Fan Funding for the movie…

[thomasaevans]

I KNOW this has been mentioned before. But I need reminding.

Why cant an investor scheme be set up to raise money for ‘Red Dwarf: The Movie’ like Gerry Anderson did for the ‘NEW Captain Scarlet’?

Topic

[mick]

Star Trek, a show with pretty much the most dedicated, insane and largest sci-fi fanbase on earth managed to raise just under the budget for a single episode of Enterprise, do people honestly think Red Dwarf fans are going to raise the capital for a feature leangth live action sci-fi comedy movie?

I honestly doubt we would even raise a fraction of the effects budget, let alone fund the entire cost of the movie.

Venture Capitalist style investors would be totally disinterested because compared with your average medium budget film Red Dwarf is appealing to a minority of the general public and just isnt going to turn a descent enough profit.

Anything attempted on a shoestring budget is going to be a weak ass straight to dvd flopbuster, is that what people really want a movie at any cost no matter how rubbish?

[Tarka Dal]

So is that a no then?

[peas_and_corn]

Whot we nedd is to get tha fanz onbord 2 get this goin! Dugg shood go 2 sum millionare and get tha muuney from him!! Fanz will pay tha rest!!

No, wait, this was supposed to be put on TOS forum.

[Anonymous]

Did you even read my previous post?

[Baz]

It’s a no. Unless your fans include Bill Gates. But barring the arrival of a few philanthropic RD loving billionaires the money the current RD fanbase would raise would probably get us as far as “It’s..” in the opening theme song. You could raise the money to get a market analysis done to show that investing in a RD movie will give you good returns to take to potential investors. Except that it probably wouldn’t. Look at Serenity, it perfomed as a “below average genre picture” (Wikipedia). Despite its awards, its huge fanbase, the excellence of the movie itself (and it was bloody good, let’s face it), the overall box office income was just below its production budget of $40 million. Not including promotion and advertising. DVD sales might have carried it into profit, but only just. That’s why United International Pictures have absolutely no interest in a sequel. And the interest you could raise in a RD movie is nothing like they had for a Firefly one, that was a near current series, not one that’s decades old, even with the DVD releases.

[Ian Symes]

As well as the difficulty in raising the money in the first place, there’s also a whole mountain of legal shite regarding investment and ownership. It would be a nightmare.

[Tarka Dal]

Whilst I agree in principle with the arguements against, I think people underestimate the show. If it was brought back now I’m still confident it would manage at the very least a regular audience of around 4-5 million. Likewise to think of it as a decade old show is only really true to us Brits. Everywhere else it’s still relatively new and through re-runs and the DVDs is continually reaching a fresh audience.

[Smeg4Brains]

Isn’t Hawking a fan? He’s got quite a bit of money hasn’t he? Hell he could be on this very website under a different name….like IAN SYMES!

[peas_and_corn]

Mick- if you’re referring to my post- I was being sarcastic, referring to the badly spelt posts on TOS forum.

[Tarka Dal]

Ian Symes with his Stephen Hawking face.

[Andrew]

> Mick- if you?re referring to my post- I was being sarcastic, referring to the badly spelt posts on TOS forum.

Based on…erm, the Webboard not being like that very much at all.

[John Hoare]

If it was brought back now I?m still confident it would manage at the very least a regular audience of around 4-5 million.

Yep, I agree with this. But – as I’m sure you know, but I’m just clarifying for the sake of the topic – an extremely small fraction would actually put money towards a film. Nowhere near enough.

Likewise to think of it as a decade old show is only really true to us Brits. Everywhere else it?s still relatively new and through re-runs and the DVDs is continually reaching a fresh audience.

I just wish some of them would enter fandom. But that’s a whole different discussion…

[thomasaevans]

So most of you are saying that Captain Scarlett had a better chance of getting funding than Red Dwarf? I honestly dont see how.

And Im sure fans did’nt fund Captain Scarlett.

[mick]

Yes, I think Dwarf would get around 5 million viewers if it returned, but as John said, the casual Red Dwarf viewer will not give you a penny.
My mate Jim is a total Dwarf nut, he can quote every episode word perfect from beginning to end, but hes never brought a DVD, or a Video or a Shirt or attended DJ, he has all the eps taped off the TV, do you think these people are going to fork out cash for the movie?

As i’ve said many times before, the only fans that would put their hands into their pockets for the movie are the die hards, so lets say the attendance of DJ plus another 400 world wide for good measure.

So we have roughly 600 fans willing to pay towards a movie, lets give it a relitively small budget by todays standards, say 10 mil.
So that a measly 16 grand ish a piece!

*scrambles for cheque book*

[pfm]

If you don’t own the DVDs you’re not a fan, end of.

[Smeg4Brains]

> If you don?t own the DVDs you?re not a fan, end of.

I don’t think you need the DVD’s to be a fan. I think you can’t be a die-hard fan without them but not just a fan. I’m a fan of many British comedys but I only own DVDs of Dwarf, Only Fools and Python. That doesn’t mean I’m not a fan of Father Ted, One Foot in the Grave or ‘Allo ‘Allo.

[Tarka Dal]

Oh yeah, the 5 million thing was never meant to be ‘X million’ would pay for dwarf. Simply, that Red Dwarf is far bigger and wide-reaching TV show than it’s ever given credit for and even some fans seem shy of just what a beast Grant Naylor created.

[Author]

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