American McGee and his Shanghai-based studio Spicy Horse have made the difficult decision to discontinue the flailing kickstarter crowdfunding drive for OZombie, in order to launch a separate pledge drive for a 3D animated film based on Alice.

The OZombie hoped to deliver a videogame based upon a twisted vision of the Wizard of Oz tale, but looked to be falling well short of its funding target while a window of opportunity for the studio to acquire the film rights to its similarly twisted Alice franchise was passing by. McGee explains the situation in a Kickstarter update aptly titled End of the Rainbow:

The Oz campaign has to end. There are two realities driving the decision.

First, we’re facing a challenge with the Alice film rights. Since working to remove it from the Oz campaign we've been unable to launch it as a separate campaign here on Kickstarter – the submission has been rejected multiple times and our appeals have failed (multiple campaigns are not allowed). To launch a campaign for the Alice films rights means we must first shut down the Oz campaign.

Second, we wouldn't consider shutting down the Oz campaign if it were trending towards success. As it is, we've reached 15% of our goal with 20 days left in the campaign. Projections suggest we’ll hit 30% of our goal by campaign end. I've been telling myself to remain optimistic and see this thing through – but when the reality of our funding trend is combined with the pressure of the Alice film rights situation...

For Oz, we can always launch another campaign in the future. On the other hand, the Alice film rights are only within reach during a rapidly closing window of opportunity. We’ll sacrifice Oz today in order to have a real chance with Alice.

The Alice: Otherlands crowdfunding drive has now officially launched, with a more modest US$200,000 target. Watch the new pitch video below, and head over to the Kickstarter Page if you feel like chipping in.