Actor, film producer and musician Russell Crowe has given a US start-up a bit of a dig out. Crow has pledged US$25,000 via the US crowdfunding platform Kickstarter to help a fledgling digital project called The Numinous Place reach its goal of raising US$75,000 in order to hit the start-up scene.
Based in Los Angeles, Mark Staufer is behind The Numinous Place project. And it appears that he is a friend of Crowe’s – more on that later. According to its Kickstarter profile, the new venture is aiming to create a bolder way of storytelling using digital technology.
It seems the start-up is aiming to merge video, audio, images and text to create a new type of literary experience for people when they download an e-book or app onto their devices.
The new project has just three hours to go on Kickstarter but it has already gleaned 162 backers, including the pledge from Crow, so it has surpassed its $75,000 target and has now gathered $75,347.
As for the man behind The Numinous Place, like Crowe, he was also born in New Zealand. Staufer started off his career as a journalist. He has also dabbled in screenwriting, and he has written the script for the biopic of comedian Bill Hicks, of which Crowe is set to direct.
It seems the duo are longtime friends.
Russell Crowe on an open mic night at O’Reilly’s pub in St John’s, Canada, 13 June 2005. Image via Alan Doyle, via Wikimedia Commons
As for Kickstarter, last month it announced that people in the UK will be able to launch their creative projects on its crowdfunding platform from this autumn. Up to now, only US-registered projects had been able to use the site.
Storytelling image via Shutterstock
