Sure, you could use crowd funding to back a studio movie that the studio doesn't want to pay for themselves but does want to profit from. That's certainly an option these days. Or you could use it to support something that actually is independent. Something like Repo Man and Sid And Nancy director Alex Cox's adaptation of Harry Harrison's scifi novel Bill The Galactic Hero which Cox will direct with his film students at the University of Colorado serving as crew. So not only will you be backing a film by a maverick iconoclast but you'll also be contributing to someone's higher education. Double win!
BILL, THE GALACTIC HERO is a feature-length science fiction comedy set in the far reaches of our galaxy, as humans wage war against a reptilian alien species, known as Chingers. It is extremely low budget, and relatively high concept. How is a story of space warfare between two high-technology civilizations to be achieved, doing justice to its original, on a super-low budget?
Partially because most of the work will be done by my production students at the University of Colorado (you can see samples of their extraordinary work here) -- under the occasional supervision of professionals from the industry. But mainly because Harry Harrison's original novel - his counterblast to STAR$HIP TROOPERS - has to be made this way. It's told not from the flight deck but from the engine room: or to be more exact, the fusebays, where ranks of expendable Fusetenders Sixth Class wait to replace burned-out fuses, or die.
Cox is looking for a hundred grand to bring his latest effort to the big screen, check here for all the details.