On “Red State”…

We’re picture locked on RED STATE. Running time: 97mins (w/credits). Sundance watches Monday. Contingency plan for a pass in place. #Ready

Via @itsthattroyguy “Any prospects on distro?” With a cast like ours & a $4mil budget? It’s a no-brainer purchase for any distrib OR studio.

@nosajdabeno “is the lack of time spent on RedState due to your lack of interest/excitement for the film?” Opposite: made the flick with all the unbridled need & desire of a high school virgin trying to fuck before his parents come home. Had 3yrs to prep; hit set, crushed.

Via @docERtrauma “What % of a film’s budget goes to talent vs operations?” In the coming weeks, I’ll publish our RED budget so you can see.

Via @swickster “depressed that’ll be at very least 6 months b4 Red State goes wide” Nah – six months from now, you’ll have seen RED STATE…

Via @solidpython “When do you unleash a RedState teaser upon the world” If we get into Sundance, I’ll put the teaser online. #FingersCrossed

On “Hit Somebody”…

Via @BluMeaning “Now that you’ve done horror, any other genres you want to try?” Sports. Wrote another 10 pages of HIT SOMEBODY last night.

Via @KevSaund “Can you say who it is?” My HIT SOMEBODY lead? Sure – we’ll talk about it on BABBLE-ON next wknd: http://smodcast.com/babbleon

Via @AdamAbbott “RedState had a short shoot time. Will #HitSomebody be the same?” I’d say it’ll take roughly double the time we did RED in.

Via @LouisPJr “Your first choice lead for Hit Somebody passed” Already had my new guy shortly thereafter. And he’s perfect. #SeeItAllWorksOut

Via @Psymin1 “Why not film in Michigan?” That’s where we’re shooting HIT SOMEBODY next fall, once @ThatDavidKlein is done on TRUE BLOOD.

On SModcast and SModcastle Shows…

It’s SMunday SMorning! Time for #SModcast with me & @SMosier! SMod144: Dance 10, Looks 3 – http://smodcast.com/main.html #BarbarianBoobs

Get ready to gimme yer wallets & purses: I just posted the new @SModcastle schedule for the next 2 weeks! http://smodcastle.com/tickets.html

Via @fuckmikesmom “no more 2 shows in one night @SModcastle” Starting 11/17: Having Sex, w/Katie Morgan at 7:30, Bagged&Boarded at 9:00.

On past and upcoming live appearances…

Via @jaybwebb “too fat for 40 online!” Watch it FOR FREE, using the @EpixHD 14 day free trial: http://epixhd.com/kevin-smith-too-fat-for-40/

Via @tom_jorgensen “Too Fat for 40 was awesome, are we gonna get a longer cut on the DVD release?” Yup: all 4 hours of it, plus bonus stuff.

If you dig us… http://smodcast.com/getold …we will cum. Get tix for JAY & SILENT BOB GET OLD… LIVE! http://jayandsilentbobgetold.com

Via @KikiPassion “did you have fun in Kitchener?” I did. Great room, great crowd. Went almost an hour over because it was hard to leave.

Via @RChazzChute “I learned a lot from you last night in Kitchener. Here’s the piece about it: http://bit.ly/aB7ic7 ” Love it, sir. Go! GO!

Via @vincent404 “any plans on taking Smodcast on the road to Austin” Yup.

Via @mybrainhurt69 “r u goin to come to England and do a smodcast sir?” That and SO much more, sir. #StartSavingYourPenniesFor2011WithKevin

And finally, this one didn’t really fit any of the above categories, but sounds quite interesting…

Via @LovelyLocLady “Will you ever release a film via iTunes?” @JayMewes & I are working on a cartoon we’re hoping to do exactly that with…

For more from the world of Twitter, visit Kevin’s official feed where he waxes poetic on filming in Los Angeles and other random topics not covered above.

…Here’s our RED STATE teaser poster.

Moody, weird, and pitch-perfect for the tone of the film. If I went out to an ad agency here in town, I’d be billed close to 20 grand for a campaign that’d maybe… maybe… include this poster. But this piece of artwork (I call it “The Holy Ghost”) didn’t come from a top-tier ad agency: Jon Gordon is my RED STATE producer, and this poster was created by his assistant, Melissa Bloom. So we’ve got a marketing image that was put together by someone who was on set every day, integral to the process that produced the film which inspired this image. This isn’t the work of some gun for hire who’s doing six other campaigns; we’re not just one of many. The marketer is actually family, RED from pre-production all the way through wrap, so she’s got an insight into the flick that no ad agency could ever boast (not even one-time Glo-Coat golden boy Don Draper over at SCDP). I’ll take passion over pedigree any day.

When we first looked at Melissa’s poster, someone said “You should give this to the ad agency as a guideline.” Guideline? Was an ad agency gonna make us any happier than Melissa’s image made us? The Holy Ghost is kinda perfect, and more importantly? It gives us a starting point from which to launch our home-grown marketing campaign. There’s an immediacy to it, but also: anybody could’ve taken the initiative and did this themselves. If folks were wondering why Melissa was skating up near the blue line, far from the corner where the puck was, it’s because she saw where the puck was gonna be, and just waited to make her rush on goal. She shoots, she scores.

So Melissa (with a Gretzky-like assist by Ming), the person on the RED STATE crew least likely to spearhead our marketing campaign, gets the collar for this arresting image – and I fucking dig that. That’s what I mean by self-reliance: why go outside the family for shit we can do ourselves? Promote from within – the way Harvey taught us.

Catch the full length post exclusively at Kevin’s blog.

The widely-read Ain’t It Cool News and the great Empire Magazine also caught wind of the poster, which gets the word out that the film exists and gets people talking — And with any independent film, awareness is key. We’re hoping that the buzz can get the film into Sundance, which takes place from January 20th through the 30th, 2011.

Peep the brilliance of @StarkToons in a brand new, free SMODIMATION! http://smodcast.com/smodimations TheCrapture Pt.2: Jesus Strikes Back!

This week on LIVE FROM @SMODCASTLE: the @EpixHD Too Fat For 40 press scrum! http://smodcast.com/livefromsmodcastle #Promolicious

Via @limbclock “Why not release and sell RED STATE as online only?” VOD? That’s not new. It’s a movie, so I wanna see it in a movie theater.

On Sunday, we give praise to the lord – @SMosier, the lord of podcasts! Listen to his brand new #SMODCAST SMod 143! http://smodcast.com/main

KITCHENER! The mighty cock of Ontario! I’m gonna be balls-deep in you THIS WEDNESDAY! Cum with me: http://viewaskew.com/events/seekevinlive

Via @flamethrowerrd “any chance you’ll use twitter extras for Hit Somebody?” Bet on it, Bub. #HockeyTownHereWeCome

Off to cut a RedState teaser. Meantime, enjoy some free shit! NEW SMOD: http://smodcast.com/main NEW BABBLE-ON: http://smodcast.com/babbleon

Don’t miss the full Twitter feed for more details, including quite a few regarding Kevin’s plans for critics and press coverage for “Red State”.

…What is at the heart of my Kevin Smith worship? The man is a great storyteller. For many years, the only way most could know this is thru his films. However, on college campuses across the country, his storytelling skills were on full display in lengthy Q&A sessions where he would share stories about his past, both personal and showbiz related.

This evolved into Q&A sessions at bigger venues, and eventually, some of them were filmed, most recently, “Too Fat for Forty,” on his 40th birthday at the Count Basie Theatre in New Jersey.

Watch the special right now on Epix online via your Epix subscription or free 2 week trial.

“They can have everything. … I’ll give them hundreds and hundreds of hours of fucking free, [entertainment] I just want to make sure they give one thing to me for the rest of my life. I like dressing like this,” he said, referring to his oversized ‘Puck U’ hockey jersey and corresponding stick that he arms himself with inexplicably during interviews. “So, if I just keep giving them entertainment and shit like that I can live as an eternal teenager till I die.”

Smith was the main brain behind the creation of the first live pod cast theater, named SModcastle for himself and partner Scott Mosier. Created only three years ago, Kevin apparently had the idea years before, but it wasn’t after prodding from friends and fans that it became a reality. “I’ve always been an idea man.” Said Smith, “Mercifully, I’ve been able to hook up with people who take the next step.”

In addition to the SModcastle’s ever-growing content being based solely on the demands of the doting audience, it has proved a crucial artistic outlet for Smith. “It’s great to hear that people dig what you’re doing. It just fuels me.” But, there is one very important aspect of the SModcastle’s broadcasts that is especially liberating for a man who was once at the mercy of his nay-sayers: it’s free. “No one can harass you and say your shit sucks. It doesn’t matter. It’s free, dude, just don’t watch it.”

Q: At a certain point, your Q&As and podcasts and talks seemed to be focused around your movies. Now, it’s almost as if the movies are irrelevant to the rest.

So irrelevant. It’s almost at the point where I’m like, if I can get this up and running in a big bad way, in a way that I can live off, I’ll do less and less on the movie front. This is much more interesting to me now. I mean, it’s not that movies are boring, but I’ve done movies for 15 years, and you can only add a spoke to that wheel.

In film, I make Kevin Smith films. There’s a ceiling to what I can do, and I know that now. But in the podcasting world, I’m a better filmmaker than Steven Spielberg. Nobody can challenge me there, you know what I’m saying?

Q: So where do you take it from here?

A lot of people are like, “Oh, TV!” No. It’s not visually interesting to watch two people have a conversation, I don’t give a s– what the f–ing “Tonight Show” has said for years. At the end of the day, it’s so much better in the ears.

I mean, I’m fat. I don’t want to be seen. Podcasting brings me closer to what I’m sure I’m going after, which is every comedy album I grew up listening to when I was a kid. People don’t do that anymore – why do an album when you can do an HBO special or a movie? I have the luxury of already having a day job, and now I can experiment and play in a way that I can afford to do because it’s not my primary job. So for me, every week I can pretend that we’re making a comedy album.

And also, it’s the wild wild west out there. You can say whatever the f– you want on the Internet. Nobody’s yet regulated it to where they can shut you down. So right there, that’s way more interesting.

Nab your tix for upcoming shows at the castle RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW.