It was not a secret that Kevin Smith was planning on selling Red State, his latest effort, at auction during the film’s premiere January 23 in front of a sold-out crowd. The secret was what actually happened at auction: Smith bought the movie himself for twenty dollars from producer John Gordon and announced his plans for the film. Instead of a typical release and publicity campaign, Smith is taking the film on a fifteen-city tour across the United States to begin making back the four million dollars he put into production beginning in early March. After a month on the road, Smith will take a hiatus and pending the results of the tour, he will take it back out until its October 19 theatrical release date. October 19 is significant because it is the seventeenth anniversary of the release of Clerks, his first film which also premiered at Sundance. More to follow…after this movie. Five of us are at Cedar Rapids right now.