Veronica Mars Kickstarter Movie: Leighton Meester Recast Due to Scheduling Conflicts

By Justin Sarachik, Christian Post Reporter Monday, July 15, 2013

With all the excitement following the announcement of a Veronica Mars kickstarter movie, most of the original cast is back, except for Leighton Meester who will be recast due to scheduling conflicts.

Meester played the character Carrie Bishop in the first season of Veronica Mars for two episodes.

"Sadly, Leighton was doing a different movie during the same time frame on the wrong coast. In the end, she was unavailable." series creator Rob Thomas announced online.

"One of the reasons I wanted Leighton, beyond her talent/beauty/history in the show, was that we needed a performer who could sing in this important role. Once it became evident that we couldn't make Leighton's schedule work, I decided to cast someone from a band I already wanted in the movie."

In her place will be lead singer of the band Twin Sister, Andrea Estella.

"[Estella] has an amazing voice; I can't get enough of it," said Thomas.

The show has become a cult classic to its die-hard fans and though it only ran from 2004 to 2007 for 64 episodes, it is coming back thanks to a immensely successful Kickstarter campaign started by Thomas. The online fund raising site raised roughly $5.7 million.

The original goal was $2 million, and almost 92,000 people joined on as backers.

Veronica Mars is played by Kristen Bell, who has become a big name in Hollywood since leaving the show, and recently had a baby with fiance Dax Shepard.

The show focuses around Bell's character as she goes through the day-to-day task of being a high school then college student as she works as an assistant to her father's private detective company.

So far Jason Dohring, Percy Daggs III, Chris Lowell, TINA MAJORINO, Ryan Hansen and Enrico Colantoni have been confirmed for the movie according to BroadWayWorld.com.