After the runaway success of the Veronica Mars movie campaign last month on Kickstarter, the floodgates are starting to open. Actor-director Zach Braff is the latest Hollywood star to turn to crowdsourcing to fund an upcoming project, seeking $2 million to help produce a movie called Wish I Was Here. Braff co-wrote the script with his brother Adam and is planning to both direct and star. It is described as a spiritual successor to his directorial debut Garden State, and after just one day the campaign is already 75% of the way to meeting its goal. It seems safe to assume that the project will get funded, but unlike the Veronica Mars movie, this one seems to have a lot more detractors. Isn’t it funny how everyone loves Kickstarter until it helps out someone they don’t like? The plot synopsis for the movie is as follows:

“Wish I Was Here is the story of Aidan Bloom (played by me), a struggling actor, father and husband, who at 35 is still trying to find his identity; a purpose for his life. He and his wife are barely getting by financially and Aidan passes his time by fantasizing about being the great futuristic Space-Knight he’d always dreamed he’d be as a little kid.

When his ailing father can no longer afford to pay for private school for his two kids (ages 5 and 12) and the only available public school is on its last legs, Aidan reluctantly agrees to attempt to home-school them.

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.”

I have been wondering for a while now what happened to Zach Braff, who seemed poised to be a huge star back in the mid-2000s, but never quite got there. After Scrubs ended in 2010, he fully disappeared, only to recently turn up as the voice of Finley the flying monkey in Oz: The Great and Powerful. Clearly he’s not getting a ton of opportunities right now and making his own movie is the obvious solution. Are you a fan of Zach Braff? Can he really recreate the success of Garden State and is Kickstarter the right way to go about doing it? Check out the Kickstarter page for more info.