Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American filmmaker, actor, public speaker, comic book writer, author, and podcaster. He came to prominence with the low-budget comedy film Clerks (1994), which he wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted in as the character Silent Bob of stoner duo Jay and Silent Bob. Jay and Silent Bob have appeared in Smith's follow-up films Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back which were set primarily in his home state of New Jersey. While not strictly sequential, the films frequently featured crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon described by fans as the "View Askewniverse", named after his production company View Askew Productions, which he co-founded with Scott Mosier.
Smith also directed and produced films such as the buddy cop action comedy Cop Out (2010), the horror film Red State (2011), and the horror comedy Tusk (2014), the first film in the True North trilogy.
Smith is the owner of Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, a comic book store in Red Bank, New Jersey that is the subject of the reality-television show Comic Book Men. He also hosts the movie-review television show Spoilers. As a podcaster, Smith co-hosts several shows on his own SModcast Podcast Network, including SModcast, Fatman on Batman, and the live show Hollywood Babble-On. Smith is well known for participating in long, humorous Q&A sessions that are often filmed for DVD release, beginning with An Evening with Kevin Smith.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Early life
Kevin Patrick Smith was born on August 2, 1970 in Red Bank, New Jersey, the son of Grace (née Schultz), a homemaker, and Donald E. Smith, a postal worker. He has an older sister, Virginia, and an older brother, Donald Smith, Jr. He was raised in a Catholic household, in the nearby clamming town of Highlands.
As a child, Smith's days were scheduled around Donald's late shifts at the post office. Donald grew to despise his job, which greatly influenced Smith, who remembers his father finding it difficult on some days to get up and go to work. Smith vowed never to work at something that he did not enjoy.
Smith later attended Henry Hudson Regional High School, where as a B and C student, he would videotape school basketball games and produce sketch comedy skits in the style of Saturday Night Live. An overweight teen, he developed into a comedic observer of life in order to successfully socialize with friends and girls. After high school, Smith attended the New School in New York, but did not graduate
Career
As a filmmaker
On his 21st birthday, Smith went to see Richard Linklater's comedy Slacker. Smith, impressed by the fact that Linklater set and shot the film in his hometown of Austin, Texas rather than on a sound stage in a major city, was inspired to become a filmmaker, and to set films where he lived. Smith relates: "It was the movie that got me off my ass; it was the movie that lit a fire under me, the movie that made me think, "Hey, I could be a filmmaker." And I had never seen a movie like that before ever in my life."
Smith attended the Vancouver Film School for four months, where he met longtime collaborators Scott Mosier and Dave Klein but left halfway through the course in order to save money to make his first film.
Smith moved home to New Jersey and got his old job back at a convenience store in Leonardo, and decided to set his film, Clerks, at the store, borrowing the life-in-a-day structure from the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing. To finance the film, Smith maxed out more than a dozen credit cards and sold his much-treasured comic book collection, raising the $27,575 needed to make the film. He cast friends and acquaintances in the film's major parts. Clerks was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 1994, where it won the Filmmaker's Trophy. At a restaurant following the screening, Miramax executive Harvey Weinstein invited Smith to join him at his table, where he offered to buy the movie. In May 1994, it went to the Cannes International Film Festival, where it won both the Prix de la Jeunesse and the International Critics' Week Prize. Released in October 1994 in two cities, the film went on to play in 50 markets, never playing on more than fifty screens at any given time. Despite the limited release, it was a critical and financial success, earning $3.1 million. Initially, the film received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, solely for the sexually graphic language. Miramax hired Alan Dershowitz to bring a lawsuit against the MPAA, and at an appeals screening, a jury consisting of members of the National Association of Theater Owners reversed the MPAA's decision, and the film was given an R rating instead. The film had a profound effect on the independent film community, and according to producer and author John Pierson, is considered one of the two most influential film debuts in the 1990s, along with The Brothers McMullen.
Smith's second film, Mallrats, which marked Jason Lee's debut as a leading man, did not fare as well as expected after the remarkable success of Clerks. It received a critical drubbing and earned merely $2.2 million at the box office, despite playing on more than 500 screens. Despite failing at the box office during its theatrical run, Mallrats proved more successful in the home video market.
Widely hailed as Smith's best film, 1997's Chasing Amy marked what Quentin Tarantino called "a quantum leap forward" for Smith. Starring Mallrats alumni Jason Lee, Joey Lauren Adams and Ben Affleck, the $250,000 film earned $12 million at the box office wound up on a number of critics' year-end best lists, and won two Independent Spirit Awards (for Screenplay and Supporting Actor for Lee). The film received some criticism from some members of the lesbian community, who felt that it reinforced the perception that all lesbians merely needed to find the right man. Smith, whose brother Donald Smith, Jr. is gay, found this accusation frustrating, as he has endeavored to be an LGBT-conscious filmmaker, believing that sexuality is more fluid, with social taboos, and not sexual desire, preventing more people from expressing bisexuality.
Smith's fourth film, Dogma, featured an all-star cast and found itself mired in controversy. The religious-themed 1999 comedy, which starred a post-Good Will Hunting Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, as well as Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, George Carlin, Alan Rickman, Linda Fiorentino, and Smith regulars Jason Lee and Jason Mewes, raised criticism by the Catholic League. The film debuted at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, out of competition. Released on 800 screens in November 1999, the $10 million film earned $30 million.
Smith then focused the spotlight on two characters who had appeared in supporting roles in his previous four films, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back featured an all-star cast, with many familiar faces returning from Smith's first four films. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon appear as themselves filming a mock sequel to Good Will Hunting. The $20 million film earned $30 million at the box office and received mixed reviews from the critics.
Jersey Girl with Ben Affleck, Liv Tyler, George Carlin and Raquel Castro, his first outside of the View Askewniverse, was meant to mark a new direction in Smith's career. However, the film took a critical beating as it was seen as, in Smith's own words, "Gigli 2", due to the fact that it co-starred Affleck and his then-girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez. Despite Smith heavily re-editing the film to reduce Lopez's role to just a few scenes, the film did poorly at the box office. Budgeted at $35 million, it earned only $36 million.
In the 2006 sequel, Clerks II, Smith revisited the Dante and Randal characters from his first film for what was his final visit to the View Askewniverse. Roundly criticized before its release, the film went on to win favorable reviews as well as two awards (the Audience Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Orbit Dirtiest Mouth Award at the MTV Movie Awards). It marked Smith's third trip to the Cannes International Film Festival, where Clerks II received an eight-minute standing ovation. The $5 million film, starring Jeff Anderson, Brian O'Halloran, Rosario Dawson, Jason Mewes, Jennifer Schwalbach and Smith himself - reprising his role as Silent Bob - earned $25 million.
Zack and Miri Make a Porno was originally announced in March 2006 as Smith's second non-Askewniverse film. The film, which began shooting on January 18, 2008 in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, and wrapped on March 15, 2008, stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as the title characters who decide to make a low-budget pornographic film to solve their money problems. The film, which was released on October 31, 2008, ran into many conflicts getting an "R" rating, with Rogen stating:
It's a really filthy movie. I hear they are having some problems getting an R rating from an NC-17 rating, which is never good... They [fight against] sex stuff. Isn't that weird? It's really crazy to me that Hostel is fine, with people gouging their eyes out and shit like that, but you can't show two people having sex - that's too much.
Smith took the film through the MPAA's appeals process and received the R rating, without having to make any further edits. Zack and Miri Make a Porno was considered a box office "flop" in part because of "tepid media advertising for a movie with the title PORNO", and, in the aftermath of the film's low performance, the business relationship between Smith and producer Harvey Weinstein became "frayed". Zack and Miri Make a Porno opened #2 behind High School Musical 3: Senior Year with $10,682,000 from 2,735 theaters with an average of $3,906. The "bankable" Rogen experienced his "worst box-office opening ever". In an interview with Katla McGlynn of the Huffington Post, Smith himself observed:
I was depressed, man. I wanted that movie to do so much better. I'm sitting there thinking 'That's it, that's it, I'm gone, I'm out. The movie didn't do well and I killed Seth Rogen's career! This dude was on a roll until he got in with the likes of me. I'm a career killer! Judd's [Apatow] going to be pissed, the whole Internet's going to be pissed because they all like Seth, and the only reason they like me anymore is because I was involved with Seth! And now I fuckin' ruined that. It was like high school. I was like, 'I'm a dead man. I'll be the laughing stock.'
It was announced in 2009 that Smith had signed on to direct a buddy-cop comedy starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan called A Couple of Dicks and written by the Cullen Brothers. Due to controversy surrounding the original title, it was changed to A Couple of Cops, before reverting its original title, A Couple of Dicks, due to negative reaction, before finally settling on the title Cop Out. The film, which was shot between June and August 2009, involved a pair of veteran cops tracking down a stolen vintage baseball card, and was released on February 26, 2010 to poor reviews; it was the first film that Smith has directed but not written. Cop Out opened at number 2 at the box office and was mired in controversy, mostly over reported conflicts he had on the set of the film with lead actor Bruce Willis; marking Smith's last time that he would work with a major studio, leading him to return to his independent film roots.
In September 2010, Smith started work on Red State, an independently-financed horror film loosely inspired by the Westboro Baptist Church and their Pastor Fred Phelps. Film producers and moguls Bob and Harvey Weinstein who had thus far been involved in the distribution of most of Smith's films, with the exception of Mallrats and Cop Out, declined to support Red State. The film stars Michael Parks, John Goodman and Melissa Leo. Smith had indicated that he would auction off rights to the $4 million film at a controversial event following the debut screening of the film at Sundance but instead, kept the rights to the film himself and self-distributed the picture "under the SModcast Pictures" banner. The premiere in January 2011 drew protests from a half-dozen members of the church, along with many more who counter-protested Westboro members. He further explained his decision as a way to return to an era when marketing a film did not cost four times as much as the film itself, a situation he has described as "both decadent and deadening". Red State was a box office disappointment, earning $1,104,682 against a budget of $4 million, and opened to poor reviews, with the consensus of critics reporting (according to the critic aggregator Rotten Tomatoes) that "Red State is an audacious and brash affair that ultimately fails to provide competent scares or thrills." In April 2011, Smith revealed that Red State had already made its budget back with the film making $1 million on the first leg of the tour, $1.5 million from a handful of foreign sales and $3 million from a domestic distribution deal for VOD.
After Red State, Smith has said in the past he would retire from directing and announced his last movie would be Clerks III. However, he stated in December 2013 that he would continue to make movies but only ones that were uniquely his, as opposed to generic ones that "anybody could make".
In 2013 Smith directed a horror film called Tusk, which was inspired by a story Smith and Scott Mosier read about a Gumtree ad for a man who rents out a room in his house for free, on the condition that the respondent dresses as a walrus for two hours per day. The project began pre-production in September 2013. Shooting began on November 4, 2013, and wrapped on November 22, 2013. The film was released on September 19, 2014. It has received mixed reviews.
Smith revealed before the release of Tusk that he had written a spin-off. The film, Yoga Hosers, began filming in August 2014 and was released in 2016. It stars Smith's daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, and Lily-Rose Depp, reprising their two minor characters from Tusk, alongside Johnny Depp again playing his inspector character from the earlier film.
Smith revealed at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con that he has written a film called Moose Jaws, which he describes as "Jaws, with a moose", and which will be the third and final film in his True North trilogy.
In February 2015 XYZ Films announced Smith as one of the directors who will direct the anthology film Holidays, along with Gary Shore, Sarah Smith, Matt Johnson, Scott Stewart, Nicholas McCarthy, Anthony Scott Burns, Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer.
On March 12, 2015 Smith revealed he would film Clerks III in May 2015, followed in early 2016 by Moose Jaws and Anti-Claus (a story inspired by the Krampus tradition), and also alluded to a Mallrats sequel, which he confirmed the next day.
On April 8, 2015, Smith confirmed that Mallrats 2 would be his next film, not Clerks III as he had previously intended. Smith said "we were talking about initially shooting 'Clerks III' this summer and then we were going to get to 'Mallrats' in the beginning of 2016. And then it jumped into 2015, where we were going to shoot 'Clerk's and then hopefully 'Mallrats' before the end of the year. But now, based on a f--ing mall that we all dig that will be going away, the priority has become 'Mallrats.' So the next f--ing movie I'm making is 'Mallrats 2.' A majority of the cast from the original film have signed on to appear in the sequel with sixteen of eighteen confirmed. In June 2016, Smith revealed that Mallrats 2 was going to be a 10-episode TV series instead, though no networks have shown interest yet.
On February 10, 2017, Smith announced the cancellation of Clerks III, as Jeff Anderson dropped out of the project three months before shooting. This, combined with trouble of getting the Mallrats 2 series off the ground, inspired Smith to write and direct a Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back sequel instead, titled Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. The movie is scheduled to be filmed in September 2017, to be followed by "Moose Jaws".
Writer
In 1996, Smith worked on a script for a Superman movie. He wrote a couple of drafts but his script was dropped when Tim Burton was hired to direct and brought his own people in to work on the project. Smith still sees the whole experience on working on the Superman project as a positive one, however; he has said that he was well paid and it was a lot of fun. In April 2009, Smith discussed his Superman experiences at Clark University--a YouTube video that critic A.O. Scott of The New York Times called "extraordinary".) In the end, neither Smith's nor Burton's vision for Superman was filmed. In the 2007 Direct-to-DVD animation release of Superman: Doomsday, Smith has a cameo as an onlooker in a crowd. After Superman defeats The Toyman's giant mechanical robot, Smith scoffs, "Yeah, like we really needed him to defeat that giant spider. Heh. Lame!" This was a reference to a giant spider that producer Jon Peters wanted Smith to put in the film when he was attached, that was later put into the 1999 feature film flop Wild Wild West, which Peters also produced.
In 1997, Smith was hired by New Line to rewrite Overnight Delivery, which was expected to be a blockbuster teen movie. Smith's then-girlfriend Joey Lauren Adams almost took the role of Ivy in the movie, instead of the female lead in Chasing Amy. Eventually she lost out to Reese Witherspoon, and Overnight Delivery was quietly released directly to video in April 1998. Kevin Smith's involvement with the film was revealed on-line, but he remains uncredited. He has said that the only scene which really used his dialogue was the opening scene, which includes a reference to long-time Smith friend Bryan Johnson.
In 2004, Smith wrote a screenplay for a new film version of The Green Hornet, and announced prematurely that he had originally intended to direct as well. The project, however died after the film was placed into turnaround following the poor box office of Jersey Girl. Smith's screenplay was later turned into a Green Hornet comic book miniseries.
Comics and magazines
Smith has been a regular contributor to Arena magazine. In 2005, Miramax Books released Smith's first book, Silent Bob Speaks, a collection of previously published essays (most from Arena) dissecting pop culture, the movie business, and Smith's personal life. His second book, My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith, published by Titan Books, was another collection of previously published essays (this time blogs from Smith's website www.silentbobspeaks.com) and reached No. 32 on The New York Times Best Sellers List. Titan released Smith's third book Shootin' the Sh*t with Kevin Smith: The Best of the SModcast on September 29, 2009.
A lifelong comic book fan, Smith's early forays into comic books dealt with previously established View Askew characters, and were published by Oni Press. He wrote a short Jay and Silent Bob story about Walt Flanagan's dog in Oni Double Feature No. 1, and followed it with a Bluntman and Chronic story in Oni Double Feature #12. He followed these with a series of Clerks comics. The first was simply Clerks: The Comic Book, which told of Randal's attempts to corner the market on Star Wars toys. The second was Clerks: Holiday Special, where Dante and Randal discover that Santa Claus lives in an apartment between the Quick Stop and RST Video. Third was Clerks: The Lost Scene, showing what happened inside Poston's Funeral Parlor. This story was later animated in the TV series style and included as an extra on the 10th Anniversary Clerks DVD.
Smith then wrote the mini-series Chasing Dogma, which tells the story of Jay and Silent Bob between the films Chasing Amy and Dogma. He has also written the trade paperback Bluntman and Chronic, published by Image, which purports to be a collection of the three issues of the series done by Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards (of Chasing Amy). It includes a color reprinting of the story from Oni Double Feature No. 12, purported to be an early appearance by Chasing Amy characters Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards. These stories have all been collected in Tales From the Clerks (Graphitti Designs, ISBN 0-936211-78-4), which also includes a new "Clerks" story tying into the Clerks 2 material, and the story from Oni Double Feature #1. They were previously collected by Image Comics in three separate volumes, one each for Clerks, Chasing Dogma and Bluntman and Chronic. In 1999, Smith won a Harvey Award, for Best New Talent in comic books.
In 1999, Smith wrote "Guardian Devil", an eight-issue story arc of Daredevil for Marvel Comics, which was illustrated by Joe Quesada. Kevin Smith followed this by producing a 15-issue tenure on Green Arrow for DC Comics that saw the return of Oliver Queen from the dead and the introduction of Mia Dearden, a teenage girl who would become Speedy after Smith's run had ended.
Smith returned to Marvel for two mini-series: Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do and Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target, both of which debuted in 2002. The former was six issues long, but after the third issue was published two months after the initially scheduled release date, the final issues were delayed for at least three years, prompting Marvel to release an "in case you missed it" reprinting of the first three issues as one book prior to the remaining issues' release. The delay in part was due to Smith's movie production schedule (in this case, work on Jersey Girl and Clerks II) causing him to shelve completion of the mini-series until the films were completed. He was announced as the writer of an ongoing Black Cat series and The Amazing Spider-Man in early to mid-2002. However, because of the delays on Evil That Men Do and The Target, the plan was switched so that Smith would start a third Spider-Man title, launched in 2004 by Mark Millar instead. While Spider-Man/Black Cat was ultimately completed in 2005, Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target remains unfinished, with one issue published.
Smith wrote the limited series Batman: Cacophony, with art by friend Walt Flanagan, which ran from November 2008 to January 2009. The series featured the villains Onomatopoeia (a character created by Smith during his run at Green Arrow), The Joker, Maxie Zeus, and Victor Zsasz. The trade paperback of Batman: Cacophony became a New York Times Bestseller in their Hardcover Graphic Books section.
In 2010 Smith subsequently wrote a six-issue Batman mini-series called The Widening Gyre for DC drawn by Walt Flanagan. The series was initially planned as 12 issues, with a long break planned between issues six and seven. After issue six was published, Smith and Flanagan's work on their reality show, Comic Book Men, extended this planned break further than expected. It was decided in the interim to release the remaining issues as a separate series to be called Batman: Bellicosity, due in 2016.
Also in 2010 Smith published a Green Hornet story for Dynamite Entertainment, which was based on an unused script he wrote for a Green Hornet film project that never came to fruition.
In August 2011, Dynamite Entertainment debuted The Bionic Man by Smith, which was based on a 1998 script he wrote that was rejected by Universal as being "more like a comic book than a movie."
In 2014 it was announced Smith and Ralph Garman are working on a Batman '66 crossover featuring Batman and Green Hornet titled Batman 66 Meets the Green Hornet.
Television
In 1998, Smith shot two TV commercials for Coca-Cola, which he filmed in New Jersey.
In 2000, Smith and Mosier teamed up with television writer David Mandel to develop an animated television show based on Clerks. called Clerks: The Animated Series that aired on ABC in May 2000. It aired only two episodes before being canceled as a result of poor ratings. The six produced episodes were released on DVD in 2001.
During the mid-1990s Smith directed and starred in a series of commercials for MTV, alongside Jason Mewes, in which they reprised their roles as Jay and Silent Bob. In 1998 he directed best friend Jason Mewes as "Gary Lamb - Ground Activist" in a series of Nike commercials. That same year, he also shot commercials for Diet Coke. Two years later, he directed "Star Wars" toy commercials for Hasbro. He has also directed and starred in commercials for Panasonic. In 2004 he also shot a public service announcement for the Declare Yourself organization. These advertisements brought Jay and Silent Bob out of their "semi-retirement."
On February 27, 2002 Kevin released a short film for The Tonight Show called The Flying Car.
Smith directed the pilot for The CW show Reaper. TV.com's summary of the show is "A twenty-something slacker finally scores a job as the devil's bounty hunter." He describes it as "less Brimstone or Dead Like Me and more like Shaun of the Dead than anything else". He went on to say that the reason he took the job was that he has always wanted to direct something he did not write, but never had an interest in doing it on the big screen.
At the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con, it was announced that Smith would write and direct an episode of the Heroes spin-off, Heroes: Origins, but the project was canceled because of the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike.
Smith appears in and produces the reality television series Comic Book Men, which is set inside Smith's comic book shop, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, in Red Bank, New Jersey. The first season ran for six one-hour episodes, the premiere of which aired on February 12, 2012, following the return of The Walking Dead's second season on AMC. On May 9, AMC announced that Comic Book Men was renewed for a second season of 16 half-hour episodes. The show is currently in its sixth season.
Smith had planned to direct a hockey drama-comedy based on the song "Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song)" by Warren Zevon. The song, which is about a hockey player famous for fighting in the rink, was co-written by Tuesdays With Morrie author Mitch Albom, who is working with Smith on the project. Smith announced at the Sundance premiere of Red State that Hit Somebody will be the last movie he ever directs, and that he will continue to tell stories in other media. In August 2011 Hit Somebody was announced as a two-part film titled Hit Somebody: Home and Hit Somebody: Away with part one being rated PG-13 and part 2 being rated R, but later decided to make it one movie again. In December 2012 Smith announced that Hit Somebody would now be a six-part miniseries on an as yet unknown network. The reason given for the project changing from film to TV was that finding funding or a studio for a hockey movie had proven difficult. Smith announced in March 2015 that Hit Somebody would film in September 2015 until Christmas 2015, but this did not happen.
A second series of Spoilers aired on The Comedy Network in Canada.
In January 2016, during the Television Critics Association press tour, it was announced that Smith will direct an episode of The Flash, which premiered in May. Also in January, it was revealed that Smith wrapped production on a half-hour comedy series, Hollyweed, which was written and directed by Smith who also stars in the series with Donnell Rawlings, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Frankie Shaw, Jason Mewes, Ralph Garman, Adam Brody, Hina Abdullah, Pete Pietrangeliand and Harley Quinn Smith.
In May 2016, Smith announced he is adapting The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension for television through MGM and stated that he and the company are in the process of shopping it around to a network. In July 2016, it was revealed that Amazon Studios was close to closing a deal to produce The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai TV series. However, in November 2016 during a Facebook Live Stream, Smith revealed that he would be walking away from the series after MGM filed a lawsuit against the original creators. Although Smith stated he would be willing to come back on board if they wanted him.
In June 2016, Smith revealed that because Universal owns the rights to the Mallrats title that a sequel will not be made, instead, it will be turned into a 10 episode TV series produced by Universal Television. Also in June, Smith confirmed that the entire cast from the film will reprise their roles in the series with the same premise of the film, but stretched out for the series. Towards the end of the month, Smith announced that he had closed a deal with Universal Television to pitch the series to networks and streaming services in August.
In July 2016, Smith revealed that he will be directing episode 7 of season 3 of The Flash.
In August 2016, Smith announced that he will direct an upcoming episode of Supergirl titled "Supergirl Lives". He then directed another episode of Supergirl, "Distant Sun."
In November 2016, it was revealed that Smith will direct an episode of The Goldbergs.
In February 2017, Smith was announced to write, direct, and executive produce a TV series based on the Image Comics title Sam and Twitch for BBC America.
Acting roles and other appearances
As an actor, Smith is known for his role as Silent Bob in Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, and Clerks II. He made a cameo appearance in the horror film Scream 3, and was featured along with Jason Mewes in several Degrassi: The Next Generation episodes, including a special, "Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi" (also as a fictional version of himself).
Smith also appeared in an mtvU show titled Sucks Less With Kevin Smith. The show gives college students ideas for things to do on the weekends. Smith also played the role of Paul, a cynical divorced man, in a Showtime television series pilot, "Manchild", filmed in December 2006. However, it was not picked up by the network.
From 1995 to 1997, Smith played small roles in the View Askew movies Drawing Flies, Vulgar, and Big Helium Dog.
In 2001, he appeared in friend Jeff Anderson's Now You Know. After an August 2001 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Smith returned to the show for monthly segments as a correspondent. The "Roadside Attractions" segments featured Smith traveling to random locations around the country and showcased places like Howe Caverns in upstate New York and the Fish Market in Seattle. While five of these segments were included on the Jersey Girl DVD, at least twelve were aired on the actual show. Smith regularly appeared on the program to introduce the pre-taped pieces.
In 2003, Smith appeared in a cameo role as coroner Jack Kirby in the film Daredevil. In 2006, he voiced the Moose in the CGI cartoon Doogal.
In early 2005, Smith appeared in three episodes of the Canadian-made teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation. Smith is an avid fan of the original Degrassi series Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High, and references to the original are present in some of his early films. In the episodes, Smith, portraying a fictionalized version of himself, visited the school to work on the (fictional) film Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh! Smith wrote his own dialogue for the episodes. All three episodes were collected on a DVD entitled Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi. Smith and Mewes reappeared in two episodes the following season, in which they returned to Degrassi for the Toronto premiere of the movie. Smith also appeared in the 2009 made-for-TV movie Degrassi Goes Hollywood.
In 2006, Smith guest reviewed on Ebert & Roeper, in place of Roger Ebert, who was recovering from thyroid cancer treatment. These spots have been notable for the arguments between Smith and Richard Roeper over certain films, with Smith often citing Roeper's negative review of Jersey Girl to discredit his review of the film at hand. On one appearance, Smith compared Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan to the works of William Faulkner.
Smith was featured as one of the interview subjects in This Film Is Not Yet Rated, a 2006 documentary about the Motion Picture Association of America's process of rating films. Smith discussed how Jersey Girl receiving an R rating, on the basis of a conversation two characters in that film have about masturbation, which MPAA head Joan Graves told Smith she wouldn't feel comfortable having her 16-year-old daughter watching. Smith's response was to question whether Graves' daughter hadn't already masturbated or learned about masturbation, arguing that his film was not teaching 16-year-olds anything they did not already know.
In 2006 Smith appeared in a number of films. He co-starred as Sam in the film Catch and Release, starring Jennifer Garner. Later that year, he appeared as a hacker called The Warlock in the fourth installment of the Die Hard franchise, Live Free or Die Hard. At year's end, he appeared briefly in friend and fellow writer-director Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, in which he played the legless conspiracy theorist General Simon Theory. That same year, Smith also did voicework for the CGI film TMNT as a diner chef. He was also seen as Rusty (a friend of lead Jason Mewes) in Bottoms Up with co-star Paris Hilton.
Smith has also cameoed in the second-season premiere of the sitcom Joey, where he played himself, on an episode of Law & Order (2000, episode "Black, White and Blue"), Duck Dodgers (2003 as Hal Jordan, voice only) and Yes, Dear (2004, as himself and as Silent Bob behind the end credits). Smith appeared in the second episode of season two of Veronica Mars, playing a store clerk. He stated on his Web site that Veronica Mars is some of the best television work ever produced.
Smith has appeared in five Q&A documentaries: An Evening with Kevin Smith, An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder and Sold Out: A Threevening with Kevin Smith. The fourth installment, Kevin Smith: Too Fat for 40 was broadcast on Epix on October 23, 2010. The fifth Q&A, Kevin Smith: Burn in Hell also broadcast on Epix beginning February 11, 2012. The first is a collection of filmed appearances at American colleges, while the sequel was shot at two Q&A shows held in Toronto and London. The third and fourth were filmed in Red Bank, New Jersey at the Count Basie Theater on Smith's 37th and 40th birthdays, respectively. The fifth was filmed in Austin, Texas at the Paramount Theater. The first two DVD sets were released by Sony Home Video, while the third was put out by the Weinstein Company. Smith appears with Marvel Comics guru Stan Lee in Marvel Then & Now: An Evening With Stan Lee and Joe Quesada, hosted by Kevin Smith. The film is similar in tone to the Evening with Kevin Smith series. Proceeds from the sale of the film benefit The Hero Initiative, a charitable organization that aids ill or aging comic book creators.
Smith played himself in the video game Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. He also appears as a playable character.
In February 2016, it was revealed that Smith will team with AMC and The Weinstein Company to co-host a late night talk show with Greg Grunberg titled Geeking Out which premiered in July 2016, covering San Diego Comic-Con with 8 subsequent episodes running weekly. Geeking Out will air on July 24, 2016.
Smith also appears as himself in Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Zombies, as a cameo in the map, Rave in the Redwoods.
In 2017, he appeared as himself in the animated movie Teen Titans: The Judas Contract from the DC Universe Animated Original Movies series.
Public appearances
Smith's longest Q&A session took place April 2, 2005, at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. The sold-out event was over seven hours long, took place from 8 pm through 3 am (which due to daylight saving time, was actually 4 am). Following the Q&A, he opened Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash for a meet-and-greet with the numerous remaining audience members, which ended around 6:30 am. Smith then hopped on a plane and did another Q&A at the Raue Center for the Arts in Crystal Lake, Illinois, that night. Planned for two hours, it lasted just over five hours, ending a little after 1 am Central time.
In 2009 Smith made a sold out appearance at Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House in 2010.
On the Internet
Smith has a website, The View Askewniverse, which opened in late 1995. He also has an online blog, "My Boring-Ass Life", the contents of which were published in a book by the same name. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back's fictional website MoviePoopShoot.com became real in 2002. It became Quick Stop Entertainment and was the home of SModcast until it was sold and SModcast moved to a dedicated website SModcast.com, which also carries the other SModcast network podcasts in early 2010.
On February 5, 2007, Smith and Scott Mosier began SModcast, a regular comedy podcast. SModcast has since spawned into a podcast network called the SModcast podcast network which began in 2010, its own digital radio station called SModcast Internet Radio (S.I.R) in 2011 and an internet television channel SModCo Internet Television (S.I.T.) in 2012.
On June 4, 2012, Smith premiered his Hulu-exclusive weekly series Spoilers, described as an "anti-movie review" series, where Smith takes a group of people to a new movie and has them comment on what they've seen. Other segments on the show include interviews with celebrities, and the "Criterion Lounge", where Smith discusses a Criterion Collection movie available on DVD and the Hulu Plus service.
On December 14, 2015, Kevin Smith began posting his "Fatman on Batman" series on YouTube.
In late 2015, Smith and Jason Mewes began the web series "What's in the Box?" on the Screen Junkies website, through the site's streaming service.
Secret Stash
Smith owns and operates Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank, New Jersey, a comic book store largely dedicated to merchandise related to his films and comics. He purchased the original store in January 1997 for US$30,000, using the money he earned from Clerks. The current location is its second. The store was moved to a defunct ice cream parlor on Broad St. after Smith sold the Monmouth St. property. The New Jersey location is managed by Smith's long-time friend Walt Flanagan, who appears frequently in Smith's films. A second Secret Stash in the Westwood section of Los Angeles was opened in September 2004 and was managed by long-time associate Bryan Johnson, who has appeared in Smith's films as Steve-Dave. Smith had announced that he would close after his lease expired and Johnson wanted to resign, but eventually relocated to Laser Blazer, a DVD store in Los Angeles. In January 2009 the West Coast Store closed, leaving the east coast store as Smith's only operating store.
Personal life
After the success of his first films, Smith lived in Los Angeles, though he disliked no longer being near his New Jersey friends. He dated actress Joey Lauren Adams, and declared his desire to marry her in Time magazine, but they began to grow apart after he spoke of staying in Los Angeles permanently and starting a life with her. When Smith's grandmother became ill, he returned to Red Bank and remained there, realizing that that was where he belonged. Smith and Adams' relationship was tested by their working together on Chasing Amy, the set of which saw a heated argument between the two. The two broke up in June 1997.
Smith is married to Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, whom he met while she was interviewing him for USA Today. They got married at Skywalker Ranch on April 25, 1999. He photographed her for a nude pictorial in Playboy that consisted of photographs by various celebrities. Their daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, was born June 26, 1999, and was named after the character from the Batman comics. They live in the Hollywood Hills, in a house Smith purchased from longtime friend Ben Affleck in 2003.
Initially raised Catholic, Smith began to develop doubts about his beliefs in his early 20s, and came to see Catholic Mass as "dry and lip-servicey." Seeking out advice, Smith spoke to a priest, who analogized faith to liquid filling a shot glass, and explained that the glass grows in size as a person grows older, and thus the same knowledge that satisfies a person as a child can be insufficient as an adult. Smith read extensively on Christianity, explored other religions, read the Biblical apocrypha, and tried joining a Pentecostal congregation. The thoughts and ideas he explored during this time formed the inspiration for his film Dogma, the beginning of which features characters using the shot glass metaphor used by the priest. Though Smith still regularly attended Mass as late as 1998, he stated on "Back to the Well", a feature on the Clerks II documentary, that now he only goes to Mass on the day before he starts production of a film, and the day before it premieres. Nevertheless, Smith told the BBC in September 2014 that he firmly professes a belief in God. He said, "Proof of God is that I have a career."
He never smoked until his debut film, Clerks, in which he used the cigarettes as a prop, but did not inhale. He has said that prior to filming Clerks, he was a staunch non-smoker. He quit smoking cigarettes in 2008 after taking up smoking cannabis after working with Seth Rogen on Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
Smith has had a history of yo-yo dieting, being an avid supporter of "Optifast". He lost 50 pounds upon meeting his wife. In 2008 he weighed in excess of 400lb, though after eliminating sugar from his diet and taking up juice fasts, he lowered himself to 210lb.
Smith is an avid hockey fan and loyal New Jersey Devils fan. He is also a fan of the Edmonton Oilers.
Filmography
- Clerks (1994)
- Mallrats (1995)
- Chasing Amy (1997)
- Dogma (1999)
- Scream 3 (2000)
- Law & Order (TV Series) (2000)
- Vulgar (2000)
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
- Now You Know (2002)
- Daredevil (2003)
- Jersey Girl (2004)
- Veronica Mars (TV Series)|Episode: "Driver Ed" (2005)
- Southland Tales (2006)
- Clerks II (2006)
- Catch and Release (2006)
- Manchild (TV Movie) (2007)
- Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
- Reaper (TV Series)|Episode: "Pilot" (2007)
- Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)
- Fanboys (2009)
- Degrassi Goes Hollywood (TV Movie) (2009)
- 4.3.2.1. (2010)
- Cop Out (2010)
- Red State (2011)
- For a Good Time, Call... (2012)
- Babble-On Begins (TV Series)|Episode: "Hollywood Helpers" (2012)
- Tusk (2014)
- Holidays (2016) ("Halloween" segment)
- Yoga Hosers (2016)
- Interns of F.I.E.L.D. (TV Series) |Episode: "Double Cross" (2016)
- Ask the StoryBots (TV Series) |Episode: "How Do Airplanes Fly"? (2016)
- Another WolfCop (2016)
- Shooting Clerks (2016)
Refused films
The following is a list of unproduced Kevin Smith projects, in roughly chronological order. During a career that has spanned over 20 years, Kevin Smith has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction.
1990s
Fletch Won
A follow-up to Fletch Lives, a sequel to Fletch, had been discussed in the 90s at Universal Studios. During his association with Universal after the production of Mallrats (this was because Gramercy Pictures, which released Mallrats, was co-owned by Universal), Smith expressed interest in doing a third "Fletch" film as a sequel starring Chevy Chase but it never came to fruition. In June 2000, it was announced that Smith was set to write and direct a Fletch film at Miramax Films, after the rights to the books, which Universal Studios had owned, reverted. At the time, Miramax co-head Harvey Weinstein expressed the hope that a new Fletch series would be "Miramax Films' first-ever series."
After a disagreement between Chase and Smith in regard to differing levels of priority for the sequel project, Smith settled on adapting Fletch Won, which follows Fletch in his early years as newspaper junior reporter. Smith intended to follow the novel's plot and characters much more closely than earlier Fletch films had. Filming the prequel/origin story would have allowed Smith to make the movie without Chase while still leaving the door open for him to appear in a cameo role in framing scenes and/or as narrator. Around this time, Smith mentioned Jason Lee and Ben Affleck as possible choices to play Fletch.
Smith was replaced by Bill Lawerance in 2007 and the film has been in development hell ever since.
Superman Lives
The Six Million Dollar Man
Universal Pictures developed a screenplay in 1995 with Smith based on the '70s television series of the same name. But, by 1998 the outing never materialized and has been passed on to other studios. His script was reinverted into a limited comic book series titled The Bionic Man, and the film is still in development hell over at The Weinstein Company.
4:30
Long before Clerks, Smith worked on an anthology movie consisting of three thirty minutes shorts.
Name
A follow-up to Chasing Amy, Smith wrote a new film set in the View Askewniverse starring the trio from Chasing, but it wasn't a sequel. Smith said "it was kind of porn-bent." Affleck and Adams were interested on doing the flick, but it fell under through.
Hiatus
Smith revealed at Wondercon in 2010 about a lost porn-centered television series that eventually became his 2008 film, Zack & Miri Make a Porno.
Busing
Following Clerks, Smith wrote a film called Busing for Hollywood Pictures, a now-defunct Disney studio. It was described as "Clerks in a restaurant." They decided not to produce the picture, but the film was featured at the end of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back as a poster parodying the Clerks poster.
Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian
Smith was offered by Warner Bros. to write a sequel to Beetlejuice, but turned it down in favor of Superman Lives. On his Q&A DVD, An Evening With Kevin Smith, he responded to the whole process saying, "Didn't we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?"
2000s
The Green Hornet
In February 2004, Miramax president Harvey Weinstein asked Smith to write and direct a Green Hornet film, based on their previous four-film collaborations. "I dig the fact that he kicked off a run of billionaire playboys who decided to put on a mask and fight crime and that he was Batman before there was a Batman," Smith said. "I always said I'd never do a superhero film, based on my limited experience writing on Superman Lives and having to answer to the studio, Jon Peters, the comics company and eventually a director. Then there's a fandom that gets up in arms if you even try to stray from their character. Here, there is simplicity in the character and the situation." Jon Gordon and Hannah Minghella were now on as producers, with Harold Berkowitz and George Trendle, son of the character's co-creator, as executive producers.
Smith approached Jake Gyllenhaal for the lead role in March 2004. In mid-November of that year, he said he had written about 100 pages, and estimated another 100 to come. In February 2006, Smith's official website noted, "Kevin officially no longer has anything to do with the Fletch Won or Green Hornet projects." Smith went on to write the Dynamite Entertainment comic book Green Hornet, which has run 11 issues as of late 2010.
Scary Movie 3
Smith was assigned to write the 2003 movie, Scary Movie 3. His script was eventually not used.
Scooby-Doo
Smith was interested in working on the 2002 Scooby-Doo remake.
2010s
Clerks III
Plans for a third Clerks film circulated during a press screening of Clerks II. It would've explored the characters in their 40s or 50s. Other plans included the film to be a Broadway play. From March 8 to May 13, 2013, he completed the first draft of the script. Shooting was planned to begin in May 2015, but was put on hold for Mallrats 2. By February 2017, both Mallrats 2 and Clerks III were cancelled. This was canceled due to one of the four leads opt out.
Mallrats 2/MallBrats
There have been plans to make a sequel to Mallrats. It was first conceived as a limited comic book series, then as a sequel film, but then became a 10 episode TV series titled MallBrats. The show was canceled because Smith was not able to sell the show to any networks that were interested on it.
Recognition
Bibliography
Books
- Silent Bob Speaks (2005)
- My Boring Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith (2007)
- Shootin' the Sh*t with Kevin Smith (2009)
- Tough Sh*t: Life Advice from a Fat, Lazy Slob Who Did Good (2012)
- Jay and Silent Bob's Blueprints For Destroying Everything (2014)
Comics
- Clerks (with Jim Mahfood, Oni Press, 1998)
- Chasing Dogma (with Duncan Fegredo, Oni Press, 1998-1999)
- Daredevil: Guardian Devil (with Joe Quesada, Marvel Comics, 1998-1999)
- Bluntman & Chronic (with Michael Avon Oeming and Neil Vokes, Image Comics, 2001)
- Green Arrow: Quiver (with Phil Hester, DC Comics, 2001-2002)
- Green Arrow: Sounds of Violence (with Phil Hester, DC Comics, 2002)
- Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do (with Terry Dodson, Marvel Comics, 2002, 2005-2006)
- Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target (with Glenn Fabry, Marvel Comics, 2003)
- Batman: Cacophony (with Walt Flanagan, DC Comics, 2008-2009)
- Batman: The Widening Gyre (with Walt Flanagan, DC Comics, 2009-2010)
- Green Hornet (with Jonathan Lau, Dynamite Entertainment, 2010)
- The Bionic Man (with Jonathan Lau, Phil Hester, Dynamite Entertainment, 2011-2012)
- Batman '66 Meets the Green Hornet (with Ty Templeton, DC Comics/Dynamite Entertainment, 2014)
- Batman: Bellicosity (with Walt Flanagan, DC Comics, TBA) *Still in planning*
- Preacher: Until the end of the World (by Garth Ennis, Vertigo Comics, 1995)
- Hitman: 10,000 Bullets (by Garth Ennis, DC Comics, 1996)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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