Teaser Poster: Kevin Smith's 'Red State'

I haven't seen Kevin Smith's Red State yet — not a single frame or still photo even — and already I hope he makes more like it. Why? Because reading what he's got to say about the movie, the first thing that comes across is that he's got a tremendous passion for it. He's got passion for all his projects, sure, but this one seems different.

In a new blog entry, Smith describes how he edited the film while shooting so that he could show his cast and crew a solid cut of the movie only two days after the shoot wrapped. And, as a bonus, he's offered up a teaser poster for the film. More than anything else, what comes across in this entry is his enthusiasm about the movie, and his respect for the cast and crew that made it happen.

As an indicator of how the director feels about the film, take his description of the poster:

Moody, weird, and pitch-perfect for the tone of the film. If I went out to an ad agency here in town, I'd be billed close to 20 grand for a campaign that'd maybe... maybe... include this poster. But this piece of artwork (I call it "The Holy Ghost") didn't come from a top-tier ad agency: Jon Gordon is my RED STATE producer, and this poster was created by his assistant, Melissa Bloom. So we've got a marketing image that was put together by someone who was on set every day, integral to the process that produced the film which inspired this image... The marketer is actually family, RED from pre-production all the way through wrap, so she's got an insight into the flick that no ad agency could ever boast (not even one-time Glo-Coat golden boy Don Draper over at SCDP). I'll take passion over pedigree any day...So Melissa (with a Gretzky-like assist by Ming), the person on the RED STATE crew least likely to spearhead our marketing campaign, gets the collar for this arresting image – and I fucking dig that.

He also describes cutting the movie "every free moment over the 25 days of production" and says that what he showed last night was not just a rough cut, but a version that is " fine-cut, complete with credits and some pre-mixing... 98 mins with a end credit sequence that's not to be believed."

I understand why Kevin Smith would make a movie like Cop Out — hard to say no to a studio budget and actors like Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, and I'm sure there were many other factors — but it's this sort of filmmaking, and this sort of energy, that is what Kevin Smith is best known for. Glad to see him so gung-ho about this one.

Here's the poster, which you can click to enlarge.