Smith Talks Red State

Michael Bay. Everytime Bay posts on his blog it's as if he's having a total meltdown. Heaven knows how many times he's posted something ill-advised on his site only to recant days, or even hours later. Apparently Bay's management team have their own word for a Bay blog: code red. Anyways, back to Smith - the (printer) ink has just dried on Smith's Red State (which deals with religious extremists) script and he's been posting on his View Askew board about the project. Slash Film have done the hard work and reorganised the questions and answers to resemble a more traditional interview. Below are some choice snippets. On movies that Red State could be compared to:-

€œRequiem for a Dream is a pretty bleak (but insanely well-made) flick. This is more bleak than that.

On referencing international or microcosmic politics:-

"It€™s micro, definitely. But it€™s also a metaphor for macro."

On potential protagonists:-

"Well, that€™s kind of the problem: there are no €œgood guys.€ It€™s a story full of moral (and, more to the point, immoral) relativism."

On placing the film's genre:-

"Lord help me, it is. I have a hard time classifying it as a €œhorror flick€ because, while it shares some of the genre conventions, it€™s just not what most would consider a horror flick. Horrific, yes, but not a horror flick in terms of the general definition. Let€™s put it this way: if Rosemary€™s Baby can be classified as a horror flick, then Red State can be as well."

On his evolving directorial style:-

"Post-Reaper, I€™m okay with shooting the less-dialogue-oriented stuff. Actually kind of looking forward to telling a story visually. Again - not to say there€™s no dialogue; there is. Just way less than I€™m used to dealing with/shooting."

Looking forward to this. I really want to see Smith move out of the View Askew universe and this sounds like an interesting addition to the horror genre. The slasher/torture sub-genre is kind of old already, and I've always felt the best horror is the type that messes with your head and not the one that go for cheap, blood splattering thrills. source - /film, view askew