Rushing to get a first pass ready to show to Sundance, writer-director Kevin Smith revealed on his blog that he recently completed his first cut of Red State, his political horror film starring Kyle Gallner, Melissa Leo, Dermot Mulroney, Michael Angarano, Steven Root, Michael Parks, and John Goodman. In addition, he shared with his loyal fans the first teaser poster that rocks the tagline “Fear God.” With the file named “Holy Ghost,” the teaser image displays a cross with a man covered in a sheet standing in front of it. The pic follows a group of misfits who encounter fundamentalism gone to the extreme – in the form of a crazed preacher – in Middle America.
“Moody, weird, and pitch-perfect for the tone of the film,” states Smith. “If I went out to an ad agency here in town, I’d be billed close to 20 grand for a campaign that’d maybe… maybe… include this poster. But this piece of artwork (I call it “The Holy Ghost”) didn’t come from a top-tier ad agency: Jon Gordon is my RED STATE producer, and this poster was created by his assistant, Melissa Bloom. So we’ve got a marketing image that was put together by someone who was on set every day, integral to the process that produced the film which inspired this image. This isn’t the work of some gun for hire who’s doing six other campaigns; we’re not just one of many. The marketer is actually family, RED from pre-production all the way through wrap, so she’s got an insight into the flick that no ad agency could ever boast (not even one-time Glo-Coat golden boy Don Draper over at SCDP). I’ll take passion over pedigree any day.”