It may have taken him four years to get the funding together, but Kevin Smith is now busy gearing up on Red State, his horror movie inspired by the gay-hating, funeral-picketing Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist church.
Last week it was announced the film had found its first cast member in the form of character actor Michael Parks, and now The Wrap reports that five more people are circling the project – Dermot Mulroney, Melissa Leo, Kyle Gallner, Michael Angarano, and Stephen Root.
Quite who all these people will play isn’t known, as Smith has been uncharacteristically tight-lipped about the actual plot of the movie, other than his infmous comment that it’s “so bleak that it makes The Dark Knight look like Strawberry Shortcake”. However, Fred Phelps and his clan are well known for picketing the funerals of gay people and service personnel (to let everyone know how much God hates them and that the dead person is going to Hell) and almost seem like their own little family cult, so it’s easy to see how Phelps might inspire a villainous character.
Smith has also said, via his Twitter account, that the movie starts filming on September 22nd.