Kevin Smith to self-distribute Red State via tour, dates announced

We recently told you about Kevin Smith’s unique plan to auction off the rights to his first genre effort, RED STATE, immediately following its anticipated premiere at Sundance. Well the screening was last night, but there is no distributor. Instead, Smith announced that he would distribute the flick himself, which he reportedly followed with a lengthy explanation behind the decision.

Made for a budget of only $4 million, Smith said that he can’t see spending some $20 million on an advertising campaign. Instead, Smith, along with star Michael Parks, will take the film out on a road show dubbed the “RED STATE USA TOUR” and screen it in a different city each night. Here are the dates:

March 5th – Radio City Music Hall
March 6th – Wilbur Theater in Boston
March 8th – Harris Theater in Chicago
March 9th – State Theater in Minneapolis
March 10th – Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor
March 11th – Indianapolis, IN
March 12th – Midland Theater, Kansas City
March 14th – Springfield, OH
March 22nd – Paramount Theater, Denver
March 26th – McCalister theater, New Orleans
March 28th – Paramount Theater, Austin
March 29th – Cobb Energy Center, Atlanta
April 4th – McCaw Hall in Seattle

Tickets for the showings will run at “probably 6, 7, maybe 10 times” the price of a movie ticket, but the director promises some cool things with the screenings. If the tour does well, Smith will re-open it to reach more cities. Otherwise, he will release the film theatrically via his Smodcast Pictures on October 19, 2011 – the 17th anniversary of Smith’s debut, CLERKS.

Smith also announced that his next picture, the hockey drama/comedy HIT SOMEBODY, will be his last as a director. From there, he will focus on producing and distribution while promoting upcoming independent filmmakers on his Smodcast.

Sounds like the RED STATE experience hit Smith hard. This could be just the change he needs or the beginning of the end. Unfortunately, early word is that the film isn’t very good. We’ll see how this one plays out.