Red State - to fund or not to fund?

Kevin Smith, king of merchandising and online fan marshalling, could offer the web the most unlikely investment opportunity since a certain Nigerian prince emailed to ask for the use of your bank account. In an interview with CINSSU last week, the director said he’s considering seeking funding for his passion project Red State from online supporters – and walked into a shitstorm.

Smith told CINSSU that he was in the process of setting up a site where fans can invest in the film’s production by making a donation. (Any profits from the finished film would be ploughed back into making “other (cost-sensible) flicks fans want to see”.) It would be easy to cast the portly filmmaker as the fatcat here and indeed Bloody Disgusting did just that, posting a rant that’s pretty much encapsulated by this quote: “Excuse me? I must be in the "Twilight Zone" because the last time I checked YOU'RE the big time director and we're the ones who have given you a career. Now you want a hand out? What are you? Toyota?”

In response, Smith made an outraged statement defending his plan:

“If (and I mean IF with a huge fucking i & f) this fan-financed idea were to move forward? I’m not making a dime. If I were, as suggested, to turn to the fan-base to fund the movie, do you honestly think I’d even take a salary? I was just tickled and touched a bunch of people wanted to see it so badly, they were like “Here’s my twenty, if it’ll help.”

Crikey. Is Smith turning into a modern Ed Wood? A filmmaker who is cheerfully unable to see that (the majority of) his output is pure rubbish? Other signs point to yes, like this remark in the CINSSU interview regarding his last non-studio flick: “I had a huge emotional breakdown when Zack and Miri came out, because I was expecting Zack and Miri to do closer to Forgetting Sarah Marshall business… We didn’t do Sarah Marshall business, we wound up doing Kevin Smith business.”

For the fact hounds among you, FSM made $105 million worldwide on a $30 million budget. Zack and Miri Made a Porno banked $41 million worldwide on a budget of $24M. And although this writer desperately wanted to like ZAMMAP, it was simply patchy and inept filmmaking on every level. Equally, though we didn’t find much to love in FSM, it had more commercial appeal since:

1. It didn’t mention poo every ten seconds.
2. It didn’t climax with a poo joke.
3. It didn’t feature any of Kevin Smith’s friends looking shifty and uncomfortable.

How would Mr Smith himself respond to this? Well, we can give a pretty good guess, since his second post included a response to Bloody Disgusting and other sites of its ilk. “This isn’t about making money, you negative pricks: it’s about making movies. And what’s sickening about it? Motherfuckers screaming foul WRITE FOR MOVIE WEBSITES. You’d imagine they’d support the making of a movie.”

First off, Mr Smith, we movie sites don’t support the making of all films. In fact, we vehemently disagree with the making of some films – variously, Indie HQ staffers here would discourage Kate Hudson, Michael Bay, McG, and Matthew McConaughey from ever darkening celluloid with their presence again. Second, we think it’s all very well to make art for art’s sake, and it’s great to make popular films that everyone can enjoy, but when you’re getting aggressive about your right to make popular flicks that no one much likes, you might want to look down and see if you have a leg to stand on.

The problem, as anyone who isn’t Kevin Smith can see, is that Red State is a bit of a departure. What we know of the closely guarded plot is that it involves a group of oddballs who are forced to confront the growing fundamentalism of Middle America. Smith himself described it as a “dark little seventies horror movie”. If it’s made, it will be the first gag-free Kevin Smith film, which is probably why The Weinstein Company (and others) passed on it.

In any case, Smith’s next movie is much more in his usual line of things; an ice hockey flick called Hit Somebody, which could give him the cash he needs to make his pet project. In the meantime, we'll keep you up-to-date on this proposed funding fiasco.