Alex Winter Announces Frank Zappa Documentary Kickstarter

As reported, filmmaker Alex Winter has been tapped to direct a documentary about famed rock guitarist Frank Zappa with the full backing and help of the Zappa Family Trust. Today, Winter has launched a Kickstarter campaign in support of the project.

Winter, who starred in the Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure films in the ’90s, has been granted unrestricted access to Frank Zappa’s private archives. “We’re at the brink of unlocking thousands of hours of unreleased footage, and hundreds of boxes of tape, and unnameable other stuff that has been literally locked away under the Zappa family home like a time capsule since Frank’s death in 1993,” the filmmaker writes on the Kickstarter page. Alex Winter has detailed three goals for the Kickstarter campaign:

1. Make the DEFINITIVE DOCUMENTARY.

Using what we uncover in the Vault, and with a ton of exclusive interviews, we’ll be able to make the first all-access, fully-authorized Frank Zappa documentary. And the more we raise, the more we can save, and the faster we can get Frank’s full story into the world:

If we raise $500K, we’ll have enough to get started immediately.

If we raise $1MM, we’ll have enough to shoot the entire movie.

If we raise $2MM, we’ll have enough to finish the entire movie.

2. Share UNRELEASED MATERIALS.

I’m not sure what we’ll find in the Vault, but for every $500K we raise – up to our full goal of $3MM – I promise to share, ideally, as much as an hour of new material, be that clips of interviews, concert audio, unreleased music, scraps of video… We have no idea what we’ll find in there, but we’re excited to share our journey of finding out!

3. Create a COMPANION BOOK.

Frank wasn’t just an iconic rock star — he was also a pioneer filmmaker (from video to claymation), a collage artist, a graphic designer who did many of his own album covers, and a revered experimental composer.

Aside from correspondence, contracts, photographs, sheet music, notebooks, and other weird visual ephemera, we’re excited to share some of Frank’s never-before-seen artwork, video stills, and more in a f*@&ing beautiful hardcover companion book.

There are a bevy of rewards for the campaign ranging from access to unreleased music and footage all the way up to the chance to own Frank Zappa’s Hollywood mansion. Bear in mind, ownership of Frank’s house will only go to a generous soul willing to contribute $9 million. Watch a video detailing the Kickstarter campaign which runs through April 8th: