Did you like Garden State? Fund Zach Braff’s next project on Kickstarter

Looks like Kickstarter’s starting to attract Hollywoood’s attention. First there was the Veronica Mars project, which hit serious pay dirt on the platform. Now Zach Braff is looking to finance his own project via the crowdfunding resource.

The former Scrubs star says it was actually the success of the Veronica Mars funding drive which made him realise how powerful Kickstarter could be in funding a film. He also says that he likes the amount of control the platform will allow him to have over the new film, which will be called Wish I Was Here.

“I was about to sign a typical financing deal in order to get the money to make Wish I Was Here,” he says, but “it would have involved making a lot of sacrifices I think would have ultimately hurt the film.”

“Financing an independent film the traditional way often means having to give away your right to “the final cut,” casting choices, location choices and cutting down your script to make it shoot-able on the cheapest budget possible”.

Wish I Was Here is the story of Aidan Bloom (played by Braff), 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.

Launched today, the fund-raising campaign has already been pledged nearly US$300 000.

Update: With 29 days still to go in its funding period, the campaign has raised over US$1.3-million.