Director Kevin Smith gets loud again about Jay and Silent Bob
In golf, a mulligan is a second chance to play the previous stroke. In movies, a mulligan happens when a director essentially makes the same film a second time.
Howard Hawks did it with “Rio Bravo” and “El Dorado.” Michael Mann did it with “L.A. Takedown” and “Heat.”
Not to be outdone is Kevin Smith, who took his 2001 comedy “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and, using the same template, made “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.”
“What if I remade my own movie? That was the original joke,” Smith says in a phone interview. “Let’s make this movie again because we live in a culture that reboots and remakes movies all the time.
“One of the things I love about Gus Van Sant is that after ‘Good Will Hunting,’ he had carte blanche to do whatever he wanted, and he made a cut-forcut remake of ‘Psycho.’ Everyone was so mad, but he was like, ‘Nobody watches this movie because it’s in black and white.’ ”
Smith is promoting an upcoming appearance Oct. 30 in Houston at the Landmark River Oaks Theatre where Smith and Jason Mewes, who plays Jay, will present “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.”
However, audiences can see it earlier as the film screens in various theaters as a Fathom Event on Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday-night attendees will receive a commemorative poster, and Thursday audiences will be treated to a double feature of “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.”
The roadshow tour of the film, which runs through February of next year, promises entertainment that combines live stage performances from Smith and Mewes with the film as an added bonus.
“It feels like all the hardcore sports fandom that existed when I was a child has shifted into pop culture, shifted into Marvel movies, shifted into binge-watching TV,” Smith says. “The world now resembles the world I’ve always wanted to live in. The world now looks more like ‘Mallrats’ than when I made ‘Mallrats.’
“Jason and I have been doing a podcast for years where we talk for two hours about the films we’ve made. So now we go town to town and talk about our new movie,” Smith continues. “We intro the flick, then show the flick and watch the movie, then do a Q&A and hang out. We delve deeper into the movie and have a good time.”
The plot of the film revolves around Jay and Silent Bob inadvertently signing away the rights to their Bluntman and Chronic characters and racing from New Jersey to California to prevent a
movie about them being made.
“Houston has a little DNA in the movie. There’s a van in the movie that features prominently as the characters cross the country on their way to L.A. That comes straight out of ‘(The) Bad News Bears in Breaking Training,’ ” Smith explains. “The Bears take a van across the country to Houston. One of my favorite moments in movie history is at the Astrodome. They’re about to call the game, and the whole crowd erupts, chanting, ‘Let them play.’ And the Bears get to go back and win. They lost in the last movie, but they get to win in Houston.”
“Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” brings back almost all of the actors who’ve appeared in the View Askew universe, which is code for Kevin Smith movies including “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy.” Starring with them are
Val Kilmer, Melissa Benoist and Chris Hemsworth, who share screen time with View Askew veterans Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Rosario Dawson, Shannon Elizabeth and Jason Lee.
Smith was one of the golden directors ensconced at Miramax in the 1990s, a short list that includes Quentin Tarantino. Smith’s daughter Harley Quinn Smith, who plays a sizable role in “Reboot,” can also be seen in Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.”
Miramax was among the most influential distributors of the 1990s, but since 2017 its founder, Harvey Weinstein, has been embroiled in charges of sexual abuse and was the spark for the #MeToo movement.
“He was the guy who picked up ‘Clerks’ and who changed my life,” Smith says. “Never once did I see the kind of activity that was reported, so when the story broke I was blown away.
“I only saw him when I pitched the movie and then when I premiered the movie,” he continues. “That money now feels tainted.”
He says current residuals from his Miramax films are donated to the organization Women in Film.