Say what you like about Kevin Smith, but he doesn't give up. For the last three years he's been trying to get a movie called Red State off the ground. However the problem seemed to be that while he's known for comedy, this is a horror flick that he's previously described as "so bleak that it makes The Dark Knight look like Strawberry Shortcake".
As a result no one wanted to fund it, and while most filmmakers would have just given up and moved on to something else, Smith has stuck at it, to the point where earlier this year he was looking into ways that fans could fund the movie for a small donation. However now it seems fans won't have to pay, as he's revealed via his Twitter account that “I talk about lots of stuff I wanna do that either happens years later or never happens at all. Happy to report RED STATE is not the latter.” Following that with “First draft was dated 9/5/07. Looks like we start shooting this July. Took nearly three years, but we’re finally gonna roll on RED.”
If you follow Smith's Twitter feed, you'll have notived that he's spent a lot of time in recent days talking about the infamous hatemongering Phelps family and their Westboro Baptist Church. They really don't like Smith, and Kevin's not a big fan of them, with Red State having been inspired by the patriarch of the family, Fred Phelps. You can certainly see why the Westboro Baptist Church's anger and hatred, as well as their love of 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), would inspire a villainous character. Fred Phelps has also now decided Barack Obama is the antichrist, for reasons that can only be described as horribly racist (although of course he say it's biblical, even if Phelps only like the bits of the bible filled with hatred and mailce).
However don't expect it to be a traditional horror flick, as Smith has said others may not view it as horror at all, although to him it is (and the title suggests it may be rather political and against the Republican party).
This means that rather than hit hockey flick, Hit Somebody, coming next for Smith, it'll be Red State, although he's promised to film the Sean William Scott movie as soon as he's finished Red State.