The $300,000 Kickstarter campaign for Stan Lee: The Final Chapter has been cancelled, director Jonathan Bolerjack has announced. The film is taken from video that Bolerjack shot during Lee’s last years as a convention guest, and promised to show the dark side of those surrounding him.
The campaign had raised just over $84,000, but had given rise to intense controversy, with many questioning the amount of the campaign, the rewards tiers, and Bolerjack’s own role in what many feel was elder abuse in Stan’s final days.
The film is still going to be completed and seen, however, Bolerjack wrote:
The project has received an overwhelming amount of press, social media, and global attention. And due to some recent developments, we are ending the Kickstarter today and we will be moving forward with the film’s production through generous outside support. We will be going back into production in the coming weeks and our plan is to wrap things up as soon as possible.We will be posting periodic updates via social media as we progress.
Bolerjack was part of Stan’s entourage in his last years, and was constantly shooting footage for a planned film – although not this one. As time progressed he became alarmed at the way Stan was being treated, and hoped to make the movie to show who was responsible, he says. He held on to the footage, and launched the Kickstarter last month. Many of the comments on the Kickstarter were highly critical, and while Bolerjack made several media appearances to give his side of things, the project never reached orbit.
As I previously wrote myself, I personally had no desire to see the sad sight of the elderly Stan being dragged from signing to signing. That said, I have spoken to people I trust who were close to Stan who do support the project and believe that Bolerjack was among those who looked out for him in his later years. That the film has found independent funding to be finished is perhaps the best outcome possible for now.
There is a lengthy reddit thread detailing all the ways in which Jonathan Bolerjack is accused of abusing his relationship to Stan Lee. He seems to have spent years profiting from a parasitic relationship with Stan instead of looking out for him.
https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/1jcskvs/a_warning_about_jonathan_bolerjack_the_guy_behind/?rdt=48215
It makes no reasonable sense to me. Who is really interested in that topic, I personally doubt you’ll ever know the truth, the man is gone let it be.
Seems bizarre that an accessory to a crime stands to profit here. If he only regrets his involvement NOW, it’s too little too late.
I’d like to see what he’s got and make my determination after that.