‘Cop Out’ Red Band, Kevin Smith Asks for Cash

Published by Jeff Leins on February 8, 2010

Warner Bros has released a red band (R-rated) trailer for Cop Out, the buddy cop movie directed by Kevin Smith.  It’s clearly time to lower your expectations for this.  If a two and a half minute clip of Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan using Smith’s typical brand of foul-mouthed humor can’t be consistently funny, there’s no hope for an hour and a half of this.

Take a look at the video below (if you’re over 17) and read more about his plans for another film project below:

Meanwhile, the cult director may be setting up a website to solicit donations for Red State, a horror script he wrote about nutty religious types.  In the past he has claimed there may be funding in place for the film, but either that wasn’t enough to get the ball rolling or it fell through. A fan suggestion has prompted Smith and his legal team to look into the possibility of a fan-funded film.  Here’s what he said about the idea:

We’re kind of creating this website. We’re seeing if it works to set up and collect donations. It becomes a weird tax nightmare, though…It sounded like such an easy thing online…but now there’s lots of checks and balances to make sure we can do it, but if that’s the case, I would be into it, and I’ll match it. Whatever you raise on line, like fuck it, you put it up, I’ll put it up.

Fans online are seemingly divided over the concept.  Some are angered that their die-hard support would be exploited (especially after Jersey Girl), and others said they’re happy to help get the horror film off the ground and become part of the process.  I’m not sure how I feel about it, but asking for donations would put Smith in the same realm as Uwe Boll, who held out his virtual hand last year for a project.  If any director can pull it off, it’s Kevin Smith.

Update: Kevin Smith responded to “knee-jerk retards with poor reading comprehension” on the Web this morning. I think I explained the situation above without becoming a “Rush Limbaugh of the movie blogosphere.” However, I love how this is suddenly a “non-story,” yet Smith is attempting to accomplish something that has never been done before, while responding to the various published “non-stories” that have many fans discussing the possibility in forums and on Twitter.

Either way, Smith’s next movie is a hockey movie titled Hit Somebody and based on the Warren Zevon song. Update: Smith will begin writing the script at the end of February.