I wonder if these folks are also slated to be writers?
(Oh, after actually, you know, reading the Kickstarter update, the whole thing started when they asked Patton Oswalt to be a guest writer. Hopefully he’ll be more regular than that!)
The fact that Patton Oswalt was asked to be a writer shows that Joel knows good people.
Also, dear god does Patton look like TV’s Frank’s child!
3.8 million with 4 days to go.
And more and more details forthcoming.
Show’ll be in HD to prevent Pan-n-Scan shenanigans from being as much of an issue. The atmosphere will still be “lovingly handmade” with little in the way of CGI, but they’ll take advantage of modern fabrication techniques (e.g., 3D printing) for puppets and specialized props. And they plan, at this time, to focus on riffing movies they haven’t covered before, and not major blockbusters/series titles.
Wish 'em all the best, for sure.
Also, with outside purchases (that count toward KS goal, but are not reflected in the tracker on the right of KS), they’re actually a little over $4.1 mil. The 9-episode goal ($4.4m) should be easily doable before the end if they get anything like the standard last-day rush, and the full 12 ($5.5) might even be feasible, especially if they can make a major announcement near the end (say, Trace or Bill signing on for X episode appearances).
hitting the 9 episode goal will hopefully get some of the fence-sitters to jump in. One of my friends here at work didn’t want to do the $85 tier because “What if they only get 3 episodes?” Getting 9 - 12 episodes guaranteed should nudge some folks, I hope.
Yeah, it was a weird idea to tie that very expensive reward to a changing episode number. 9 episodes for 90 bucks isn’t terrible, but 3 kind of is.
A full list of guest writers has been posted and it’s pretty impressive.
- OUR GUEST WRITERS
But remember, now that we’re doing somewhere between 9 and 12 episodes, I’m happy to report that a lot of our amazing friends have agreed to come join us as guest writers. Here’s a list of writers who have already agreed to come help out:
DAN HARMON, the incredible mind who created Community, hosts the Harmontown podcast, and co-creator of the very funny Rick & Morty.
JUSTIN ROILAND, the other creator of Rick & Morty, as well as a very talented voice actor/comedian/artist, and a huge MSTie.
ROB SCHRAB, an original remote writer for MST3K, co-founder of the seminal Channel 101… and now, director of the next Lego Movie.
NELL SCOVELL, a long-time collaborator and friend, will be “in the house” too. She’s currently writing on the The Muppet Show but has worked on The Simpsons, Newhart and It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, among others.
ERNIE CLINE, the New York Times best-selling author of Ready Player One, which will soon be a movie from Steven Spielberg! If you’ve read RP1, you know how good Ernie is with cultural references.
PAT ROTHFUSS, the New York Times best-selling author of The Name of Wind, has offered to have a “story breakfast” with me and go over “story beats” for the next series… and a few of you can join us!
PAUL & STORM, the hilarious musical act, W00tstock founders and stars, musical contributors to Despicable Me 2, my good friends and the hosts for Friday’s live “Final Countdown Telethon” will be contributing riffs and some special music!
DANA GOULD, the brilliant comedian and former Simpsons writer, who will also probably appear on camera as well for a cameo or two. But actually, that gets into the area of our Guest Cameos, which is a topic I want to save for tomorrow.
ROBERT LOPEZ, the EGOT-winning songwriter from Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon and Frozen, has offered to write some original songs for us!
Hey, Dana Gould! Love that guy.
So I guess they’re gonna get to 12 episodes, eh? Nice job, Joel!
Folks like me. Just threw in since the value proposition got so much better over the last few days.
Yeah, some pretty hefty updates about who is making the show, and I think what might have sold me is that the staff writers seem to be local comedians from around the country. That is pretty cool.
Now, unlike most shows, most of our regular MST3K writers aren’t going to be professional television writers. But remember: none of our original writers had a lot of “pro” experience, except maybe in Minneapolis… and look how that worked out!
So, our next staff writers are mostly people I’ve met in my travels, who I thought were funny and who have a knack for movie riffing. They come from all walks of life:
One is a teacher at a Montessori school,
One works in a bookstore,
One does graphics for a college,
One is in advertising,
One writes for a women’s online magazine,
One has a local public radio show,
One does IT for a design firm…
See what I mean? It’s all over the place!
I might end up dropping a hundo on this.
So we’re in the home stretch - they’re up to 9 episodes now, going for 12.
They’ve been announcing writers, artists, and celebs who will be pitching in and/or doing cameos for the series. Some are the geek usual suspects - Jack Black, Adam Savage, Mark Hamill. Some are not - some guy named Seinfeld.
But the important thing is Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland from Rick and Morty will be guest writers!
This has been an amazingly well-run Kickstarter. If they are applying the same talent and energy to the new episodes, we’re in for some good stuff.
In at the $85 dollar level.
In for 85.
This better not suck.
It would probably be a complete mismatch, but I’d love to hear Adam Corolla riffing on these movies.
Well, closer to $5.1m or more with the off-site rewards (~$375K), actually. Pretty nuts.
I really wish that they could reveal the final destination of the new episodes. I mean, it’s not like I can afford the $85 to get all downloads (as neat as that would be), but I wonder if I should bump my cursory $10 up to $25 just to at least be able to livestream the first ep (assuming, say, the show winds up on HBO and I’m never able to watch it again).
Probably a mismatch? Crass sarcasm has never been a hallmark of Mystery Science Theatre. Where can I kick in some money to prevent an Adam Corolla appearance?
-Tom
Ending in a little over 40 minutes and over 6 million with the offsite sales. The counter is adding an additional thousand every few seconds. Amazing.
Back in the ‘keep circulating the tapes’ days, I didn’t know anyone who knew what the heck MST3K was.
They are well over the 6 million mark now with addons.
I again re-iterate.
This better not suck.