Mr. Cunningham, an ESPN sports analyst who has produced documentaries like “Undefeated” and “The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,” on Sunday turned to the crowdfunding service Kickstarter. He is trying to raise money to finish what has been a nearly six-year labor of love: a film about the peregrinations of a severed leg that turned up in a smoker grill that was sold at a North Carolina storage unit auction in 2007.

For those who missed all the drama, the leg had been removed from one John Wood, who lost it in a 2004 plane crash and had been storing it, mummified, in the smoker. Shannon Whisnant, on finding the limb in his newly purchased grill, wanted to keep it, and maybe charge people for a look. Judge Greg Mathis, on his reality television show, gave Mr. Wood custody of the leg in November of 2007, but awarded Mr. Whisnant $5,000.

Mr. Cunningham said he had since been trying to capture this bit of what he called “true Americana” on film, and, not incidentally, to learn “what ultimately became of the leg.”

Speaking by telephone last week, Mr. Cunningham said the answer lay in spoiler territory. All will be revealed in a feature documentary, called “Finders Keepers,” that is being directed by Bryan Carberry.

With his Kickstarter campaign, Mr. Cunningham is seeking $80,000 to prepare the film for submission to festivals, including next year’s Sundance Film Festival. If he can raise $307,000, said Mr. Cunningham, he will use it to finish a final version for commercial distribution.

Much of the movie, he explained, is built around the interplay between Mr. Wood and Mr. Whisnant. But the underlying story, he said, also involves Mr. Wood’s path to sobriety.

“This isn’t a spoiler — he’s clean, and sober, and working in eastern North Carolina,” Mr. Cunningham said of Mr. Wood.

“And, he has a shaman.” MICHAEL CIEPLY

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/business/media/movie-about-a-severed-leg-seeks-backers-via-crowdsourcing.html?partner=rss&emc=rss