Comments on: Sundance Report: Kevin Smith Announces Retirement and Self-Distribution Plans at Red State Premiere

By: Josh

Josh — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 06:59:08 +0000

UPDATE: Silent Bob Speaks Out In “The Red Statements”

http://theredstatements.com/

By: Werner

Werner — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:01:10 +0000

and let’s not forget: this all wouldn’t be happening if Zak and Miri would have done better at the box office……

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 22:02:48 +0000

Worth remembering he’ll pick up a chunk of change from foreign sales. He’s had 3 features gross over $10m each.

I cant see him losing on this in any way, awful lot of hype over what I suspect is little to no real risk.

By: Axis

Axis — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:16:43 +0000

I enjoy Kevin Smith. I also respect his very honest, outspoken opinion of the studios and the issues he has had. That being said, I would hope he has more savvy means of distribution then a concert tour. All in all I probably will never see this film in it’s current state with this mode of distribution and at the end of the day that makes it a failure to me, one of his fans. I am not advocating buckling to studio pressure or going back on his stance of independent distribution but I do hope their are alternative methods to get this film out to the masses. Time will tell I guess.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:10:07 +0000

I’ll believe Kevin Smith is truly distributing this film on his when it’s distributed by his Smodcast guys alone. They want to release the films on 1000 screens? That’s a lot of money & red tape, a lot more than just the cost of the film prints (which arguably half of those could be digital projections so why spend the extra $2500 on a print?) and I just can’t imagine Smith & Smodcast have the know how to do it. Especially in late October, one of the most packed months of the year and only two days before Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion which is a BIG Film with Tons of stars.
Pretty much I will not be surprised if sometime this summer Smith makes a self-depricating joke to win his fans favor (he can joke about how much Cop Out sucked all he wants- irony- but he directed the damn willingly. Same thing with Jersey Girl, that didn’t hit big and he now jokes about it being a bad film too) & announce that Harvey Weinstein is coming in to give them a little help with wide scale distribution.
This is AFTER his diehard fans have paid the $70-100 on their Red State tickets.

By: swarez

swarez — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 09:38:13 +0000

@Rus.
No, remember cinema isn’t an american thing and the studios originated there, anywhere else in the world, filmmakers had been traveling with their products since the beginning of the medium.

By: Henrik

Henrik — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:33:47 +0000

The Harvey Boys is meant as a tribute, not an insult.

By: rus in chicago

rus in chicago — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 19:35:52 +0000

were do you get that swarez? I too saw The Harvey Boys logo but I took it as a “slap in the face” type thing.

Also, “Plus this idea of going on the road to distribute it is as old as cinema itself.” is false as cinemas were once owned by the studios and it took an antitrust ruling to break this.

By: rjdelight

rjdelight — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:13:21 +0000

How are the Weinstein’s helping him?

By: Henrik

Henrik — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:06:46 +0000

I agree with swarez.

Also, I think this is cool shit and I wanna get behind it, because it’s something different and bla bla, but the extreme hyperbole from Kevin Smith, whilst entertaining in and of itself, kinda exposes all the pettyness of everything that he does. He’s funny, but when he’s not trying to be funny he’s pretty intolerable.

By: swarez

swarez — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 11:51:36 +0000

The thing is that he isn’t doing it all by himself, the Weinsteins are helping out so his claim that it’s all grass root and all that jazz is an over statement. Plus this idea of going on the road to distribute it is as old as cinema itself.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:29:27 +0000

I’ve always been hit or miss with Kevin Smith, and seem to be the only one who loved Mallrats and didn’t like Chasing Amy.

Kevin Smith is also responsible for Jersey Girl, so there’s that.