Rob Thomas Reveals 'Veronica Mars' Plot Details, Kristen Bell Announces Twitter Live Chat

If you're one of the 60,000 or so backers of the Veronica Mars movie project, you're probably starting to get a little curious about what your money's actually going to buy. Sure, we know it'll be a feature film featuring Neptune's sharpest P.I., ten years out of high school. But which of her old friends and nemeses will we see? How much sex and violence can we anticipate? Is this the end of Veronica's journey, or just the beginning?

Series creator Rob Thomas has all the answers, and while he's not ready to give everything away he's happy to drop a few hints. And he may slip a few more in a Twitter live chat tomorrow morning. Hit the jump to learn the latest details on the project, and get more info on the Twitter event.

But before that, you can find plenty of juicy details in TV Line's interview with Thomas.

(Spoilers for the new movie follow, so stop reading here if you'd rather not know.)

As mentioned in the Kickstarter campaign page, the Veronica Mars sequel will pick back up with Veronica on the occasion of her 10-year high school reunion. So where does she find herself in her late 20s? Thomas explains:

She transferred away from Hearst college after that freshman year and went up to Stanford and finished her undergraduate degree. And then she went to Columbia Law School. She's certainly been back to Neptune from time to time to see her dad and Mac and Wallace, but she hasn't worked a PI case since the last one we all saw in the final episode of Season 3. She ruined her dad's chance for re-election and she decided that that path had caused too much chaos in her life. And so she hasn't worked a PI case in nine years. And when we meet her, she's sort of like where Tom Cruise was in the beginning of The Firm. She's between having graduated and taken the bar and she's interviewing at various law firms in New York.

So she's not destined for the FBI as long rumored, or at least not yet. But she seems to be doing well overall. Thomas explained that Veronica is "dating someone" at the start of the movie. He wouldn't reveal a name but says it's definitely not Logan, whom "she hasn't seen in nine years." Her relationship with Keith, meanwhile, remains an important part of her life and will be a "big theme" in the film.

While the high school reunion plotline was purposely chosen to bring back many familiar faces, not everyone in Neptune will be able to attend. The ghost of Lilly Kane will not be seen, "as much as I joked about having Amanda Seyfried in it." Nor will Backup return in any form. "If you do the math, that's a big dog to still be alive 13 years later," he points out. "Most 100lb dogs, they get 7 or 8 years of life. It would strain credulity if the same Backup were still alive."

Although it's the diehard fans who made the Veronica Mars revival happen, Thomas hopes the new movie will be able to attract fresh viewers as well. "I want to avoid getting deep into the Veronica Mars mythology," Thomas said.

We're not going to get into Veronica's backlog of cases. I want to make the movie accessible for people who haven't watched Veronica Mars before. All you need to know is that Veronica was a teenage private eye and she's given it up. And there will be a moment early in the movie that will bring her back to Neptune and make her give being a private detective one more shot.

That includes younger fans, as Thomas says he's "shooting for" a PG-13 rating. And if the film leaves old and new viewers wanting more... well, he hopes there'll be more where that came from.

"Veronica will survive the movie," he asserts. "I can't promise anyone else does though. But there will be an opportunity for Veronica do to her thing again." Perhaps she could even come back for another season or sequel. "I'd be lying if I didn't say I didn't think of those things," he acknowledged. "I am hopeful it is the birth of [much more] Veronica Mars."