Marc Bernardin’s Splinter: A Short Thriller Hits Kickstarter Goal, Still Climbing

TV writer Marc Bernardin, perhaps best known to some for his television writing and being Kevin Smith‘s right-hand-man on the FatMan Beyond, launched a Kickstarter campaign last week for short titled Splinter and quickly eclipsed its target goal. Originally set with a $90,000 goal, the short has already had over 1500 backers with over $160k pledged and 24 days still to go. “It’s been a roller coaster in lots of different ways. It has not been the easiest past month,” Bernardin shared on the latest FatMan Beyond. “To have this be the Wednesday that I had, this kind of unbelievably, unprecedented outpouring of emotion and belief and support to come at a time when I needed it most, I could not have planned for this.”

“It got to be difficult to not be crying at my desk, just watching the response while then having to not betray that emotion at my job,” Bernardin added. “The feedback from Twitter and the feedback from the comments and the feedback from Facebook, both from people I’ve known for years and people I’ve never met, saying how much they believed in me, I don’t really have the words for it beyond big time thank you. I needed it more than I knew that I needed it. For it to manifest the way that it did, it’s the end of a movie for somebody else’s life and the beginning of this movie for mine.”

Bernardin’s Kickstarter for “Splinter: A Short Thriller” describes the short as follows: “Benjamin can’t really remember life before the plane. Flashes, really. A carnival. The faces of his parents. The smell of McDonalds. But now, today, his entire world is the size of a customized 747, refurbished to comfortably house him. And the crew that caters to his every need…save one: his freedom. Because there’s something wrong with Benjamin. Something you can’t see with the naked eye. Something that won’t appear on any test. It’s nothing he asked for or has any control over. You see, when his feet touch the ground, it’s as if it causes an infection to spread. That infection triggers a response. Rage. Fury. Mania. Chaos.’

“Benjamin is a splinter in the world. And so he remains, skybound. For ever and for always. At least, that was the plan. Until today.”

Some other familiar faces are involved in Splinter as well include Yetide Badaki (American Gods, This Is Us, The Magicians) Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica, Van Helsing, Lucifer), and Tiffany Smith (Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Supernatural, NCIS: Los Angeles), plus an original score by The Walking Dead composer Bear McCreary. Check out the campaign yourself by clicking here.