one of the few that is apart from the system and love or hate what he's done, he's done it on his own terms, with his own money. He has built an empire (no pun intended) making movies his way and then
letting the studios bid against each other for the rights to distribute the movies, to which they only get a small percentage of monies that the films make - I guess you could argue that he "WAS" a part of the studio system up until Star Wars, but that's where it stopped, he has had a long history of fighting the studio system because it's old and broken and he was tired of it.
Now we see that Kevin Smith, who has also gotten tired of the Hollywood grind and how they want to do things their way, instead of the right way is going back to his roots and basically telling Hollywood to fuck off, if you follow Kevin's twitter or go to his site (http://www.viewaskew.com/) and read his thoughts on the subject you could see that he is just tired of dealing with the everyday bullshit of what is essentially his
passion, it's been eating away at him since, I would assume, Zak And Miri, a movie that failed - miserably, unfortunately. but, That's Hollywood for you and it was possibly a career ender for Kevin Smith. But, he has more fortitude to let something like that get him down, not everything can be a success, in order to learn in life, one has to fail and it seems that not only has Kevin learned from that, but he's going to move
forward and create a system that should have been in place already and he should be applauded for that, Kevin wants us to think that he's a fat, masturbating, stoner, except, he's anything but that.
He's a smart man who has surrounded himself with successful people that have shown him how to get the most out of his career so far and while he doesn't have "fuck you" money, he has that attitude and
focus to see this through. Plus you can't be successful like he has without surrounding yourself with people that have the same goals and passions as you do.
Kevin Smith made a move called Red State. It's something that he's been wanting to do for a long time (according to him), a horror movie instead of another comedy romp. With a shoestring budget and a lot of help from people that cut their pay, didn't get paid or just wanted to make a good movie, pushed through and ended up having the time of his life. Now, instead of dealing with the typical hollywood studio deal, he's going on a tour to show his movie Red State, like musicians do, to recoup the cost of the movie and then
he's going to take the money he makes above and beyond the cost and distribute it himself afterwards to theaters in October so that a wider audience can go see it. This roadshow/tour is going to be
pricey (50-100 bucks), but value is perception and I bet Smith has some cool ideas, because it's not just
about watching the movie, it's the experience - people go to concerts for 2 hours and pay assloads of money to see their favorite artists, this is the exact same thing, but after the 2 hours is over, there will be more for the audience than just a darkened theater with the lights coming up and everyone exiting to move on with their lives. Again, value for your dollar, plus it's like going to a concert, don't bitch about it, go experience it.
It's a shame that Smith was so put off by the failure of Zak and Miri (and Cop OUt) that he became jaded with making movies. He lost his way and really, this movie Red State was a chance for him to go back to what he likes, telling stories and just make something for the pure fun of doing it. Now, I'm really new to all this hollywood stuff, I've wanted to write movies and tv shows for years and all I've seen and read about the process is that it's to difficult to get in, there are so many doors to break through, it's a one in a million chance etc etc etc and What Kevin Smith is doing with this "experiment" - for lack of a better term, is saying that the system is old and broken and it's time for the new hotness, that there are people out there that want to tell stories and get their pictures made and now this is a chance for them to be able to do that. When this becomes successful, it will open up the entertainment world, which is what should have happened a long time ago. Better late than never...
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