Kevin Smith To Sell Red State Via Public Auction

"Kevin Smith To Sell Red State Via Public Auction"src="http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news_img/22766/red_state_22766.jpg"style="border: 1px solid black;margin:1px;margin-left:5px;position:relative;"align="right"vspace="3">While many seem to disagree with director Kevin Smith’s somewhat baffling recent stance on things likethe media and film criticism, you have to give the guy at least a little credit: Those views have resulted in a genuine attempt at industry innovation. Fed up with the Hollywood system of production and promotion Smith has cast all of it aside for his new movie,Red State, which he funded independently and plans to promote independently as well, using his series of wildly popularpodcaststo raise awareness.

Red Statemakes its debut in Park City at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend and, Kevin plans to keep right on thinking outside the box with his movie. He long ago announced that, unlike every other film being screened at the festival,Red Statewill not hold screenings for either press or industry attendees. Those screenings are normally particularly critical for a movie likeRed Statesince the film doesn’t have a distributor and, normally, the only reason a filmmaker like Smith brings his movie to Sundance is in the hopes of finding someone to buy it.

Even though he doesn’t plan to hold a screening for the distributors who might buy his film, Kevin does want to sell it andVarietyhas a line on how he plans to pull it off. Here’s the answer: Public auction. Immediately following the film’s first public screening on Monday a public auction will be held right in front of the mostly fan-filled crowd in which attendees will be allowed to bid against each other for the rights to distributeRed State. Smith has in the past stated that he hopes for a $6 to $8 million sale. That seems like a rather dicey proposition, it’s hard to imagine studio execs willing to commit millions of dollars by waving their hands at a director in front of a live studio audience, but it has the advantage of having never been tried. Variety speculates that Smith may not care if he sells the film or not, and could have a backup plan for self-distribution. If you’re a regular listener to Kevin’s podcasts, as I am, he’s always been adamant about wanting to sell the movie to a distributor, yet at the same time his conversations frequently seem to revolve around the notion of self-distribution through DVD and other formats whichskip the theatrical model entirely. For now Kevin has yet to confirm this bit of speculation, and since he’s currently trudging through the snow in Park City, is unlikely to do so until the big hubbub of Sunday is over.

It’s all part of the sideshow like atmosphere which has begun to spring up around the movie’s Sundance debut. The film is loosely based on the infamous Westboro Baptist Church and its founder Fred Phelps, and they’re planning a protest out front, which will already make things pretty crazy. Smithhas been arguing with Phelps daughter Megan this week onTwitter. Meanwhile a group called The Harvey Boys (who will also run the auction) have also been attempting to rally together fans in order to stage counter-protests in which they’ll shout and wave around silly, comedic slogans protesting irrelevant things as a way of satirizing what the Westboro group plans to do.

Bottom line: For better or worse this will be a Sundance screening unlike any other ever held in the history of Park City. Our own Katey Rich will be at the screening on Sunday, expect a full report from her shortly afterward.

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