kevin smith vs. hollywood
Kevin Smith’s films are refreshing different and funny. But Kevin Smith himself is even funnier. And the New Jersey director is well aware of that. Unlike what usually happens, this iconic US indie film director’s positions have radicalised over the past few years. He’s taken another step forward in Red State, his most recent film.
This daring director, whose work we first saw in Clerks, caused a stir at the most recent Sundance Festival (which used to be an alternative festival). To make his most recent film, Red State, he had a budget of only three million dollars, as if he were a nobody in the US film industry. But Smith, who raised the finance and produced the film by himself, has given Red State a 70’s horror film flavour. He didn’t sign any distribution deals before making the film and anybody would have said that was commercial suicide. But Smith did have a plan. At the Sundance Festival he announced that he would sell the rights to the film in an auction after the premiere. The innovative, risky idea of the auction brought a lot of big Hollywood distributors along to to Sundance. There was a lot of curiosity and interest. After showing Red State to a full house, the director got onto the stage and astonished all the sharks he’d brought together there. In fact, he absolutely amazed them. Smith told them that he’d just sold the film distribution rights to himself. For 20 dollars. He thanked the industry businessmen for showing up and got off the stage. There was an uproar. It was anathema. The bosses of the film industry said that Kevin Smith has just put the last nail into his own coffin.
But ¨Silent Bob¨’s a clever bloke. Clever and energetic. Because his anti-Hollywood plan hadn’t finished there. To show the film and to get his money back, he’s organized a Red State tour around the US. He rents a cinema, shows the film, turns up and gives a conference all on a single ticket. “There’s nothing new about this. I haven’t come up with anything new here. I’ve done promotional tours with all my films. And I’ve always hated the fact that the industry spends three times more on promotion than it does on the films themselves. Now I’m organizing everything and doing it all by myself. The aim’s to give the three million dollars back to the people who put them up in the first place. So, up to October, I’ll be showing the film and giving talks all over the country for 35 dollars. After October, we’ll be showing the film by itself in normal cinemas and at normal prices”. Red State Tour has started and, in spite of what some people thought, the first shows have been highly successful. At New York’s Radio City Music Hall, 3,800 people turned up and 140,000 dollars were raised. The film’s stars, Melissa Leo and John Goodman, have given amusing chats after the film and, in no time at all, Red State has become one of the top ten selling films. At the big Hollywood studios they’re playing darts using Kevin Smith’s face as the board.
red state
Red State is a film with a 70’s horror film flavour. A group of young people receives an invite via the Internet to a sex party. But the people who are organizing the party are churchgoers who hate sin and, in particular, homosexuals. So you can imagine what’s going to happen. It’s been highly controversial in the States and the Westboro Baptist Church has become famous for hating homosexuals (www.godhatesfags.com), coming out against the film and organizing demonstrations against the project. Smith admits that this has given him a lot of publicity and, with that particular sense of humour of his, he’s taken part in the demonstration - anti-demonstration game as much as possible.
www.viewaskew.com
www.coopersdell.com
This daring director, whose work we first saw in Clerks, caused a stir at the most recent Sundance Festival (which used to be an alternative festival). To make his most recent film, Red State, he had a budget of only three million dollars, as if he were a nobody in the US film industry. But Smith, who raised the finance and produced the film by himself, has given Red State a 70’s horror film flavour. He didn’t sign any distribution deals before making the film and anybody would have said that was commercial suicide. But Smith did have a plan. At the Sundance Festival he announced that he would sell the rights to the film in an auction after the premiere. The innovative, risky idea of the auction brought a lot of big Hollywood distributors along to to Sundance. There was a lot of curiosity and interest. After showing Red State to a full house, the director got onto the stage and astonished all the sharks he’d brought together there. In fact, he absolutely amazed them. Smith told them that he’d just sold the film distribution rights to himself. For 20 dollars. He thanked the industry businessmen for showing up and got off the stage. There was an uproar. It was anathema. The bosses of the film industry said that Kevin Smith has just put the last nail into his own coffin.
But ¨Silent Bob¨’s a clever bloke. Clever and energetic. Because his anti-Hollywood plan hadn’t finished there. To show the film and to get his money back, he’s organized a Red State tour around the US. He rents a cinema, shows the film, turns up and gives a conference all on a single ticket. “There’s nothing new about this. I haven’t come up with anything new here. I’ve done promotional tours with all my films. And I’ve always hated the fact that the industry spends three times more on promotion than it does on the films themselves. Now I’m organizing everything and doing it all by myself. The aim’s to give the three million dollars back to the people who put them up in the first place. So, up to October, I’ll be showing the film and giving talks all over the country for 35 dollars. After October, we’ll be showing the film by itself in normal cinemas and at normal prices”. Red State Tour has started and, in spite of what some people thought, the first shows have been highly successful. At New York’s Radio City Music Hall, 3,800 people turned up and 140,000 dollars were raised. The film’s stars, Melissa Leo and John Goodman, have given amusing chats after the film and, in no time at all, Red State has become one of the top ten selling films. At the big Hollywood studios they’re playing darts using Kevin Smith’s face as the board.
red state
Red State is a film with a 70’s horror film flavour. A group of young people receives an invite via the Internet to a sex party. But the people who are organizing the party are churchgoers who hate sin and, in particular, homosexuals. So you can imagine what’s going to happen. It’s been highly controversial in the States and the Westboro Baptist Church has become famous for hating homosexuals (www.godhatesfags.com), coming out against the film and organizing demonstrations against the project. Smith admits that this has given him a lot of publicity and, with that particular sense of humour of his, he’s taken part in the demonstration - anti-demonstration game as much as possible.
www.viewaskew.com
www.coopersdell.com
