Home Entertainment Alan Tudyk & Nathan Fillion team to create crowdfunded CON MAN web series

Alan Tudyk & Nathan Fillion team to create crowdfunded CON MAN web series

3 min read
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You might recognise those names from a little sci-fi show that nobody watched until after it was cancelled and only then realised it was actually pretty good – Firefly. Maybe because it had a no-name director by the name of Joss Whedon. Yes, I’m still a little bitter about that. But never fear, as the dynamic duo are re-teaming to create a decidedly meta web series that draws upon their experiences following the show. Enter Con Man… because Convention Man doesn’t sound as cool.

Following in the footsteps of the highly successful Veronica Mars and Zach Braff-led Wish I Was Here crowdfunded movies, the pair have launched their project on crowdfunding site Indiegogo with the initial goal of raising $425,000 to create three 10-minute episodes of a web series. Well, what’s it all about?

Wray Nerely (Alan Tudyk) was a co-star on Spectrum, a sci-fi series which was canceled –Too Soon– yet became a cult classic. Wray’s good friend, Jack Moore (Nathan Fillion) starred in the series and has gone on to become a major movie star. While Jack enjoys the life of an A-lister, Wray tours the sci-fi circuit as a guest of conventions, comic book stores, and lots of pop culture events.  The show will feature all the weird and crazy things that happen to Wray along the way to these events.

Why that sounds like a dramatised version of the life of the criminally underrated Alan Tudyk and the successful and ruggedly handsome Nathan Fillion. Meta! But also rather fun. As per Screenrant the web series will also feature appearances by other Firefly alums Gina Torres and Sean Maher, as well as Seth Green (Buffy, Family Guy), Felicia Day (Dollhouse, Supernatural), Amy Acker (Angel, Person of Interest) and James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy director) – it’s almost like these actors have something in common, a director perhaps? It had my interest, now it has my attention.

As is the norm for crowdfunded projects, this one also has a number of stretch goals should its initial funding goal be met; and spoiler alert – it met that on the first day alone. At the time of writing the project, which started on 10 March and is due to end on 10 April, has raised $1,086,047 from 14,044 backers. This has unlocked a bunch of goodies including a downloadable soundtrack, digital copies of the scripts and collectors cards for all backers; and most importantly four more episodes. Should the project reach its final announced stretch goal of $1,750,000 (which it looks pretty certain to do) it’ll have of a total of twelve episodes, which are sneakily marked “season one”.

While I’m not averse to crowdfunding having backed a number of games and a comic book (still waiting!) myself, I feel a touch dubious about actors with name recognition approaching the platform in order to get small projects off the ground. Even though this and the fore-mentioned projects seem like ones I’d enjoy watching, it seems like something they could arrange to fund themselves without turning to their fans. It does however give them complete creative freedom.

How do you feel about crowdfunding projects like this, and is this particular one something you’d like to watch? While I won’t back it, it’s something I’d like to.

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Last Updated: March 12, 2015

13 Comments

  1. Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

    March 12, 2015 at 11:00

    Sounds fun. Still waiting for Joss to come down from all that Avengers ego so he can finally produce Dr. Horrible 2. Also if you think about it. Serenity was the first crowdfunded movie as he got the monies from fans to make it if I remember correctly.

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      March 12, 2015 at 11:21

      I hadn’t heard that, according to Wikipedia Universal funded it.

      Reply

      • Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

        March 12, 2015 at 11:24

        Could have sworn fans sent him monies. Maybe it was not enough or maybe I am high on something. Either way it was meant as useless info. 🙂

        Reply

        • Blood Emperor Trevor

          March 12, 2015 at 11:33

          The worst thing is, just like no one watched the show when it was on TV, no one really watched the movie while it was showing at the cinemas. :/

          Reply

          • Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

            March 12, 2015 at 11:40

            That may be only because only devout fans even knew about it. It is like my CE of the Mass Effect anime. Most of my friends did not even know there was a movie.

          • Blood Emperor Trevor

            March 12, 2015 at 11:53

            Well the first I knew of the movie was when I saw it sitting on the shelf in my local video store heh.

            It can be really cool discovering things like that though. Many, many years back I picked up a copy of CJ Cherryh’s Morgaine trilogy at a 2nd hand book shop. Never knew there was a fourth book until a few years ago when I saw it in another 2nd hand book shop.

          • Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

            March 12, 2015 at 11:56

            What is this thing called a “book” 😛

          • Blood Emperor Trevor

            March 12, 2015 at 12:19

            It’s a traditional device that contains stories in written format. In the case of movies they often look at the “cover” of a “book”, then make a movie about it. 😉

          • Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

            March 12, 2015 at 12:29

            Sounds a lot like a comic but less exciting. 🙂

          • Matthew Holliday

            March 13, 2015 at 10:49

            Paragon Lost?
            was a fun watch, but was definitely not on the same level as the games.

    • Kervyn Cloete

      March 12, 2015 at 13:01

      Firefly fans were very vocal about the cancellation and made a huge statement by having the show’s DVD release selling really well. This convinced the studio to take a chance on a movie, to at least give the fans some closure.

      Reply

      • Kromas Votes LAG WCMovie Event

        March 12, 2015 at 13:05

        Idd @disqus_DoEH3TsffU:disqus already proved me wrong. 🙂

        Aging memory and all.

        Reply

      • Matthew Holliday

        March 13, 2015 at 10:47

        firefly made weekdays worth living.
        7pm SABC3, neverforget.

        Reply

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