Kevin Smith on Why 'Clerks 3' Kickstarter Didn't Happen: 'I Have Access to Money'

Even with the success of the Zach Braff and Veronica Mars movie projects, Kickstarter just isn't for Kevin Smith right now.

"I love the idea and I want to do it so desperately, but I think I've missed the window based on the fact that I do have access to materials, I do have access to money," he said to The Hollywood Reporter's Kim Masters on KCRW radio. "I don't know, I feel like I should leave that for the cats that really need it at this point."

Smith was elaborating on why he decided against using the crowdfunding website to help finance Clerks III. The Weinstein Co., he was informed by his lawyer, has the first look rights for the possible sequel.

GUEST COLUMN: Director Kevin Smith: My Prayer for 'Star Wars'  

"It feels like me trying to have a second bite at the apple by going, 'All right man, now I'm going indie again with this Kickstarter thing.' Like, the truth of it is, after all this time, 20 years later, I have access to money," Smith said in the interview. "If I don't use my own money, I can always hit up some of my famous friends."

The director, Masters noted, made a point to explain that he wasn't criticizing other celebrities' Kickstarter projects.

In April, Braff launched a $2 million Kickstarter to fund his Garden State follow-up, Wish I Was Here, that ended up receiving $3.1 million in pledged funds. The revival of Veronica Mars, meanwhile, closed with $5.7 million in pledged donations from fans.

But even though Smith decided against going the crowdfunded route for Clerks III, he said it probably would make for a successful Kickstarter project.

"If our Kickstarter video had been me just walking out in front of a blackboard and writing Clerks and then III after it, without much more than that, we probably would have easily cleared $5 million to $7 million bucks," Smith said. "And not because people like me, but they love Clerks, man."

Smith's breakout film, Clerks, was released in 1994. A sequel, Clerks II, arrived in theaters in 2006 and grossed $24 million in the U.S.

Follow me on Twitter @sajilpl

Kickstarter to Launch in Canada This Summer

KARLOVY VARY -- Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter is to expand into Canada later this summer, according to an announcement on its Twitter account.

The crowdfunding platform for new businesses is so far inviting Canadians to submit their e-mail and project category to receive a signal when the site arrives north of the border.

STORY: Kickstarter Apologizes After 'Seduction Guide' Uproar 

Canadian filmmakers have looked to the crowdfunding service with relish since Kickstarter helped raise financing for a Veronica Mars movie and Zach Braff's Kickstarter campaign for Wish I Was Here closed with nearly $3.1 million in donations.

The move north by Kickstarter follows rival Indiegogo, which has Canada as its second-largest market, last week expanding its payment options for local content creators.

Kickstarter launched in the U.K. a year ago.

Twitter: @sajilpl

Kickstarter Was Wrong, But Not Just Because It Tolerated a Sexist Project

 

The Kickstarter pitch for Ken Hoinsky’s book Above the Game sounded relatively innocuous: He wanted to share his method for “meeting new people” — or specifically, for men meeting women. At least until comic Casey Malone found (and reposted) reddit comments from Hoinsky that actually discussed this philosophy for succeeding with women, which advocated everything from creepy behavior (“Don’t ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances”) to outright sexual assault: “Don’t ask for permission, GRAB HER HAND, and put it right on your dick.” The Kickstarter description for Above the Game stated that as much as 50 percent of the content in the book could be pulled directly from Hoinsky’s forum diatribes.

 

Today, after the online furor prompted by Malone’s post, Kickstarter removed the project page and posted an explanation on their blog titled “We Were Wrong.” But it wasn’t just permitting Hoinsky’s project in the first place that made Kickstarter wrong: It was also their hypocritical about-face and the lack of clear guidelines that allowed the project to happen in the first place.

 

The company first responded in a private email to Malone that was subsequently posted on his Tumblr, and called Hoinsky’s reddit comments “abhorrent,” while still allowing the project’s funding to continue. Today, the company statement said Kickstarter’s team had only two hours to decide whether to pull the project after it came to their attention and before the project ended. So Kickstarter had enough time to review the campaign and call it “abhorrent” in the email to Malone, but apparently not enough time to decide whether that mattered.

 

Admitting that an author’s comments on reddit—a site that has taken a strong stance on free speech to controversial lengths—are “abhorrent” while continuing to take 5% is ridiculous and contradictory, but the more important point is that Kickstarter hasn’t publicly clarified what is and isn’t acceptable on the platform, and where they stand on various types of controversial content.

 

If Kickstarter wants to acts as a defender of pure free speech, then it should stick by projects they approve, even if they are “abhorrent.” If it wants to define what it will and won’t allow, that’s the company’s prerogative as well. But the guidelines that prohibit “hate speech” and “offensive material” remain vague both in their definition and enforcement, and as it stands attention and outrage sometimes seem to determine whether a Kickstarter is deemed unacceptable (see also: Tentacle Bento) rather than the nature of the content itself when the project is submitted.

 

Crowdsourcing companies of all kinds are going to have to take a hard stance on these topics, one way or another. IndieGoGo has some clear restrictions on some topics (no porn, weapons, etc.), but there are going to be other issues as new crowdsourced platforms emerge and existing ones grow. What happens when someone wants to organize an anti-gay rights rally? Or anti-abortion? What about nationalist events? Separatist ones? Radical groups? Religious organizations? Is erotic prose okay, but not adult graphic novels?

 

Kickstarter isn’t the only game in town, and more platforms are sure to become specialized as others decide to incorporate crowdfunding into their services. Each online community will have to set their own standards. If a group of dudes want to create their own crowdsourced platform to develop sexist products, then such is their right. Hell, there’s already an adults-only crowdsourced site. It’s called Offbeatr [NSFW], and currently features a pornographic text-based adventure game, cat-girl videos, an open-source database for dildos, and a porn parody of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Cries of censorship are irrelevant; consistency is paramount.

 

It’s encouraging to see that Kickstarter is donating more to RAINN than Above the Game raised, but if the company really wants to absolve itself of this incident, it needs to address the core issue of what is and isn’t allowed on the service or else it will simply be waiting for the next controversy to prompt them again. And as the builder of their own platform, Kickstarter can determine their own guidelines, and even adapt them as community standards change — as long as they make those guidelines clear and apply them consistently. As long as we all know the rules, we can decide which games we want to play.