We’ve been enjoying the run of Twitter feed information that Kevin Smith has been providing about his latest, religious exploit-o-horror Red State. But it was only a matter of time before the prolific content producer had to promote something else and get asked about the movie in a more formal setting. So it came to pass this weekend, with journalists attending a preview of his new Q&A event release, Too Fat for 40, and Smith spilling more info about how shooting has been going and his plans for the movie. “Visually speaking, it’s the most ambitious movie we’ve ever made,” Smith said in comments picked up by Collider. “Everybody’s pulling their belts, taking a massive pay cut. Some of us might not even get paid… and it breaks my heart that after all this we’ll just sell it to a studio that’ll spend twice as much on marketing as we spent to make it.” Smith has previously talked about the fact that he wants to take the film to next January’s Sundance Fest to see if they can scare up a buyer. A lot of the credit for the look, according to the director, goes to long-time collaborator and cinematographer Dave Klein, who has been pushing the Smith style boundaries again. I said that about Cop Out – that it doesn’t look like anything we’ve ever done before. This movie really doesn’t look like anything we’ve done before.” But what of the tone? After years of largely making comedies, Red State represents another leap for him. An altogether darker one… “There’s some gallows humour, some dark f*****g laughs. And Michael Park’s performance is not to be believed… to me, it plays like an exploitation film. When I was growing up, my favourite kind of movies were devil-worshipping movies. This is an angel worship movie. You’ll see what I mean.” And while he drops a quick mention of hockey drama Hit Somebody, the film he wants to make after Red State, there was an intriguing nod to the past, with Smith speculating that the new owners of Miramax might want to exploit as many of the company’s older properties, which could see a return for the Clerks cartoon show. But don’t go holding any breath for that one… | 
