Zach Braff Wants You To Help Make His Next “Garden State”-Style Film

On the heels of the successful Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign, Zach Braff has thrown his hat into the crowdsourcing ring with his next film project, Wish I Was Here. A film that would be a companion piece to his only directorial effort, Garden State. Find out more about the movie and how you can be a part of it after the break.

After seeing how people rallied around the Veronica Mars campaign, Zach Braff thought Kickstarter might be a good avenue for his next directorial project, Wish I Was Here, a film based on a script he wrote last summer with his brother, Adam Braff. Braff went this crowdsourcing path because he felt the traditional way to finance a film involved having to sign away too much artistic control. Going the Kickstarter route would allow him to have final cut, make his own casting choices and use any locations he wants for the film. In fact, he hopes to shoot a portion of the film at the next Comic-Con due to a part in the script that involves “cosplay.”

He sees the film as being in the same tone as Garden State. Instead of a guy trying to find his way in his 20’s, this film would focus more on a guy trying to find his way in his 30’s.The Kickstarter page gives a synopsis of the film’s story 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.

Along with Braff’s involvement, the film will co-star his previous Garden State cohort, Jim Parsons(from Big Bang Theory,) and has a cameo by his Scrubs partner in crime, Donald Faison. Both Faison and Parsons can be seen in Braff’s hilarious Wish I Was Here Kickstarter campaign video.

The current money tally for the film is below:

You can check out more about the project and pledge money towards it on the official Kickstarter page. If you’re a big fan of Zach Braff, you can follow him on Twitter.