Yahoo Movies ‘Gosnell’ Tops $2.1M To Become Biggest Indiegogo Campaign Ever For Film; 3rd Most Crowdfunded Pic Ever
Gosnell, the crowdsourcing project for a TV movie about the abortion doctor convicted for murdering babies born alive, just reached its $2.1M goal on Indiegogo – four days early. It now becomes the highest crowdfunding campaign for a movie (a telefilm) ever done on the crowdsourcing site, and is the third-highest crowd funding movie project ever. Veronica Mars still holds the record with more than $5.7M collected, and Zach Braff’s is second with $3.1M for Wish I Was Here. Both of those were done on Kickstarter. Gosnell has 23,500 donors.
Related: ‘Gosnell’ Crosses $1M On Indiegogo
The Gosnell telefilm, which will be produced by Phelim McAleer, his wife Ann McElhinney and Magda Segieda through McAleer’s Hat Tip Productions, will now hire a director. “We will be bringing in an experienced team skilled in TV drama,” said McAleer. The telefilm is about Dr. Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia physician convicted of three counts of first-degree murder for horrifically and mercilessly killing babies of botched abortions who were born alive by driving a scissors into their necks and snipping their spinal cords. It is believed that the practice went on for years. The case rocked Philadelphia and the nation in 2010, and he is serving a life prison sentence without the possibility of parole. The story is often used by both sides of the abortion argument to push their individual agendas.
“It’s vindication — there’s proof that there is an audience for this story and that is the most important thing,” said McAleer. “We’re not celebrities and have received four times the number of funders Spike Lee recevied.” Lee culled together roughly 6,400 donors and received $1.4M on Kickstarter for his film last year. “It’s really an American dream. We’re all immigrants and we’re very happy that Americans have trusted us with this.”
I must note that there is only one funder on Indiegogo ahead of Gosnell in terms of reaching its goal … that of The Autoblow 2, an electronic oral sex simulator for men. It has raised 344% of its $45,000 goal. Welcome to America.
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