Movies
‘Red State’ In Theaters September 25th
* Amended September 3, 3:34PM Central.
I’m almost tempted to tell you the wrong date for this “One-Night-Only” Red State event. I’m not even going to repeat it. It’s right there in the title of the post, but I’ll throw a few others out there just to keep it interesting! September 10th! September 24th! September 30th! September 11th! September 26th!
From my perspective, Kevin Smith does not respect you. Not anymore. He’s been trying to figure out the most creative way to get into your pocket with Red State short of making actually making a good movie. He even openly thought to ask asked you guys to PAY for the thing at one point. The kickstarter ethos is totally cool if you’re in college, or just getting started, or have no money of your own (Smith has this covered) or if you really actually want to make a movie (Smith doesn’t). Also, you’re supposed to get something in return for your investment (a knick knack, an autographed DVD, whatever). I suspect Kevin Smith would have taken your money and still charged you $60 (in some cases well over that amount) to see the film back in its first run.
Look, Kevin Smith is not a bad person. He’s just run out of things to say and is counting on his insanely faithful fan base to fill in the blanks. Here’s what I recommend. Read a few reviews of the film. Here’s ours and here’s another. Heck, search around. If this still sounds like the thing for you, check it out on the cheapest legal platform available (yes, it’s wrong to pirate, even Kevin Smith movies). You may still want your money back.
In the spirit of Kevin Smith making you do all the work for him, you’re going to have to hit the jump to find out more details.
“On Sunday, September 25, Red State will screen at select theatres nationwide through a unique partnership with the Emerging Pictures theatre network, announced David Dinerstein, whose D Squared Films is overseeing the films distribution for SModcast.
“Red State will be made available as a ‘One-Night-Only’ event which mirrors the format of SModcast’s record breaking Red State USA Tour from earlier this year. For this screening event, Smith’s trademark post show Q&A will be digitally streamed live from Tarantino’s New Beverly into all of the participating theatres, allowing audience members to interact directly with Smith utilizing Twitter. Smith will be joined on stage by a special guest who will moderate the Q&A,” said Dinerstein.
Written and directed by Kevin Smith and produced by Jonathan Gordon, Red State stars 2011 Academy Award winner for Best Actress Melissa Leo, Golden Globe winner John Goodman, and Michael Parks. The film debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival to much notoriety when Smith ended studio bidding by buying his own film for $20 and declaring he would be self-distributing the film theatrically. Smith has since toured the film around the country to enthusiastic audiences, grossing $1,065,429 to date at the North American box office from only 22 single show engagements and its Academy-qualifying run.
SModcast released the film on March 5 when it embarked on the 15 city Red State USA Tour. SModcast spent less than $500 in paid advertising to support the tour, which kicked off at the legendary Radio City Music Hall and grossed $162,000 during one show. The film quietly topped the per screen average charts for three weekends, making it the highest per screen average film of the year and the 9th highest per screen average film of all time.”
The other issue at hand is, Smith claims this distribution system will help indie filmmakers. It won’t. It’s only really sustainable if you have the same sort of cult of personality that he does.
If you go to this thing JUST to tweet a question at Kevin Smith, I have a link for you.
Hollywood is serious about landing the next Backrooms. Hot on the heels of a Siren Head feature announcement, Deadline reports that a new movie based on viral YouTube series The Mandela Catalogue is in development.
It also has some Hollywood heavy hitters behind it.
Amblin Entertainment’s Steven Spielberg, United Artists’ Scott Stuber (Frankenstein), and Amazon MGM Studios are set to produce, emerging victorious after a highly competitive 11-studio bidding war.
Launched in 2021, the YouTube series is set in the fictional Mandela County, Wisconsin which is “invaded by shape-shifting, nearly immortal creatures called Alternates. The Alternates are led by a false depiction of the Archangel Gabriel and their aim is to wipe out the human race by psychologically torturing them to the point of suicide. The Alternates are known for manipulating AV media, TVs, computers and GPS systems.”
The movie will be directed by the series’ creator, Alex Kister, based on a screenplay he adapted with Tyler Clifton.
The Mandela Catalogue has racked up an impressive 100 million views across its official episodes alone, solidifying it as one of the largest original analog horror franchises on YouTube.
Spielberg and Holly Bario are producing for Amblin Entertainment alongside Aaron B. Koontz for Paper Street Pictures and Stuber and Nick Nesbitt for United Artists. Kister and Clifton are also producing. Annie McCreery will oversee the project for United Artists. Maria Fortese will oversee for Amblin.
Get acquainted with The Mangela Catalogue below while we wait to learn more.