By now you know just about everything there is to know about last week’s RED STATE screening at Sundance and Kevin Smith’s plan for the movie’s release, so you don’t need me to recite it. (For a refresher, click HERE; for our own Chris Bumbray’s review.) I’m actually quite conflicted on the matter, as I dig Smith’s plan to tour the country with the flick and admire his attempt to create something of an “event”… yet I find the man to be wholly smug and insufferable – not to mention the fact that there’s no way I’m willing to shell out $60 or whatever the hell he’s charging to see his damn movie. (With the added bonus of watching him get on stage and talk about himself afterward, of course).
But I digress. The news today is that Smith, having sat through RED STATE with an audience (our man Jake Dee was part of it, expect a review from his soon), has decided to trim his film by five to ten minutes. This new version is the one that Smith will take on the road, and presumably the version that the rest of the country will see when the film gets a nation-wide release in October. (He’s given it a perfunctory OCTOBER 19th release date, yet he has no distributor at the moment.) No word yet on what’s going to be cut, but after hearing that there’s a sequence in which Michael Parks speechifies for approximately twenty minutes, I’d be willing to bet some of that will get chopped.
The new cut will premiere on MARCH 5th at Radio City Music Hall in NYC.
The comment section exists to allow readers to discuss the article constructively and respectfully, focused on the topic at hand.
What’s Not Allowed