Kevin Smith to distribute “Red State” himself
Kevin Smith continues to do things his way. Per THR:
Kevin Smith plans to release his new horror movie Red State himself, the writer-director declared at the film’s first public screening at the Eccles Theatre on Sunday night.
Smith had suggested for weeks that he would hold an auction post-screening for rights to his film, but ultimately announced that he would take the movie on the road himself throughout 2011 ahead of a planned Oct. 19 release. He paid himself a token 20 bucks for the privilege, and he hopes that the roadshow will make some of the movie’s roughly $4 million budget back.
“What we need to prove is that anyone can release a movie,” Smith said from the Eccles stage as part of a long and profanity-laced speech after the movie ended during which he championed Harvey Weinstein as an inspiration and mentor. “Indie film isn’t dead, it just grew up. It is just indie film 2.0 now. In indie film 2.0, we don’t let them sell our movie, we sell our movie ourselves.”
The film will go out via Smith’s SModcast with no marketing spend, though he said that he will talk to “any smart exhibitor” about potentially showing the movie.
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In his more than 20-minute speech, Smith lambasted movie studios for a system he said is unfair and outdated and too focused on advertising. Smith said that he had never intended to get into the business of the movie industry — noting that he’s simply a “fat, masturbating stoner” — but the state of the industry essentially forced his hand.
“It’s too much fucking horseshit. I just want to tell fuckin’ stories,” he said.
“I just want to tell fuckin’ stories.” Well, there you go. Except:
After the screening, Smith also reiterated that Red State would be his second-to-last movie, with the forthcoming hockey comedy Hit Somebody his final film.