The cast of the groundbreaking 1970s sitcom Good Times have started a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising $1 million to produce a movie using everyone from the original cast, with the exception of Esther Rolle (who played matriarch Florida Evans) who died in 1998 from complications of diabetes.
Jimmie “Dyn-O-Mite” Walker called the project a docu-drama-comedy that will give fans closure on what exactly happened to Norman Lear‘s beloved fictional Chicago family. The cast is putting this together on their own, without allegedly infringing on Sony’s copyrights/trademarks.
The attorney for the project cleared up any concerns of infringement in the following statement:
The cast are all friends, they are united. The best thing in the world is taking the popularity in the TV show and bringing closure to it a different way. The whole premise of the movie is to show the Evans family in the future and what they’ve all become without bringing in the old. If there is a piece of the old show that would be used, we understand that we would have to get clearance, but that is not the case. We are not going to tread on the old Good Times. What we are doing is using the characters and doing something new and telling a very different story.
Due to the casts and Leary’s creative rift, Leary will not be involved in this project. This sounds like an awesome idea, but exactly how will this work since they killed off John Amos’ character?
The Kickstarter campaign has generated $2000 in two weeks—only $998,000 more to go.
