Kevin Smith has long been talking about his planned Red State project, a horror film which he has described as “so bleak that it makes The Dark Knight look like Strawberry Shortcake.” Unfortunately, he has had a hard time funding the project, but it now looks as if he has the cash to go ahead with production. The director announced yesterday via his Twitter feed that he will begin production later this summer on the film-
I talk about lots of stuff I wanna do that either happens years later or never happens at all. Happy to report RED STATE is not the latter… First draft was dated 9/5/07. Looks like we start shooting this July. Took nearly three years, but we’re finally gonna roll on RED.
Smith has previously stated that the villain of the piece was inspired by the Westboro Baptist Church leader and hate-monger Fred Phelps.
Following the wrap of Red State, Smith will go into production on his hockey movie Hit Somebody, with star Sean William Scott.
Although it fared poorly with critics and did only moderate business at the box office, Smith said via Twitter his work on the recently released Cop Out, the first film he has directed that wasn’t from one of his own scripts, was helpful in getting Red State going forward. However, he does state that the film will be done interdependently. The film will not be so much a slasher or “torture porn” movie but “tonally closer to Race With The Devil or Deliverance.”
Also, Smith warned people not to expect Jay and Silent Bob – the two bumbling dope peddlers who have appeared in a number of Smith’s films played by himself and Jason Mewes – to show up in Red State. That would “Be like Kermit & Fozzie cameo-ing in Ordinary People: just waaaaay out of place.”
