Today on AirTalk, we'll discuss the Kickstarter campaign that will help fund a Veronica Mars movie for Warner Bros. We'll also consider the effects of truth serum in the courtroom -- should it be used in the case against James Holmes? On FilmWeek, Larry and the critics weigh in on this week's releases, including "The Call," "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone," "Spring Breakers," and more. Later, "The Searchers" author Glenn Frankel talks about how a John Wayne classic redefined how we look at the Old West.
Kickstarter goes mainstream, raising $2 million in 10 hours for a studio film
Fans of the TV detective series 'Veronica Mars' have raised $3.3 million and counting to get the show onto the big screen. More than 50,000 people have made donations to the Veronica Mars movie project on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter and Warner Bros. agreed to distribute and market the film.
The show's creator Rob Thomas has been trying to get a movie off the ground since Veronica Mars went off the air in 2007. Warner Bros, which owns the rights, wasn't convinced there was enough interest to warrant a major studio-sized movie and the project never got off the ground. But Thomas got the idea to use Kickstarter and fans put their money where their mouth is.
The 'Veronica Mars' movie campaign was the biggest film campaign in Kickstarter history, and the fastest to reach the $1-million threshold. It represents a milestone in Hollywood moviemaking economics. So far, Kickstarter has successfully funded more than 9,000 films.
To supporters, it demonstrates that devoted fan communities can rally to support projects that mainstream studios might otherwise reject. But there is a lot of grumbling from the independent film community that major studios should not be using Kickstarter donations to fund film already pledged to a major Hollywood studio.
After all, Kickstarter was founded to help circumvent the cautious and risk-averse studio model. Should major studios be involved in crowdfunding? Will donations replace investment?
Already, other fan-loved but low rated shows are looking at this as a potential model. Bryan Fuller, creator of ABC's "Pushing Daisies," immediately emailed his agent to see if he too could use the crowd-funding site to resurrect his fan-loved show about a man who can bring people back to life."
Shawn Ryan, creator of FX's "The Shield" and the network's short-lived detective drama "Terriers," posted Wednesday on Twitter: "Very interested to see how this Veronica Mars kickstarter [sic.] goes. Could be a model for a 'Terriers' wrap up film."
The project will continue to accept funds through April 12. Kristen Bell currently stars as Jeannie Van Der Hooven on Showtime's "House of Lies"
Guest:
Dawn Chmielewski, Entertainment industry reporter for the Los Angeles Times
Can information obtained under “truth serum” be used in court?
The idea of using “truth serum” to get a subject to open up and spill the beans goes back to ancient Rome, when people noticed the tongue-loosening effects of wine. But is information obtained under the influence admissible in court? This week, a judge in Colorado ruled that prosecutors could use a “truth serum” – most likely a drug such as sodium amytal – to extract uninhibited testimony from James Holmes.
Holmes is suspected of the shooting spree in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater last July that left 12 dead and 58 injured; his lawyers are expected to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. The “truth serum” option is being considered as a way to determine whether or not Holmes was indeed insane at the time of the shooting.
But experts question both the legal and the medical validity of the technique. Starting in the 1920’s, barbiturates such as Pentothal and Amytal were sometimes used by police departments and in courtrooms, but by the 1950’s they had been judged more or less invalid by the scientific community. In 1963 the Supreme Court declared drug-induced confessions unconstitutional and therefore inadmissible.
The Holmes case would mirror the 1959 trial of accused killer Raymond Cartier, with a twist: in that case, truth serum was used by the defense to support their claim that Cartier had been insane at the time of his wife’s murder.
Does the use of barbiturates to elicit a courtroom confession violate the defendant’s 5th Amendment right to remain silent? Can anything said under such conditions be considered valid? Is there any such thing as a reliable “truth serum,” or is this just the stuff of spy novels?
Guests:
Park Dietz, PhD, forensic psychiatrist and president of Park Dietz & Associates, a forensic consulting firm
Royal F. Oakes, partner, Barger & Wolen, LLP
FilmWeek: The Call, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Spring Breakers, and more
Larry is joined by KPCC film critics Tim Cogshell, Claudia Puig, and Charles Soloman to review the week’s new film releases including The Call, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Spring Breakers, and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
The Call
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Spring Breakers
From Up On Poppy Hill
Guests:
Tim Cogshell, film critic for KPCC and Alt Film Guide
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and USA Today
Charles Solomon, film critic and animation historian for KPCC, author for amazon.com
'The Searchers' and how a John Wayne film redefined how we look back at the Old West
The story begins in 1836. A nine-year-old girl, Cynthia Ann Parker, gets kidnapped by the Comanches and then grows up among them for the next 24 years. When a group of Texas Rangers and U.S. Calvary attack her encampment, the blue-eyed Cynthia Ann was not killed and brought back to her Texan family. However, she was unable to adapt back into Western society and died quietly.
In 1954, Alan Le May picked up this story and turned it into a book, inspiring John Ford to make Cynthia Ann Parker’s tale an iconic American story two years later.
Now, Glenn Frankel takes these three elements and made his own book, “The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend.” He tells how this story has transformed to become myth and examines how the public received John Wayne’s character.
What do you think about Ford’s movie? What does it say about how American society views cultural divides? Is this story still relevant to us today?
Guest:
Glenn Frankel, author of “The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend”