Kevin Smith Won’t Do Interviews for “Red State”

Kevin Smith Won’t Do Interviews for “Red State”

Movie News

By our guest blogger, Joe Oliveto

A few days ago, the teaser trailer for “Red State,” writer/director Kevin Smith’s first foray into the genre of horror, appeared online. Since then, it’s officially been removed, but a quick search on Youtube will still come up with a few high-quality copies of it. We don’t know all that much about the film, aside from the fact that it is inspired by the extremist Christianity of Fred Phelps.

And, as it turns out, the film’s director might not be giving us much more info to go on than that.

DigitalSpy reports that Smith has announced via Twitter that he won’t be doing any interviews or press appearances for this movie. He’ll record a generic press kit that will be distributed to writers, but that’s as far as it goes. Smith explains that the process of promoting the film via the press would be a “painful waste of time, resources and money.”

Hmm…might this have something to do with the less-than-enthusiastic response his latest release, “Cop Out,” received from critics? Smith has never exactly been Scorsese when it comes to scoring good reviews, but there are a number of respected critics—Roger Ebert comes to mind—who love his work and are usually willing to applaud it. Such was not the case with “Cop Out,” and Smith, who is known for being outspoken, especially when he feels he’s been wronged, didn’t respond too well.

Smith reasoned that critics should actually pay to see his films, explaining that it’s not fair for them to see the movie for free if they’re going to insult his efforts, while fans who actually have an interest in seeing the movie have to pay.

This refusal to participate in interviews seems like another sign that Smith is fed up with critics and won’t play that game anymore.

But “that game” is part of the filmmaking process. His job is to make the movie, and it is the job of the critics to respond to it with honesty. Those who had previously praised his work often wrote unfavorable reviews for “Cop Out.” They didn’t have some personal vendetta against Smith, they were simply doing what they get paid to do. He’s not gonna get on their good side by deciding not to talk to them.

Then again, “Red State” is dealing with some fairly controversial subject matter to begin with, so maybe in this case he’s saving himself a lot of trouble. If the film gets enough media attention, it could draw some backlash, and Smith might not want to deal with that. It’s understandable.

Still, eventually he’s going to have to realize that this is part of the film industry. Yes, critics see movies for free, but just because they get to see the great films without paying doesn’t make up for the fact that they are also asked to sit through all the mindless drivel—and sadly, there’s too much of it—that gets released each year.

It’s a shame, because “Red State” actually looks like it might be pretty good.