Veteran filmmaker and director Kevin Smith is shaking things up in Hollywood with his new movie, Red State. The film, a fast-paced suspense/horror film about a Christian church that takes drastic action against those it deems sinners, recently wrapped a 15-city American tour that was a smashing success, as well as a one week only Oscar run at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Theatre in Los Angeles.
Though Red State is slated for an October release, Smith took the movie across the country on a sneak preview/Q&A tour in order to raise funds for distribution, as the movie is being released without the help of any major motion picture company.
The tour, which ended on April 9th at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, raised a staggering amount of money in it’s showings and has shown that Smith’s wild experiment was a great one, bringing the film into profit on a very limited run.
Red State has been in the works for years. A sharp detour from Smith’s usual films (mostly comedies with a touch of drama), Red State was passed on by the Weinstein brothers (Smith’s usual backers), as well as many other movie studios. Having what Smith himself deemed a great movie on his hands but without his usual support, the filmmaker decided to make it himself, and shoot the film on a shoestring budget of only $4,000,000, which represented the smallest budget he had worked with since “Chasing Amy” (one of my favorite films ever).
Somehow, Smith was able to put together a phenomenal movie in “Red State”, with a cast that includes John Goodman, Oscar winner Melissa Leo, comedian Kevin Pollack, Steven Root, the stunningly beautiful Kerry Bishé and more. The star that steals the movie though, is veteran actor Michael Parks, who brings five decades of acting experience to the part of Abin Cooper, patriarch and preacher.
Parks is a larger than life figure who absolutely dominates every frame that he is in, and makes the audience completely buy in to his characters fervor and beliefs. It would be shocking to see his name missing from this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Actor.
Though time and time again Smith was told “Red State” was not a film Hollywood studios could sell, repeated sold out showings throughout the country have proven otherwise. With the success of “Red State”, Smith may be able to turn things in Hollywood on their head, and show that if a filmmaker has enough passion, drive and determination, they can succeed when every other person in the room believes that they will fail. Smith marketed the film himself through his own Smodcast team and steadfastly has believed in “Red State”, and not only has he proven himself right, but also he has made one of the best films of his career in the process.
All of here at Positively Celebrity laud Kevin Smith’s example of “Red State” as a project that he believed in when no one else would, and are looking forward to it’s successful run in theaters throughout the world, as well as on DVD/Blu-Ray and VOD (releasing on September 1). You can learn more about Red State by going to it’s website – www.CoopersDell.com.
And, as always, be sure to check back for all things celebrity from Richard Munassi right here at Positively Celebrity!
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