If you’ve never heard of Kickstarter, go check it out. It is a place where artists, bands, creators of any kind can try to get funding for their projects from people who are interested in them. Video games, books, and a plethora of other projects have found their funding through Kickstarter, perhaps even some things you’ve been into.

Dino Stamatopoulos, creator of Moral Orel and Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole, is part of a group looking for funding through the website for a proposed 40 minute animated short film by acclaimed director Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Being John Malkovich) entitled Anomalisa. The film will be about, according to the Kickstarter page, “a man crippled by the mundanity of his life.”

Produced at Dino’s Starburns Industries, the film will be executive produced by a team of Stamatopoulos himself, Duke Johnson, and Community creator and ex-showrunner Dan Harmon, and produced by Rosa Tran. Check out the video from the Kickstarter page for info and an intro to the project and the things that Starburns Industries has done in the past– including some really familiar stuff to Adult Swim fans:

The project is looking for $200,000 by September 9th at 2:17 PM. As with any Kickstarter project, there are several incentive gifts for various amounts of donations. They range from a downloadable poster and a thank you, to digital downloads, to signed scripts, personalized scripts, and a whole set after the film’s all finished up.

On why the group is using Kickstarter, they explain on their page: “[o]ur goal is to produce this unique and beautiful film outside of the typical Hollywood studio system where we believe that you, the audience, would never be allowed to enjoy this brilliant work the way it was originally conceived. We’ve been working in the television and movie industry for years and we just want to make something ourselves. Something pure. Something beautiful.”

So, if a Charlie Kaufman/Dino Stamatopoulos/Dan Harmon project sounds like something you’d be willing to throw some money towards, check the Kickstarter and help them reach and even surpass their goal and get cool incentive gifts. Go now, give money. Go.

Official press release under the “read more”.

Starburns Industries Uses Kickstarter to Fund Groundbreaking Animation Project.

BURBANK, CA, July 12, 2012 – The Partners at Starburns Industries, which include Dan Harmon, creator of NBC’s Community, and Dino Stamatopoulos, creator of the animated series’ Moral Orel and Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole, have acquired the rights to a play written by Charlie Kaufman entitled, Anomalisa.
Dan Harmon and Dino Stamatopoulos will Executive Produce the project and frequent Starburns collaborator Duke Johnson will direct. Kaufman will come on board to produce and oversee the project once financing has been secured.
The company has created a teaser video for the project that has already garnered more than 1200 backers on Kickstarter and over $100,000.00 in less than 48 hours. The company hopes to raise over $200,000 by the end of the project’s 60 day run.
The team believes crowd sourced funding will allow them to maintain the purity of Kaufman’s original vision. “I’m ecstatic to have the slightest hand in bringing more Kaufman to more people. I’m even more excited about the ramifications of this project’s success. It feels like viewers and creatives waking up from a hundred year nightmare to find out they’ve been spooning the whole time.” says Dan Harmon, Executive Producer.
The company will also be promoting the project at this weekend’s Comic Con conference in San Diego. To view the video teaser and support the project, visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/anomalisa/charlie-kaufmans-anomalisa or http://www.starburnsindustries.com
ABOUT ANOMALISA

Anomalisa was originally written by Kaufman under the pen name Francis Fregoli and produced as a play with two performances at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, in September of 2005.
ABOUT STARBURNS INDUSTRIES

Starburns Industries is an animation studio known for groundbreaking stop motion animation work that launched in the summer of 2010, when seasoned animation producers Joe Russo II (The Simpsons, Rug Rats), and James A. Fino (King of the Hill), teamed up with Dan Harmon (NBC’s Community, Monster House, Channel 101) and Dino Stamatopoulos (HBO’s Mr. Show, Conan, Adult Swim’s Moral Orel and Mary Shelley’s Frankenhole) to begin work on a stop- motion animated holiday special for NBC’s hit show Community entitled Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas which garnered an Emmy Award© for outstanding Achievement in Character Animation. In late 2010, Rosa Tran joined the team as a Producer.
www.starburnsindustries.com
Media Contact:
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Rosa Tran, Producer, Starburns Industries r.tran@starburnsindustries.com