tell me there would be some flak. Zach Braff got some flak. This is not new.
What people are missing is that the people who are pledging money have never been on Kickstarter before. Most hadn’t even heard of it. A large percentage of that is Black folks who had never heard of Kickstarter, so that complaint that I’m hurting somebody is not true. Plus, I’ve always been a champion of young filmmakers. Why have I taught at NYU for the past 15 years? You know the phrase, “haters gonna hate”? We’re not worrying about that. We have a goal, and the people hating don’t like my films anyway. So fuck ’em.