I don't know what to think about this, on any level. I have read that Frank told Gail to sell everything and get out of the business before he died, and they did sell all the "original records" for something like $40 mil I believe. However, she/they (The Family Trust) kept the (vast) unreleased tape & film archives and the record company (Barking Pumpkin), in order to sell the former.
ZAPPA was always a family business, I guess it makes sense that if anyone is going to finish the Roxy movie and put it out there should be Zappas involved (probably including whoever worked on his movies with him -- he must have had collaborators, it's not a one-person job).
But this is a strange way to finance it. Make fans sell a few hundred copies apiece in order to break even? Most never will, that seems obvious. I wonder how many will take them up on the offer (my guess is "not enough", and they'll pull the whole deal on Dec 28 at 5am).
It does seem like the kind of crazy "hippie financing" that only the rock industry could come up with though! I give them points for "trying something different."
Coincidentally, I'm gonna see Dweezil's ZPZ band this weekend. Curious to see how that will go (never seen his group or dad's band before).
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