Jews Making News: Zach Braff
Actor-director-writer Zach Braff, director and star of 2004’s “Garden State,” is set to begin production on his first film in nine years. The upcoming work, “Wish I Was Here,” was written by Braff together with his brother Adam; what’s getting the most press, though, is how the former “Scrubs” star has gotten the project off the ground.
Inspired by the recent success of a “Veronica Mars” movie campaign on fundraising platform Kickstarter – the adaptation of the old UPN show recently became the most-supported project in the crowd-sourcing site’s history – Braff made a video-plea to fans in which he argued that to make a film true to his vision, he needed funds without the big-wigs calling the shots on final cut and casting.
Within a matter of days, the project reached its $2 million mark thanks to fan investments. As they have with many other Kickstarter projects, cynics claimed it was a scam, the well-off simply tempting fans out of their money. But more and more big names have taken to the site, and “Wish I Was” now seems like a definite.
Braff is the son of a Jewish father and Protestant-converted-Jewish mother and was raised in the Conservative movement.
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