James Franco Jumps On Crowdfunding Bandwagon with “Palo Alto Stories”

You may not know that actor James Franco wrote and published a book of short stories titled Palo Alto: Stories two years ago. Well, now he is looking to turn three of the stories into feature length films with the help of Indiegogo. Get the details after the break.

With the recent rash of celebrity crowdfunding projects (see: Veronica Mars and Zach Braff), it’s easy to be skeptical of Franco’s project. He’s only looking for $500,000, so why doesn’t he fund it himself? Well, first of all, half a million dollars is a lot of money, even for a big name actors like Franco. Also, this is a way to gauge the public’s interest in the project. As we’ve mentioned before when covering these things, crowdfunding is a way for the audience to pre-buy the product, as well as get other perks. Below is Franco’s explanation as to why he’s going this route.

Finding the funding while still maintaining artistic integrity has been a constant challenge. Because of who I am, people often believe that it is easy to find investors and distributors for my films. Unfortunately, things aren’t that easy. More times than not, I have put in my own money to produce my films and my student’s films. However, this time it’s different; We need more funding, I will still fund part of it but I need of your help, filming three feature films back-to-back requires more funding than I can give.

It’s also important to note that he’s using up and coming filmmakers to direct the projects, which is admirable. Speaking of perks, the highest reward is for donations of $10,000, and it includes dinner with Franco, an Executive Producer credit on one of the movies, and more. Watch the Indiegogo project’s promotional video below.

Learn more about the project and donate at Indiegogo.com.