Crowdsourcing lures another big name as James France sets out to film his “Palo Alto Stories,” based on his own short stories, through $500,000 through Indiegogo.

He’s taking some of the sting out of “rich movie star uses indie film donations to make movies” by pledging profits to charity. But truthfully, this smells even more like a vanity project than some of the earlier big-name/crowd-financed films. Surely his accountant could find a way that self-financing “Palo Alto” would help on his taxes.