The "Veronica Mars" movie premiered Saturday afternoon at the 2014 South By Southwest Film Festival, seven years after the cult series went off the air, and nearly one year after a Kickstarter campaign was launched to fund the feature film resurrection. Stars Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Percy Daggs III, Francis Capra, Tina Majorino, Chris Lowell, Krysten Ritter, Enrico Colantoni and Ryan Hansen were on hand for the debut of the film, as was director and co-writer Rob Thomas. Before the screening, Thomas introduced "Veronica Mars" by giving thanks to all of those who made the movie possible. Below, the full transcript of his speech.
"Veronica Mars" is out in limited release in theaters and also via video on-demand services starting on March 14. Look for much more on the film's premiere soon here at HuffPost Entertainment.
I am so unbelievably excited to be here today to show you the "Veronica Mars" movie. It has been seven years in the making, and it feels so good right now. First of all, we'd like to thank South by Southwest for having us here. Austin is my home, this is the place I would have picked to screen it.
Next, I really want to thank the people at Warner Bros. Just so you know, the easiest answer for a big corporation is no, and Warner Bros. said yes. Warner Bros. let us try this experiment, and we're so grateful. I can't tell you how well they have treated us for being such a small movie. They have treated us like a really important project.
Next, I want to thank the cast of "Veronica Mars" [loud applause] for being willing to jump back into this and working for scale. Most important, this movie would not exist if Kristen Bell had not been enthusiastic about it, had not been passionate about it, had not been willing to step up ever since we went off the air. Kristen, thank you so much.
And, finally, most important -- and I think I can say this more than any other movie that has ever been made -- thank you to the fans of "Veronica Mars." The Kickstarter backers, we would not exist without you. This was the only way this movie was going to get made. Thank you so much. I hope you enjoy the movie.
"Veronica Mars" is out in limited release in theaters and also via video on-demand services starting on March 14. Look for much more on the film's premiere soon here at HuffPost Entertainment.