Kevin Smith is crossing the streams of cryptocurrency and filmmaking, as he looks to get funding together for his next project.
That Kevin Smith, eh? Not happy with treading the same path as every other filmmaker out there, Smith is once again testing uncharted waters when it comes to the funding, exhibition and distribution of indie cinema.
Famous of course for 1994’s Clerks, which he funded by maxing out a credit card or two, Smith has experimented with bold forms of exhibition and distribution before. most notable with 2011’s excellent Red State. That was a film he controversially sold to himself at a Sundance auction before touring nationally in an old-school roadshow fashion.
Now Smith has come up with an equally bold strategy to distribute his next film, the horror anthology Killroy Was Here.
Smith is selling the film, including all exhibition and distribution rights, as an NFT, a non-fungible token which grants the buyer unique access to the film. The winning buyer can then do with the film as they please, profiting from it in whatever way they might choose. It’s an audacious move by Smith, who in going down this route is giving up all semblance of control over the film, and yet it’s in keeping with some of his maverick moves over the years when it comes to putting his films into the world.
Smith is planning to shoot Clerks 3 this summer, although what he has in store for that exhibition and distribution of that film, who knows? Whatever happens, it will be interesting to observe and should the film make a profit for its buyer, then a whole new exhibition model that bypasses traditional studios could be created. It wouldn’t be the first time a Smith gambit has changed the indie scene, so we’ll simply watch and see what happens next…
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