Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a nice little bit of casting for the upcoming Behind the Mask prequel/reboot/Idon'tknowwhat, currently titled Before the Mask: The Return of Leslie Vernon.

Director Scott Glosserman is hard at work trying to raise funds for the movie to make it independently. I don’t post a lot about Kickstarter projects for a few reasons, the main of which is that a whole lot of them are unworthy, but I have to admit that I also fear the deluge of young filmmakers who mail in asking for a post on their no-budget Kickstarter in the few instances I’ve posted about one. It’s not a comfortable position being in, ignoring one filmmaker’s plea in favor of another and since I don’t want AICN to turn into Ain’t Kickstarters Cool News it means we have to be very choosy on what we pick to spotlight.

I personally love the concept of genre filmmakers pre-selling their films to their own audiences. Having seen the horrors of low budget genre money-begging first hand I can totally get behind these guys who already have a known and liked property trying to get it funded outside of even the low budget studio system.

Over at the Before the Mask Kickstarter they have a few various levels of support, from a bumper sticker to buying your way into an on-screen death in the film, but the one that fascinates me the most is the DVD/Blu/Digital Download pre-order. It’s essentially asking everybody who likes the franchise to pre-buy the DVD. If the Kickstarter isn’t met and the film isn’t made you get your money back, but if it does reach its goal then those who would have bought a ticket or a DVD anyway have helped make it happen.

That takes the whole raising money thing out of the concept phase, with investors trying to figure out how many people will buy a ticket or a DVD and giving a budget based on that, and into a hard numbers realm.

I want this Kickstarter to work and not just because I’m a big fan of Behind the Mask and want to see more, but because if it does that opens the door for other filmmakers to use the same approach. Maybe we can finally see Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm V that way. Or maybe John Carpenter can do something low budget and awesome again (The Ward can not be his last film). I bet Joe Dante has something awesome he can do (his Kickstarter for Trailers From Hell did very well, too).

Yes, there’s some actual news buried in this Kickstarter rant. It was assumed that most of the cast would return for the next Behind the Mask, but I can tell you folks that Robert Englund has officially attached himself in a “substantially” bigger role. He was more of a cameo in the first film, but it was strongly hinted at that he was the Loomis to Leslie Vernon’s Michael Myers.

Englund was great in his bit and I think having him be a more central part to a Leslie Vernon story would really kick some ass.

Apparently Englund’s reps insist on only putting his name on fully greenlighted projects, but he loves this franchise enough to break that rule.

Also confirmed returning are Kane Hodder and Scott Wilson, hot off his great work as Hershel in The Walking Dead.

So, if you want to support genre and take part in a surely trendsetting experiment (for good or ill) visit the Before the Mask Kickstarter and put some money down.

Here are some words from Scott Glosserman on the Kickstarter and the return of Robert Englund:

"I'm thrilled to officially have Robert Englund back for BEFORE THE MASK and I'm humbled that he and his team have agreed to make a rare exception to their policy of not formally associating with a project without a green light. That dedication to our movie speaks volumes about Robert's character and our cause. Robert is not only a horror icon that brings validation and gravitas to what we're doing, but he is also our Vince Lombardi. We all love being around him because we learn so much. Robert's got his work cut out for him this time. I don't want to give anything away, but let's just say he's got a bit more to do on this picture."

"I am also blown away by the support we've received thus far. Having raised over $100,000.00 with only 500 backers is tremendous. Although we've still got a mountain to climb, I believe we can do this because our B4TM Facebook community alone has over 14 thousand people. If we can get 10 thousand pre-order commitments for our Supporter's Edition DVD ($32) which is less than 2 1/2% of the number of BEHIND THE MASK DVD's that were originally sold, we will eclipse our goal. Daunting? Yes. But, when viewed from 80 thousand feet, I know it's doable."

It should also be noted that Glosserman has an investor that will match the Kickstarter funds dollar for dollar should it meet or exceed its goal, so it won’t just have a budget of $450,000.

It’s a very interesting time to be a movie fan. More and more the power seems to be shifting into our hands. We fans already had a voice after years of neglect and now that voice seems to be growing ever louder. This being a success would be a huge step towards eliminating the bean-counters from low budget genre filmmaking.

-Eric Vespe

”Quint”

quint@aintitcool.com

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