Jay And Silent Bob Are Striking Back Again In An Animated Feature
All of that Kevin Smith retirement talk may have been a bit premature, as, in addition to HIT SOMEBODY, which Smith now plans on making into one 2½ flick, there’s been a secret Jay and Silent Bob project in the works for awhile that could reveal itself by the end of the year.
In an interview with Crave Online at the Television Critics Association while promoting his new AMC series COMIC BOOK MEN, Smith let slip that there is an animated feature film based around View Askew’s iconic stoners that would then be toured around the country in a very similar yet improved fashion to the model adopted for RED STATE. “So I know there’s this tour that we want to do at the end of this year with another movie, not with HIT SOMEBODY, with something else. Fuck it. We’ve got this Jay and Silent Bob cartoon. It’s almost done. We’ve been quietly working on it… We just never told anybody but it’s a cartoon movie that ends with live action, so we finally get back in the outfits.”
When asked if it was a sequel per se to JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, Smith responded, “It’s a little more fanciful because it’s a cartoon so we get away [with it]. It’s a lot of superhero stuff and whatnot but it’s pretty fuckin’ funny.” Smith isn’t particularly responsible for it coming into being; that falls to Jason Mewes, who took on the project as something he wanted to do after lining up an investor with money to burn. Smith had the script sitting around and gave it to Mewes for free to get made, and one thing led to another, and now here it is.
I’ve been sour on Kevin Smith since he turned on his own fans following COP OUT. He seemed to have recognized himself as being far more important than he is as a filmmaker, and turning on your base, because they didn’t like one shitty movie seemed like a drastic turn of events. I really do love his earlier films, as the dialogue pops right from the script. However, I recommend checking out the interview, as I do have a newfound respect for him after reading his admissions that laziness has ultimately guided some of his film choices. He owns up to his weaknesses, and it’s quite possible that if HIT SOMEBODY turns out to be something that surpasses his previous work, then he may have second life as a director, if he so chooses.
