Sound The Rapture: Kevin Smith Is Planning To Make Red State 2
Kevin Smith is out promoting "Clerks III" ahead of its DVD and Blu-ray release on December 6, 2022, and at a screening of the film last night in Austin, Texas, he dropped some news of another sequel that he has in the works. /Film's Ryan Scott was in attendance at the Q&A where Smith announced that plans for "Red State 2" are in motion.
The original "Red State," starring John Goodman, Melissa Leo, and the late Michael Parks, came out back in 2011. The film was distributed on home video by Lionsgate, which is also handling the distribution for "Clerks III," and it seems that partnering up with them again opened up the door to a potential "Red State" sequel. Smith told the audience:
"The good folks at Lionsgate who financed this f****** motion picture ['Clerks III'], they put out 'Red State' on DVD like years ago. And the deal lapsed, and the people that own 'Red State,' the two financiers, weren't from the world of film. One was from the world of fashion, one was a Canadian financier not even in the world of film. So, when Lionsgate reached out about renewing, they got no response back from the copyright holders. I could tell them as much as I wanted till I was blue in the face. Like, 'No, renew it!' But I didn't own it. They did. So it just fell into a spam folder and f****** fell out of circulation.
"Because we did this movie ['Clerks III'], we were talking to go home video. [Lionsgate's] like, 'Hey man, how come you guys wouldn't re-up "Red State" with us?' And I was like, 'They still didn't get back to you?' [Lionsgate] goes no, we been trying for f****** years. So we put it all back together and s***."
'We're gonna make one'
"Red State" marked an intriguing departure for Smith as a filmmaker. Up to that point in his career, every movie he had made was a comedy of some sort, whereas "Red State" saw him venturing into the territory of religious horror, as three guys hoping to hook up with a trailer park lady they've met online soon find themselves drugged, caged, and left in the hands of a demented preacher in an ultra-conservative, right-wing church. Though it's been over a decade since the film's release, and the distribution rights to it on home media have been tangled up in miscommunication, Lionsgate apparently expressed interest in moving forward with a "Red State" sequel, just as it had with "Clerks III." Smith explained:
"They were like, if we do this, would you do it again? And I was like, yeah, in a heartbeat. [...] I mean, obviously, Michael Parks is gone. But it's just a story of crazy people with guns and s*** like that. As long as I could use John Goodman again. I could make a hundred f****** Red States. And I'm like, let's do it. So we're gonna make one."
There's been plenty of talk of "red states" recently with the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, and if anything, it feels like the unholy nexus between religion and American politics has only grown riper for exploration in the intervening decade since Smith's first "Red State" film. While 11 years and counting is a long time to wait for a sequel, horror is always popular and Smith has been able to maintain a dedicated fanbase over time. For anyone eager to see him stretch beyond the comedy sandbox again, news of a "Red State" sequel surely qualifies as an interesting development.