It’s a good time to be a Marshmallow. With the success of last year’s Kickstarter campaign, Veronica Mars is back on our screens this year in motion picture form, with creator Rob Thomas set to premiere the movie at SXSW. To capitalise on the excitement, US network The CW is planning a series of webisodes to hit the ‘net later this year.
The original series ran between 2004 and 2007 and featured the misadventures of the titular teen detective (played by Kristen Bell) as she investigated crime in the affluent coastal town of Neptune, California. Set 10 years after the end of the show, the film finds Veronica preparing to become a lawyer, but drawn back to her hometown when former flame Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring) is accused of murder.
It’s early days for development, and the first deals have only just been signed, but CW Entertainment President Mark Pedowitz told TV critics at the Television Critics Tour that he’s hopeful Thomas will get at least some of the cast on board. “I have faith in Rob,” he said. “If the actors are there, they’re there, if they’re not, they’re not … I have great faith in Rob he will turn it into something fantastic, and should it ever turn into a TV series again I hope he’ll think of us.”
Shortly after the initial announcement, Thomas himself hit Twitter and spoke to Hitfix about the angle for the webisdoes, which will aim for between 6-8 minutes on the CW's Seed 'net channel. "The web series will have more in common with Party Down tonally, but it will be about Ryan Hansen, or at least a version of Ryan Hansen, deciding to capitalize on the current Veronica Mars heat to get his own series on the air,” explains Thomas. “He'll try to pull his actor pals into the venture with varying degrees of success."
Veronica Mars is set to hit US cinemas on March 14, though there’s no word yet on a UK date.