'Mars' To Attack More Theaters

Mark your calendars, Marshmallows: The Veronica Mars movie has a release date — and a plan to reach more of the masses. Warner Bros. will launch the big-screen revival of the cult TV classic on March 14, exactly a year and a day after Mars creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell took to Kickstarter and asked fans to break open their piggy banks and fund the film. “Warner Brothers had this date circled for quite some time and hoped it would stay open,” Thomas tells EW. “Luckily, no other teen-detective movie decided to open in the middle of March.” Those who ponied up $5.7 million for more Veronica Mars will be getting an all-grown-up version of the former high school supersleuth. The movie — shot over the course of a few weeks this past summer — will see Veronica returning to her hometown of Neptune after a decade away to help bad-boy ex-beau Logan (Jason Dohring), who’s been accused of murder.

The initial thinking was that Mars would get a brief run in a few major markets before quickly being released wide via video on demand and digital platforms. But the fan and media response, including a successful splash at July’s Comic-Con, inspired a change of strategy. The movie will now get a fairly traditional nationwide rollout in AMC Theatres. “I’m pretty giddy…. We’re not going to dribble it out there,” says Thomas, who is currently finishing up the film’s special effects and putting together a soundtrack. “There are smart ways to do a movie of this size — and we chose none of them,” he says with a laugh. “We are a low-budget movie with big set pieces and 60 speaking roles. A murder mystery in a house would have been more cost-effective. But I think we have managed to pull it off.”