Gang,

In just over an hour, Veronica Mars will have its "official" worldwide premiere at SXSW, here in Austin, for a theater full of film lovers who might -- or might not -- be Veronica fans, and I'll get to see how a film festival crowd reacts to what we've made. It should be fun, and I think it will tell me something about how the general public might respond to the movie.

You might think that premiering my first film at a major film festival, in my hometown, would be the most exciting thing happening to me today. But it won't be. It's going to be amazing and a heady experience, sure, but the most exciting part of my day will be just a few hours later, when we hold the first of our Kickstarter premiere events. The cast and I will take our seats and watch the movie again, but this time in a theater full of our backers -- fans so committed to Veronica that they made this movie possible. For the first time, I'll get to see the movie with some of you.

When we were making final plans for tonight's event, the theater staff -- knowing that I'll just have seen the movie at SXSW -- offered me a private room where I could relax, in case I didn't want to see the movie twice in a row. Here's the thing: I know the movie by heart. I've watched every scene in the movie hundreds of times.

But for me, tonight's screening isn't about seeing the movie for the umpteenth time: it's my first chance to watch you watching the movie and to experience it with the people we made it for. I've been anticipating this day for a long, long time.

It's time for me to get ready for the SXSW screening, but before I do, I'll say it again:

Thank you for giving us the chance to make this movie, and for making today possible.

We can't wait to meet some of you tonight, and over the coming week.

Rob

A friend of mine (a fan, who also donated to the campaign) saw the film three days ago and he loved the hell out of it.

Both season finales of the first two seasons gonna try and chug through season 3 this week.

Kristen Bell, if anything, has only gained in appeal: She's alluringly fixated, with eyes like heat-seeking missiles and a dry-martini delivery of lines like ''Kudos for rockin' the 'stache till it came back in style!'' Bell and Thomas take us back to the hard-boiled-gumshoe Hollywood of the '40s. Veronica will solve that crime, because she's got something in common with whoever did it: She's addicted to the dark side.

At a theater in my area, the movie already has two sellouts for its midnight showings. Earlier in the night, at 8pm there are two sellouts for something called the "Veronica Mars Fan Event". The 7pm showing on Friday is approaching 75% full and the 9:45pm showing is closing in on the 50% full mark. I'm excited to see how this does at the box office.

Nobody better illegally download this or I'll find them and fuck them up!

Yes, it's supposed to be available on demand, Amazon and iTunes. Backers of the Kickstarter are also getting a download code e-mailed to them.

"Best. Show. Ever. Seriously, I've never gotten more wrapped up in a show I wasn't making, and maybe even more than those. . . . These guys know what they're doing on a level that intimidates me. It's the Harry Potter of shows." —Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy and writer/director of Marvel's The Avengers