Smith addresses fans at last year's Comic-Con convention. Through his View Askew Productions Web site, a Twitter feed followed by 1.7 million fans, appearances on talk shows and lectures to sold-out audiences, Smith has offered his personal take on life and moviemaking, discussing everything from private Hollywood pitch meetings to the sometimes intimate details of his marriage.
Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesKevin Smith’s Red State was snubbed when Film Independent’s Spirit Awards nominations were announced Tuesday morning, and the director isn’t happy about it.
The movie stars Melissa Leo, John Goodman and Michael Parks, the latter of whom plays a pastor who, in the words of THR chief film critic Todd McCarthy, “so rabidly professes his belief that the homosexual is Satan’s agent on Earth that even the neo-Nazis disown him.”
“How the f— did the @SpiritAwards NOT nominate Michael Parks?” he tweeted to his nearly 2 million followers. “Nor John Goodman? Nor Melissa Leo? F— your idiotic organization. #FakeIndie”
Meanwhile, the silent movie The Artist and the apocalyptic drama Take Shelter dominated the Spirit Award nominations. The two films will complete for the best feature award with the father-son drama Beginners, the noir thriller Drive and the Hawaii-set family drama The Descendants.
Red State debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. There, after suggesting for weeks that he would hold an auction for rights to his film, he announced that he would take the movie on the road himself throughout 2011. He paid himself a token $20 for the privilege.
Smith’s SModcast Pictures released the film March 5 when it embarked on the 15-city Red State USA Tour. According to the company, it spent less than $500 in paid advertising to support the tour, which kicked off at Radio City Music Hall and grossed $162,000 during one show. The film quietly topped the per-screen average charts for three weekends, making it the highest per-screen average film of the year and the ninth-highest per-screen average film of all time, according to SModcast.
