The Weinsteins are starting to get picky over what they pick-up after the trouble they had with GRINDHOUSE. It’s going to take more than your name alone to get a movie financed by them these days, you gotta impress them with something that they think is marketable.
And really can we blame them? GRINDHOUSE lost the company tens of millions of dollars. That’s big money and anything that’s not a conventional Hollywood movie, will immediately now get the red flag with them.
Kevin Smith’s first forray into the horror genre has hit that red flag with The Weinsteins, as they have passed on his screenplay for RED STATE. The movie which we have spoke about several times in the past, is Smith’s shortest written script to date, with less dialogue than what you would associate with him and an ‘bleak’ plot.
From Smith’s myspace page via Cinema Blend…
Harvey and Bob are passing on “Red State.”
It’s the first time Harvey and Bob have passed on anything I’ve wanted to do, but if they were gonna pass on anything, this’d be the one to do it on. The only explanation Michael gives me is “Harvey thought it was more of a Bob flick and then Bob didn’t get it. They’d rather just concentrate on ‘Zack and Miri’ at the moment, which we’re all pumped about.”
Naturally, this makes me wanna make “Red State” even more than I did just prior to that phone call. I get excited thinking about having to raise financing for our hot potato of a flick. This represents a turning point of sorts for Scott and I, inasmuch as everything (with the exception of “Mallrats”) has been made with the Weinsteins. It might be nice to see if we can get something done without them. Whether it’ll be nice or not, however, it’s what’s in the cards, as they don’t feel the flick is very commercial. And, in truth, on the surface, it may not be – unless we get the buzz I think we’ll get off the festival circuit. Regardless, it’s not something we’ll have to think about ’til after we’re done with “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.”
So Smith returns to his Independent routes and will have to get financing on his own, unless he can convince a major studio to take a gamble on his movie.It’s a small setback yes, but like Smith says… it’s makes him even more desperate to make this thing.
He has said in the past how it’s completey different to anything he has filmed before, and that we wouldn’t know it was his work unless he told us he wrote it. That’s got to be a good thing for us because although I thought CLERKS II was great, it’s surely time for him to move on now… and the idea of him shooting a horror movie is extremely interesting.
This should still get made, it just won’t be as smooth as Smith would have liked.
Kevin Smith
