Tim Walsh and Peggy Brown have launched an Indiegogo campaign with the goal of creating a film about John Spinello, who invented the classic game Operation. The movie, entitled Buzz Heard ’Round the World: The Inventor of Operation and the Power of Play, would pick up on the life of Spinello, who back in 1964, sold the patent to Operation to a toy development company for only $500.
Today, Spinello is 77 years old and struggling both financially and physically. Yet as the film shows, he chooses to celebrate the joy his invention has brought to millions of people.
The Indiegogo campaign seeks to raise $50,000 to cover the cost of videographers and equipment, travel expenses to capture Spinello’s story, music licensing, and editing the footage into a corporate underwriting trailer, which would be used to help raise support for a full-length movie. If the money is not raised, a short film will be made from the footage that has already been shot.
Both Walsh and Brown are toy enthusiasts and inventors themselves. They would serve as executive producers of Buzz Heard ’Round the World, which would be directed and produced by Suzanne Jurva.
More information about the film and campaign can be found here.