When Zach Braff started a Kickstarter for his next directorial effort, the dramedy Wish I Was Here, he was only asking for $2 million from his fans and followers. The campaign was a hit from the start, but by the time the countdown clock hit zero this afternoon, that goal was far exceeded, resulting in $3.1 million total being added to the film's budget.
Braff announced the end of the campaign with a post on his Twitter account with the above photo (expressing his extreme excitement) and the message "Thank you, thank you, thank you. I won't let you down! Lets do this." By the time the Kickstarter campaign ended, 46,520 people backed the film.
Scripted by Zach Braff and his brother Adam Braff, Wish I Was Here is called a sequel in spirit to Garden State and will have the director starring as Aidan Bloom, a 35-year-old father, husband and struggling actor who has troubles with his own identity, and regularly drifts off into fantasy, imagining that he is a futuristic hero from when he was a kid. Things begin to change, however, when Aidan's sick father can no longer pay for his younger children's private school, and requests that Aidan home school them. Concludes Braff on the Kickstarter page, "The result is some funny chaos, until Aidan decides to scrap the traditional academic curriculum and come up with his own. Through teaching them about life his way, Aidan gradually discovers some of the parts of himself he couldn't find."
Production is being planned for Wish I Was Here later this summer and the film is expected to come out some time in 2014.
