In a wild chain of events the blogsphere is a litter with stories that Kevin Smith is begging his fans for money in order to get his proposed Red State film off the ground.
In a back and forth on Twitter, Smith says there is no money to make the movie as of yet, a fan suggests a paypal donation campaign, Smith brings up the wild idea of a fan funded film and suddenly bloggers are jumping to conclusions that he is already knee deep in his panhandling for films campaign.
On Kevin Smith’s own Blog he explains:
This fan-financed-film (aka, “begging”) hasn’t happened yet, nor might it ever happen. While it all sounds perfectly Amish, it’s fraught with crazy pitfalls and tax problems that have required hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in legal fees to investigate even the possibility of the fan-financed idea’s merit. I’m in a round table, I briefly talk about this idea we’re looking into, some guy writes it up a bit, and suddenly, all the Rush Limbaughs of the movie blogosphere start getting insanely Republican about the whole affair; y’know – the one that doesn’t involve them in the first place? *sigh*
If (and I mean IF with a huge fucking i & f) this fan-financed idea were to move forward? I’m not making a dime. If I were, as suggested, to turn to the fan-base to fund the movie, do you honestly think I’d even take a salary? I was just tickled and touched a bunch of people wanted to see it so badly, they were like “Here’s my twenty, if it’ll help.” All without having read a script. I wouldn’t want or take one dime from something as pure as that gesture. I’m not a money-guy; if I was I’d charge for SModcast (at 300k-plus dl’s per ep at .99cents apiece, even if only half started paying, that’d be a cool $150k per week – and I leave that on the table weekly). This isn’t about making money, you negative pricks: it’s about making movies. And what’s sickening about it? Motherfuckers screaming foul WRITE FOR MOVIE WEBSITES. You’d imagine they’d support the making of a movie.
I always applaud the refreshing honesty that Smith offers. Sometimes he says things you don’t want to hear, but he always lays it out fresh and bluntly, pulling no punches.
And just like his Silent Bob character, when he needs to spill, it comes out like a canon and blasts you with some honesty, which he delivers in spades.
He goes into a longer explaination about the logistical nightmare that a fan funded film would create, suggesting it might just be easier to beg a studio for the cash.
Will Red State get made? Time will tell. Will Smith ever attempt a fan funded film? Maybe. He isn’t totally against it, but there are more IF’s than answers right now.
But in no way has he been “begging for money” from his fans.
