This is my first time running a Kickstarter campaign. It is not for the faint-hearted. We were advised that we’d get a third of all donations in the first 72 hours, a third in the last 72 hours, and a third over the weeks in between. Which translates to a lot of days of doubt and worry as the number inches higher (yay!), then lower when people cancel their pledges (boo!). But what has been true throughout has been the immense gratitude I feel with every single backer.

That gratitude was magnified last week when we crossed the threshold and met our initial funding goal of $15k. Which means that we will be able to make SLEEPY HOLLOW, 1998 a reality!

Stretching For It

Of course, no Kickstarter would be complete without stretch goals, and we’ve got a few. If we meet the stretch target, then every backer will get that reward. Everybody wins!

If we hit $25k, then we’ll make a new ebook of the original Legend of Sleepy Hollow, including a new introduction -- written by yours truly -- that will tell the story of how and why we chose this story and all the connections between the original and our retelling.

At $50k, everybody will get the Deluxe Digital Art Book. This will contain the entire story -- every letter, every piece of artwork, in full color and high resolution. It will also contain tons of behind the scenes content: inspirations, easter eggs, a chronicle of the development of the project, and the evolution of the amazing art from illustrator Zelda Devon.

We’re really excited about this one. I’m a big fan of the whole series of Star Wars Visual Dictionaries that allow you to linger over each piece of the art and design of the storyworld. They’re a big inspiration, as is the Disco Elysium Art Book.

We talked previously about how we went back and forth about whether or not to make a digital version of the experience. When we decided against making one available at the start, we also decided that we would produce this version to serve as a single digital archive of the whole thing.

We’ve also got a level at $100k, and we knew that if we reached this lofty goal, we’d need to devise something special for a reward. So we did.

If we break $100k, then we will produce a Full-Cast Audio Drama version of the story. And to bring this to life, we’ve enlisted BAFTA-nominated actor and award-winning writer and filmmaker Yuri Lowenthal. Yuri is a legendary voice actor, most well-known for his work in animation (Ben 10, Naruto) and videogames (Marvel’s Spider-Man).

Yuri is always on the top of my list, and I try to get him for every project I can. He played a big role in the ARG for 10 Cloverfield Lane, and was the star of the Arrival ARG. (And we almost got him into the Rageleaks campaign for 28 Years Later.)

Yuri is going to direct our audio drama, as well as voice the narrator, Gideon Granger. And we’re hoping to get a few more recognizable names to fill out the cast, but more on that later.

We’ve got two weeks left in the campaign, and we’re gonna need a lot of help to reach these stretch goals. So if you haven’t yet backed the campaign, now would be a great time to do so. And if you have backed it, a) thank you! b) please send it to all of your friends.

But the stretch goals were not the only new pieces of the campaign this week.

Gilmore Girls comes to Sleepy Hollow

We’ve been saying from the very beginning that our version of Sleepy Hollow owes more to Gilmore Girls than Tim Burton. That became very real this week, when a cast member of the show joined our campaign.

I first crossed paths with John Cabrera doing the rounds of digital conferences and panels back in 2013. I was promoting The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and John was talking about the hugely impressive series he co-created, H+ The Digital Series.

But I already knew who he was from his role as Brian on Gilmore Girls.

We’ve stayed in touch ever since. These days, John is the co-Founder and CEO of Remarkist, a fan creativity ecosystem bringing community and storytelling together. He’s also an actor, screenwriter, director, musician, and artist.

John was hugely supportive when the campaign launched. And when he heard how much his show inspired us, he reached out and generously offered his help. So together, we’ve come up with some new fun perks:

We have an Add-on called Watch Party: a series of six weekly video calls to go behind the scenes of each chapter. John will now be joining us for two of these chats, to discuss everything Sleepy Hollow, Gilmore Girls, and some other things I won’t share yet because they’re spoilers.

At fan conventions, John will often make custom drawings for fans of a robot from “Brian’s Robot Collection.”

For us, he’s going to do a custom series of Headless Robots. These will unique, individual, one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Each one will come on a postcard from the Sleepy Hollow Village Museum.

And for this last one, we got a little meta. John’s character on Gilmore Girls plays bass in the fictional band Hep Alien. Hep Alien’s lead singer is Zach, played by the actor Todd Lowe. But John and Todd also play music together in the real world, sometimes at Hep Alien reunion shows, but also as a part of their new, secret side project. When I found that out, I asked if we could make their side project a little less secret and incorporate it into the Sleepy Hollow universe. They agreed! And what better way to do that, than with a concert poster for a double bill with our fictional band, Them Bones.

So we have a new Add-on for a Signed Concert Poster, signed by John -- a real concert poster for a fictional show, with a double bill for a somewhat real band and a fictional one, signed by a somewhat real musician who played a fictional one.

We love blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

Cryptic Much?

Though Sleepy Hollow is taking up the lion’s share of my time at the moment, it’s not the only thing cooking. As of today, I’ve begun a new contract, yet another one of those projects that I am not permitted to talk about. For now, anyway. All I’ll say is that I’m hugely excited for this one and I can’t wait to be able to share more.