Kevin Smith ready to start Red State, casts four more actors to his horror movie

We’ve
been talking about it for a few years now, but it appears as though
writer/director Kevin Smith is finally ready to get the cameras rolling on
his next feature –a political-horror movie entitled RED STATE — on
September 22nd, according to the Net-friendly director’s Twitter
page. The film stars Michael Parks of GRINDHOUSE fame and is apparently
loosely based on Reverend Fred Phelps of the hateful Westboro Baptist
Church. Four new names were added to the cast list today including Dermot
Mulroney, Kyle Ganner, Michael Angarano and Steven Root (Milton from
OFFICE SPACE!), while Oscar-nominated actress Melissa Leo is also
negotiating to possibly sign on. Smith has always said that he wanted to
cast "recognizable unknowns" to his film, which may be another
way of saying "character actors", and it looks like he’s on his
way to doing so with these latest additions. I’m extremely curious about
this film, especially since it marks an obvious change in Smith’s
trajectory as a writer/director. The director recently turned 40 years old
and seems to want to try new things now…