Red State Forum

Sundance is a festival where magic can happen for aspiring filmmakers. For some, it can be a first, crucial step towards breaking into the impenetrable golden schvitz of the Hollywood system, or it can be the means for indie auteurs to sell their work to distributors well outside of that system. It looks like Kevin Smith has taken it upon himself at this year's festival to pursue that latter path as a means of escaping the former.
 
Previous to the screening of his new film, Red State, Smith had hyped ( via Twitter) that he would auction the film from the theater stage directly after its screening. He did just that, but immediately after starting the auction bought the film himself, for a bid of $20. He'll be distributing via his Smodcast Pictures on Oct 19, following a nationwide tour of select cities. Smith nerds will know October 19 as the 17th Anniversary of the release of the film that started it all for him, Clerks. 
 
Said Smith towards the end of his announcement: 

“What we want to do is, like, ‘Yes, anybody can make a movie.  We know that now. We know that because I’ve made ten, you know what I’m saying? That means anybody can make a fucking movie. What we aim to prove is that anybody can release a movie now as well. It’s not enough to make it and sell it now, I’m sorry.”

Smith went on to announce that his next film, Hit Somebody, which is based on a Warren Zevon song, will be his last directing job. The plan after that is to focus on distributing other aspiring filmmakers' projects through Smodcast Pictures.
 
I applaud Smith for taking control of his own destiny, but only time will tell how successful this strategy is for his film. He will be selling it directly to movie theaters, and promises a better partnership with them than they currently expect from distributor. Taking a pot shot at his own work, he appealed directly to theater chains: 

“We want to partner up, man. We won’t screw you over. We won’t be like, ‘You gotta fucking take this piece of shit.' If you want The Dark Knight, you better take this piece of shit Cop Out.”

Here's hoping Red State is a far measure better than Cop Out, then...
 
As for the retirement claims, I believe 0% that he will never again direct another movie. Never trust a celebrity retirement.

DIRECT TO DVD. COP OUT 2 The way it was meant to be seen.

Wait, his last directing job? Does that mean no Clerks 3?

Fair play. I don't see why company's spend tens of millions on marketing so that they can turn a small profit after years.

@gambit1024 said:

"Wait, his last directing job? Does that mean no Clerks 3? "

He can still write it and let someone else direct it.

he's really taking the the Trent Reznor and RadioHead model of distributing music and applying it to movies (sort of) but not exactly selling the movie directly to his fans with his and skipping all traditional means promotions, but just like Trent Reznor and RadioHead who were able to succeed in part because of their status as major label acts beforehand and leveraging their name recognition to try out new music selling business model. And Kevin Smith is doing a similar thing with this announcement and i hope it works, cause I really like Kevin Smith and his most of his movies (clerks and Chasing Amy are some of my favorites films.) so I'll try my best to check out this movie when comes around. And hopefully some upstart director can do this with his/her film and be like the indie movie Johnathan Coulton who without name recognition was able build niche audience from nothing.

             

love his ambition he's shown recently, and can't wait to see Red State! I heard great things!

I dunno, man, he seems really happy with the idea of being a professional podcast mogul.  I don't know if that's even possible, but he seems to have the cash money required to coast in whatever way he feels appropriate for the remainder of his life.

Don't succeed a lot? Just lower your standards. Works for a lot of people.

While I like the idea of "release your own films independently" I don't really know if Kevin Smith is the right person to spearhead this kind of endeavor. 

Good for him!

right on kevin smith fight the man

I just hope he learns to take some damn criticism.

I read about this this morning, and Red State will be coming to Boston in March, following a Q&A session with Smith and one of the Red State actors whose name escapes me. I'm disappointed he has decided to walk away from directing, even if he is relatively inexperienced at "working with real stars". I just hope that whatever screenplays he decides to write in the future are seen through as intended, rather than neutered by some schmuck in the director's chair.
 
EDIT: Looks like it'll cost me around $70 to see Red State on tour....Yeesh. That ain't an easy one to swallow, even with a Q&A with Smith. If I can't persuade my parents to make a birthday gift out of it I may have to miss out on this one :(

Kevin Smith sucks. I never liked any of his films. He'll suck at this too.

I love the way the only line everyone kicked a fuss about was :-
 
 "  you better take this piece of shit   Cop Out .” 
 
Completely taken out of context, again. I'm a guy who likes a good Kevin Smith movie, I've admired Smith's own films and think he has gone a little off course recently. Smiths genius is in his writing, he isn't a strong director and, sometimes, that can ruin the entire project. As Alex once said, I believe, the script for Dogma was funny as shit, the final project, unfortunately, wasn't great. Smith should retire from directing and focus on writing. Its a strength we have yet too see, he has always directed his own material and so we see a focus on what he wants us to see, maybe a fresh set of eyes will do the material good.  
 
@W0lfbl1tzers: No one in the world takes criticism well, let alone in the entertainment industry. Smith is different to all the rest because he vocalise's the problems, he doesn't take it and bitch in other media, or take it quietly. He's the guy who asks why people are criticizing, why are the calling him out and asking directly, what's the problem? The media don't like to be called out. Kevin Smith, from what I can see, is one of the more open celebrities out there, always willing to answer any questions brought straight to him. Yeah, this sometimes comes off as arrogant and a little bratty but who isn't? I know if someone called anything I did crap I'd want to know why, a right we all expect. 

kevin smith has gone crazy-er

Should have just called it SMovies.

Smith's had some good flicks, but most of his films are simply awful.  Good on him for beating his own path, but I don't really care, mostly because he's such a prick.