Spike Lee Hits $1.25 Million Kickstarter Goal To Fund Next Movie

Spike Lee apparently did the right thing to finance his next movie.

The 56-year-old “Crooklyn” director reached his $1.25 million goal on Kickstarter to fund his next project, four days ahead of his deadline.

With $1.29 million in donations, it’s the third highest film in the crowdfunding site’s history, behind the “Vernonica Mars” feature film and Zach Braff’s followup to “Garden State.”

Fellow indie director Steven Soderbergh was among the donors, pledging $10,000 to Lee’s film.

But Lee’s success also has galvanized critics outraged at the prospect of Hollywood millionaires soliciting money.

“Unlike back when I made 'Clerks' in '91, I've GOT access to money now — so I should use that money and not suck any loot out of the crowd-funding marketplace that might otherwise go to a first-timer who can really use it," Kevin Smith wrote on Reddit in May.

Lee defended the method of self-financing as a way to get good films made in an industry dominated by big studios.

“Indie Filmmakers are always in search of financing because their work, their vision sometimes does not coincide with Studio Pictures,” he wrote on his Kickstarter project page. “But I do put my own money in my films. I self-financed RED HOOK SUMMER. My fee for MALCOLM X was put back into the budget.

“The truth is I’ve been doing KICKSTARTER before there was KICKSTARTER, there was no Internet. Social Media was writing letters, making phone calls, beating the bushes. I’m now using TECHNOLOGY with what I’ve been doing.”

Not much is known about the untitled film, except that Lee bills it as, “Human beings who are addicted to Blood. Funny, Sexy and Bloody. A new kind of love story (and not a remake of 'Blacula')."

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