Having just completed the first cut of his new independently produced horror film ‘Red State,’ Kevin Smith is hoping to screen the movie at the next Sundance Film Festival. The news comes after the director screened the movie for the cast and crew at their wrap party.

While the practice of screening a film at a wrap party is extremely unheard of, Smith didn’t need a long post-production period to finish putting it together. He edited the movie as he filmed it. He tweeted the news of the screening, writing “Tonight’s historic: at our RED STATE wrap party, the cast/crew will watch the flick from end-to-end, edited: 92 minutes, 98 w/ credits.”

Smith said at a press event that his next step with ‘Red State’ is to submit it to next year’s festival, which will occur in January. He plans to submit it without a distributor, and see where it goes from there. Since Smith has raised funding for the movie through independent means, it will at least get a DVD/Blu-Ray release, as well as a self-distribution screening tour.

The movie follows a group of kids who meet a crazed preacher, who is based on Fred Phelps, the founder of the Westboro Baptist Church. Michael Parks plays the preacher, and Michael Angarano, John Goodman, Melissa Leo, Kevin Pollak and Stephen Root also star.

Written by: Karen Benardello

Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith

By Karen Benardello

As a graduate of LIU Post with a B.F.A in Journalism, Print and Electronic, Karen Benardello serves as ShockYa's Senior Movies & Television Editor. Her duties include interviewing filmmakers and musicians, and scribing movie, television and music reviews and news articles. As a New York City-area based journalist, she's a member of the guilds, New York Film Critics Online and the Women Film Critics Circle.

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