Hollywood prefers safe commercial projects. When things start to get
edgy and real, Hollywood tends to close the checkbook. Smith of “Clerks”
and “Dogma” fame knows this, so he's taking things into his own hands
with his new project. After the first public screening of “Red State,”
an intense thriller based upon controversial Pastor Fred Phelps and the
Westboro Baptist Church, Smith held a mock auction in which he purchased
his own film's distribution legal rights for a token $20. At that price
he didn’t even have to take out a cash advance. Resource for this
article - Kevin Smith pays $20 for rights to his own Red State movie by MoneyBlogNewz.

On the highway is ‘Red State’

Kevin Smith has decided to take his very own movie and travel across
the United States through 2011, starting March 5, taking its film to
“any smart exhibitor” willing to let the movie be shown instead of
letting “Red State” get in the hands of the advertising machine which
would attract the Westboro Baptist Church with protests. The Associated
Press reports that before the Oct 19 theatrical release, Smith plans on
making up some of the $4 million budget the film had. He hopes to
replace the normal pre-release film market with this on the highway
exhibition.

"What we need to prove is that anyone can release a movie,"
Smith told the debut audience at the Eccles Theater in Logan, Utah.
“Indie film isn't dead, it just grew up. We sell our movies ourselves.”

Conquering the Hollywood machine

Kevin Smith describes himself as simply a “fat ... stoner” who wants to
tell stories. Hollywood has been one of those things the “Red State”
director has never liked. That is why he has been trying to keep the
film out of the hands of the machine. As Smith told the Eccles audience,
excessive commercialism may drive dollars, but it also pounds
creativity into bloodless waste.

Several protests on ‘Red State’ taking place

There is an extreme anti-gay movement that Phelps and the Westboro
Baptist Church have been showing. Nevertheless, the way that “Red State”
portrayed Pastor Abin Cooper and his fundamentalist church offended
this church and Fred Phelps. Smith has admitted that Phelps was indeed
his “muse” when he wrote Cooper's character, although the actions of
Cooper's church - carrying out the murders of homosexual people, instead
of simply protesting with offensive signs - is more extreme than what
the Westboro Baptist Church has done.

Information from

Green Field Reporter

greenfieldreporter.com/view/story/05f6e79698074e70b6c44e9a810a5019/US--Film-Sundance-Kevin_Smith/

Hollywood Reporter

hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/risky-business/sundance-red-states-kevin-smith-74829

'Red State' teaser trailer

youtube.com/watch?v=6I0caLF2Q2c