I didn’t have anything to add yesterday to a quickly growing consensus that the seriously loaded Zach Braff is abusing the Kickstarter option by asking fans for dough to make Wish I Was Here, a character-driven dramedy about an loser-ish, arrested-development kind of guy (to be played by Braff) who finds himself and grows up a bit by home-schooling his kids.

Braff says in his pitch that he couldn’t get the kind of financing from the usual sources that would have allowed him to make his film without compromises.

I agree with the anti-Braff pushbackers. He’s connected enough to slap together some kind of deal, I’m sure. Maybe not a perfect deal but that’s life in the big city & tough shit.. Kickstarter movie-finance campaigns are supposed to be for people who aren’t rich or famous, who have no options except to appeal to online supporters. Here’s how HE reader Aaron Lindquist puts it:

“To me, this is the definition of asshole: already being a millionaire and pretending you’re a poor, independent filmmaker. It’s unethical. [Contributors to Braff’s Kickstarter campaign] would be giving money to someone who does not need it and encouraging more established film industry types to piss into the well that is Kickstarter. We should be helping build artists of all types, who don’t have the means to make their projects happen any other way. We shouldn’t let a viable outlet for indie financing become polluted with the same mainstream ideas that crowd-funding has sought to escape.

“Am I the only one who sees the potential for the industry to muck this up (just like they mucked up indie financing and distribution in the 90s)? — Warm regards, Aaron”