Next week, we head to Berlin for a international buyers screening. Already got a sweet offer from strong UK distrib, so hoping the rest of the territories sell well. Once we know which distrib/country have them, we can start planning RedStateInternational tours: like a week across England. Or a RedProvinceTour in Canada – all well before 10/19 US release.

As has been written numerous times, RED STATE isn’t exactly a horror film, though Kevin Smith certainly thinks it is, having argued rather strongly that the ideas he plays around with in it are truly frightening. Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the fact that, structurally speaking, it simply isn’t one. What heís made is satire. Pure, straight from the bottle satire. Far too often people mistake parody for satire and they forget that films like this certainly qualify. RED STATE is Smith’s manifesto on what is wrong with this country, laying bare his fears of what religious and political extremism mean for the future of our society. It is not a nice film nor are its ideas very pretty, but it isn’t horror.

What it happens to be is good. Very good.

…

RED STATE neither looks nor feels like anything Smith has ever made before, which of course I mean in the best way possible. Everything about this technically is heads and shoulders above everything else he’s ever done. The cinematography truly captures the look and feel he’s aiming for; the acting is several notches above every performance he’s ever gotten out of an actor; and there isn’t a single moment of anything resembling Smith-speak in the entirety of the film. It is every bit a film separate from his filmography as MATCHPOINT was to Woody Allen’s. Were you to remove Smith’s name from the credits, no one would remotely fathom this was one of his films. It is a lightspeed jump as an artist that shows – despite his recent antics a new found maturity as a filmmaker, proving him to be somebody with something to say and the talent to say it without having to always be in frame when it is said.

Kevin Smith: Why He’s Going Rogue with Red State

Starting in March, writer/director/actor Kevin Smith will hit the road to screen his new film Red State for fans, in mid-sized venues like Radio City Music Hall and the Wiltern in Los Angeles. Prices for his Radio City show range from $54.50 to $124.50. Which makes one ask, A hundred bucks for a movie?

Actually, it’s more like a ticket for a glimpse at an entertaining guy in career transition. When Smith sold distribution rights for his first film, Clerks, at the Sundance Film Festival 17 years ago, it was a dream come true. This year he brought along Red State, a humor-filled horror flick featuring Melissa Leo as a religious fundamentalist with a bloodthirst for gays (hence the title’s jab at conservative states) and John Goodman as an ATF officer. Immediately after the screening Smith showily “bought” the distribution rights to the film for $20 before anyone else could bid, announcing in a profanity-laced screed that instead of releasing the film through a studio he’d tour with the movie and follow that with a wider but still independent Oct. 19 theatrical release.

The goal, Smith says, is to skip the massive marketing campaigns attached to most movie releases ó which he estimated would cost a minimum of $20 million for Red State, a movie that cost only $4 million to make ó and bring the film directly to his fan base instead. It was a radical, attention-getting move, seen by some as arrogant. But what did it mean? Was it a publicity stunt? Was he trying to change the way Hollywood does business? We wanted to know.

A Q&A with Kevin Smith includes a lot more As than Qs; the filmmaker is famously voluble. Some ground rules: If he agrees to give you 30 minutes, plan for an hour. Expect to laugh; the guy who directed Chasing Amy is funny, even if sometimes, he makes a comedy that isn’t (Cop Out.) Get ready to trim obscenities (this is the guy who directed Zach and Miri Make a Porno). And prepare for your close-up; Smith, who prefers social media to old media ó he has over 1.7 million followers on Twitter ó agreed to talk to Time on the condition that he would post a unedited recording of the interview on his website as well.

We barely got a word in edgewise for about 35 minutes, so full disclosure: In the interest of providing structure and shape, we reordered and inserted some “questions” we would have asked if the highly agreeable Smith hadn’t just told us everything.

Why no traditional distributor for Red State?

We’re in a global economy now that does not support the kind of movies I like making in terms of marketing them. It doesn’t make sense to try to sell what I do to an audience that doesn’t want to see it. And I have been doing this for 17 years; I know there is the audience that likes what I do and then there are cats that don’t even know who I am or are indifferent to what I do. Or don’t want to see it. It just feels like, why do we waste money going after the audience that has no interest whatsoever?

You’ve said that Clerks, which cost less than $28,000 to make, didn’t make a profit for seven years because of the marketing budget. People might have thought you were slamming Harvey Weinstein, who bought Clerks.

Oh God, no. We literally named our [production] company the Harvey Boys in honor of Harvey. No slam here, that’s just the realities and vagaries of our business… There is no bad guy here. It is just what the business has become.

So what’s with these expensive screenings of Red State?

It was like, we could let it sit on a shelf until October [he plans to release Red State in theaters as a Halloween movie] or take it with me when I go out on the road, and that’s the thing I guess I’m taking a lot of heat for. Most people kind of know me for one job ó for making the films ó but for anyone who is really into my stuff knows that for over 10 years now, between movies, I go out on the road and do Q&As and kind of put on shows.

According to Smith, ticket prices for Red State are the same as those shows. In 2010, without a movie to preview, he sold out six of the 11 venues he played ó including, to his great pride, Carnegie Hall. Smith says a completely sold out tour would net $1.5 million; he expects to make up the rest of the film’s production costs in foreign rights and video sales. He says his wife Jennifer, who has a small, gun-toting role in Red State, wouldn’t let him do any of this if it was a financial gamble.

To me the gamble [would be], we’ve spent $4 million to make the movie, let’s gamble another $20 million to make people want to see it. That’s madness, that’s arrogant… I’ve been called arrogant for what I’m doing. Isn’t it more arrogant to believe that my movie that we couldn’t get financed for three years ó nobody wanted to make it, I understand, it is bleak material, it is not for everybody ó I’m like, wouldn’t it be more arrogant for me to do this the traditional way, overspend to make people want to see it? This is the financially responsible model.

Smith also puts out a series of podcasts (available on smodcast.com) including one featuring his alter-ego Silent Bob and his friend Jay (Jason Mewes) that gets up to 300,000 downloads. Touring and talking keeps him busy, which is a good thing since he just announced he’ll quit directing movies after his 11th feature, Hit Somebody, his hockey movie in pre-production now. So we asked, “Really?”

I wasn’t born to be a filmmaker like Steven Spielberg, I was born to tell stories, and film was the first vehicle through which I could tell those stories. But it’s coming on 20 years since the moment I decided I wanted to be a filmmaker, and 20 years of doing anything ó it’s just like, I’ve done it, it’s been great, my dreams came true, well beyond what I ever would have expected… I always said I only have 10 scripts in me… When I wind up directing someone else’s script as I did with Cop Out, that to me is a clear indicator that, Okay I have done everything I ever wanted to do, and now I’m just doing s– to see what will happen.

Smith cites Henry Jaglom (Eating, Queen of the Lot), one of the first successful filmmakers to self-distribute his movies, as an example of how this model isn’t new; but, as TIME was unkind enough to point out, it is hard to find Jaglom’s films in theaters.

I believe in the Long Tail theory. I’m a creature of the Internet. The idea is, if I start marketing now, in this quiet kind of online way, amongst my fan base who then go out and talk to their friends, who talk to their friends, by the time October rolls around… all I will have to say is, Here it is, come see Red State… I salute f–ing Henry Jaglom. He has been making the exact movies he wants to make for years and years, putting them out his own way … Henry Jaglom is doing it people! He’s not sitting around talking about how people are trying and failing, he’s just putting his head up and stick down. He’s a model to a guy like me. The only difference is, I’m going to try to go wider. The good news is I have tons of support.

Definitely on Twitter. But what about inside Hollywood as well?

I didn’t make this move before I talked to all my industry friends… I am in Hollywood. Nobody is up in arms. I talked to them all.

So you’re not trying to start a revolution?

No. God, no. Look at my track record, I’m not a revolutionary. I’m not a rebel. I’m not political. I’m not the savior, man… I am not even trying to do it for all of indie cinema. I don’t picture myself as someone kind of quixotic figure. I just have built up enough of a reputation and an audience to try and experiment with it. And I’ll be damned if I’ll let anyone try to talk me out of it… Because if for nothing else, I have done it nine times the other way and I know exactly what happens.

Many of us assume you Hollywood types have to keep making tons of money to support your fancy lifestyles. Don’t you?

Last year and the year before, I made more money standing on a stage talking as myself than I did as a director of film… For the last two years I haven’t been seeing the kind of big dollars I used to see when I had a overall deal with Miramax and the Weinstein company. I have had to support myself just going out on stage talking and I have been able to do that… Do I have enough f– you money, is that the question? No, I wish I did, but I would rather grind it out, try to make honest money with something I am passionate about.

Everything I see in my bankbook tells me [fans] like me best when I’m being me. And this is me being me… I’m 40. I am in mid-life, but it’s not a crisis. A crisis would be spending $20 million to market a movie. This is me, taking stock.

Via @gizmoghost “Ask & it shall be done: http://tinyurl.com/Jeffs-smod ” Join the campaign! Get Jeff to do a monthly Mountain Man podcast!

Because you demanded it! On @SModcastle sales page, a new counter, letting you know how many tickets are left: http://smodcastle.com/tickets

Check out the new front page at the SModcast home site, reflecting the forthcoming Tuesday premiere of PUCK NUTS! http://smodcast.com

I was flying last night, so I didn’t get to pimp a BRAND NEW #SMODCAST ! SModcast 135: Mos Chuisle. Mos on boxing. http://smodcast.com/main

Via @dysartes “Where can an interested party find out more regarding RED STATE?” Probably by being on set: http://viewaskew.com/redstate/

The script for “Red State” has had those who read it talking that it’s so dark and bleak, a total 180 from any of Kevin’s previous lighter works, that folks will be shocked. We can’t wait to see what he and the crew have in store for us. Stay tuned here at News Askew, as the cameras start to roll – We’ll keep you posted, and as spoiler-free as possible, of course.

This site will feature the current, up to the minute honest reports on how things are going, with commentary direct from Kevin on why they did it, what’s coming next, how things are coming along, and the like.

The first post, “As the Sundance Dust Settles”, might be the best essay from Mr. Smith on the “Red State” philosophy yet. Just when you think he’s said all he’s got to say, he one-ups himself with an even better bit of insight on what he’s up to, and why. Read the full post exclusively at the new site — But to get an idea, here’s a quick look:

Iíd only ever sold a film one time previously, but that one time was all it took. Clerks was made for $27,575 and sold for $227,000, seventeen years ago. What could a $4 million dollar flick go for? Happy, Texas sold for $10 mil at Sundance twelve years ago, but those days are long gone. Buried sold for $6 million last year, so I started figuring that the best Red State could get in this economy would be the same: about $6 million.

What would happen then? Like, let’s say Lion’s Gate picked up Red State. Lion’s Gate spends an almost standard $20 mil to open any flick (which is lower than the industry norm; LG is actually one of the more frugal studios, spending less on marketing than the majors). So now, my flick doesn’t cost $4 million anymore, it costs $24 million. It’s gotta make $24 million to break even and start seeing profit. But the studio/distributor doesn’t get all that box office, so assume the studio only gets back half of that announced box office figure. Suddenly my little $4 million dollar movie has to make $50 million JUST TO BREAK EVEN. Like, what happened? Instead of spending all that money trying to make the movie, it’s spent on trying to convince people to come see your shit.

And where’s that $20 million go? It’s called ‘P&A’ – prints and advertising. But the print portion of that equation – physically creating the reels of film that make up the movie – is pretty low: it costs between two and three grand to make five or six reels of a motion picture (the costs of a digital print are lower, but not as many theaters project digitally yet, so we’ll be making more film prints than digi-prints). So let’s say you make a thousand prints: you’re looking at $2 to $3 million dollars.

That leaves $17/18 million of the P&A to account for. Where’s that big chunk going? TV Commercials, full page newspaper/magazine ads, billboards and bus stop ads, thousands of mini-prints of trailers, press junkets, airfare.

Read it all, complete with a bunch of photos, lots of background, and all the passion you could ever hope for out of a filmmaker, at the brand new Red Statements site.

Via @bknaust “what about 1 more trip down the Askewniverse for the fans?” Wouldn’t that be better served in a cable show? Ongoing w/cussing.

Nothing more than that for now, but the first we’ve heard a hint of the Askewniverse on cable. We’re fascinated. Stay tuned.

Following the screenings at Sundance, Kevin had a few ideas where he could tighten up around 10 minutes of footage to help pacing. Don’t worry, no MPAA mandated edits here, obviously, these are just decisions that he’s made to help the flow. Via Bloody-Disgusting, here’s new interview details on what might change in the slimmer version:

“The movie that I showed the cast and crew screening at wrap, two days after we wrapped, I showed them the whole movie, that’s the movie I pretty much showed at Sundance with end credits attached to it. I loved the movie, we knew what we were doing in terms of editing it, it was a beautiful running time and stuff, and then we go to Sundance and I sit in the back and for the first time I get to watch it with 1200 people who have no involvement with the movie, no involvement with me.

So I’m sitting there going ‘Okay, there’s something I thought would work, didn’t play with the audience’, ‘Something I thought would get a nice reaction just kinda laid there’, ‘Boy, that played way bigger than I ever thought it would, maybe we should shape something around there’ and just found some time to take out, if I had to guess I’m saying five to ten minutes somewhere in there.

And John [Gordon, producer] fought me on it. John was just like ‘Why bother dude, we’re our own bosses, nobody’s telling you to take it out’, like back in the old days Harvey would be ‘I love it! Take ten minutes out,’ no direction at all, just take the time out, so John’s like ‘We don’t have to do that now, we don’t have to really cut the movie at all’ and I said ‘Yeah, but I’m a filmmaker first and foremost, dude, and I want the movie to play as gangbusters as possible, and if the length of Park’s speech is making anybody remotely go ‘Maybe that speech is a little long, I want them to love Parks as much as I do, so for me, right, I’m an editor, you kill your babies every step of the way as an editor.”

Don’t see anything close to your town? Request a screening and bring the fun to your part of the country. They’d like venues only to make the request, not individuals, so first, contact your local auditorium and get them on board — Then get them to bring it all home. With only two months of dates on the books, there’s plenty of opportunities to get the movie coming your way before its October theatrical run.

As new dates happen, we’ll keep you posted. Early rumors have the usual big San Diego Q&A bringing the tour in — We’d love to see a packed “Red State” panel, screening, and Q&A out there. July feels far away with all this snow and ice on the ground here on the east coast, though we’re expecting big things for “Red State” not just this March and April, but this summer as well.

For now, all dates are on sale except the just-announced April 9th Los Angeles show at the Wiltern. Those go up this Friday. Be there, if a can — If not, see “Red State” this October at your local theater. Rumor has it we’ll also get to see the first 10 minutes or so of the flick online around the August/September timeframe.

• After watching the film with an audience at Sundance, Kevin feels that a slightly shorter cut might be made for the masses – Probably around 10 minutes, here and there, will be removed before “Red” hits theaters in October. No word on if those cuts will happen before or after the tour starts in March, or if they’ll happen gradually.
• There’s been a lot of press about what went down with “Red State” last weekend — But why not go direct to the festival source? Sundance Blog not only runs down the events, but has a ton of positive buzz about the product itself. This is one of the best single paragraphs that we’ve seen since the announcement was made:

  “It would be a real disappointment if, amid the drama of last night’s announcement, it was lost on everyone how stunning and indie Red State feels. Smith was right about Red State when he said that it’s different; it doesn’t look like his previous movies and it doesn’t feel like one either. Characters you root for, who in any other movie wouldn’t have their heads blown off, suffer that particular fate. It’s well-edited (by Smith) and driven, with really funny, human moments, but there’s an unsettled, jagged rage to it that’s refreshing. It’s not an easy movie, partly because Melissa Leo and Michael Parks’ performances are mesmerizing and impossible to turn away from – and they play some pretty horrid people. The difficult thing about Smith’s self-distribution model is that, because he’s refusing to use TV ads or billboards to let people know they should see Red State, audiences will have to work a little harder to actually catch a screening. But you’ll be doing yourself a real disservice if you don’t meet Smith halfway on his promise to hand-deliver a movie that feels entirely new and thrilling.”

• First, a little tag from the last posted story – Kevin did indeed confirm that Michael Parks will be on hand for the Radio City screening in March. You just gotta be there – He’s even going to treat the audience to some of his own vocal stylings. Don’t miss this show. This is one of the biggest we’ve ever seen.
• From last weekend, /Film does their usual fantastic job with their Dispatches from the movie premiere. Peep their article for a ton of new photos from the counter-protest. There’s a lot there that we didn’t see anywhere else.
• Kevin’s crew weren’t the only ones holding that counter-protest, though — Park Record reports that over 200 high school students from the Park City area were also on hand to express their opposition to the Baptists from Westboro.
• Canadians: Here’s what Kevin had to say about “Red State” in your country: “We’ll have a distributor up there who will ALSO tour the flick the way we’re doing down here. We hope to lock up Canada & some other international territories in the next few weeks. Hold on…”
• We also loved this quote about Kevin’s decision to take this route with “Red State” with the end of the road being a real theatrical distribution: “I’m a movie-maker; I wanna show my stuff in a movie theater. There will always be time for the digital afterlife, but I wanna show my flick to hundreds of people at a time in movie theaters first; I just don’t want to spend on marketing to do it. And in place of the money folks normally spend to get attention for their flicks, we’re simply selling to an audience that wants to go. If the tour ticket sales are weak, we’ll not tour again & simply come out 10/19. 2/3 months later? Digital distribution. By this time next year, you’ll be able to buy it on iTunes, OnDemand, etc. But for now, I wanna run this horse a bit.”
• Online promotion for “Red State” will spread to the late night talk shows as well, where advertising is cheap. Per Kevin: “That’s where we’ll show our newest trailers as cost-free TV spots.”
• Stay tuned for any other special presale announcements or deals if you missed today’s — We heard some fans were lucky enough to get front row center spots at Radio City. “Red State” tours the nation starting this March, then hits theaters in October.

…It goes without saying that religious conservatives will hate “Red State,” although those of a more libertarian stripe might appreciate Smith’s irrepressible irreverence, freewheeling subversion and tweaking of movie genre expectations. Young audiences will eat it up for the above reasons as well as for its unmistakable rebel attitude toward everything except human decency.

Nimbly directed and nicely shot on the RED camera system, the film went before the cameras on September 21, a mere four months before its premiere.

“…For those interested in where the movie industry is going, I have to say that the person to watch is Kevin Smith. I’ve written about some of what he’s done before, but he’s continued to do some interesting (and, at times, controversial) things. I have no idea if he’ll succeed with them, but if you want to understand how to succeed, you should be paying attention to what he’s doing either way. Like Reznor, he’s breaking conventional wisdom, and trusting his instincts on — as he says — skating to where the puck is heading, rather than where it’s been.”

…So I’d go my way and he’d go his and everything was fine. Sometimes you work with some people and you develop a shorthand between the director and the actor. You don’t need to have long dissertations on acting or the scene or the character. It’s very quick. I can’t explain it, except it’s there. We connected that way. He’s not dominant, which is wonderful, but he’s always there, which is good.

Is he the kind of director where he’s always giving notes on the performance, saying ‘tweak this or that?’

Oh, Christ no! I’m too old to read anyways.

So he just kind of let you do your thing?

Well I think that he had faith that I was going to bring the character. If he saw that he didn’t like it, he sure as hell would say something, I think. There were a couple of times he helped me with suggestions.

Can you give examples how?

Yeah, like moments when I could be even a little sweeter, a very important thing. But anyways … the craft of acting takes a long time. I’m never quite sure. In fact, 10 seconds after I finish every scene I do, I think I could do it better, but I just go on.

Red State

Excitement over Kevin Smith’s new movie has been building for months, partly because itís such a departure from anything he’s done before. Branded a horror film, ‘Red State’ follows three teenage boys during a terrifying encounter with extreme fundamentalism. Smith is avoiding the press machine – no reviews, no interviews, nada – which makes the film all the more mysterious.

It seems that’s continuing, too — Rumor has it that Kevin has not promised ANY press or promotion of the film when it hits theaters this Fall — Though promotions will, of course continue via online and social channels throughout the tour this year.

The show itself goes down on March 5th at 8:00 PM in historic Radio City Music Hall, New York City.

We’ve make it easy for you. Hit up this link to get right there. No need to even type in the code, we did it for you. Ticket prices range for $54.50 to $124.50, depending on where you wanna sit. Remember, this isn’t just a movie screening, folks — You not only get to see “Red State” before most of the world does, but you get an intro and Q&A afterwords from Kevin Smith (it’s really the price of just a Kevin Q&A alone, so the movie’s a bonus). Plus, we’re also hearing that star Michael Parks is likely to attend some of these venues, so we’re hoping to have confirmation of that soon, also. With this being the big kickoff, there might even be some other cast and surprises as well.

Don’t miss “Red State” at Radio City, on March 5th. BUY NOW!