Kevin Smith fans should be pleased to learn today that his plans to retire after making Clerks III have changed. Although he still plans to close out (at least for now) his “Askewniverse” with another big screen adventure starring his iconic slacker duo of Dante Hicks and Randall Graves, Smith is heading into 2014 with a new creative mantra and at least one all-new project, titled Helena Handbag.
“[F]rom now until I drop dead, I’m only ever gonna make a flick that only I would/could ever make,” Smith posted today to his Facebook page. “‘Jersey Girl,’ ‘Zack & Miri,’ ‘Cop Out’ – while I love them all, these are movies anybody could make. Like ’em or hate ’em, nobody else but me could’ve (or would’ve) ever made ‘Clerks’. Or ‘Chasing Amy’. Or ‘Dogma’. Or ‘Red State’. Or ‘Clerks II’. Or ‘Mallrats’. Or ‘Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back’. I let my view askew get standardized for awhile there – so much so that I was happy to walk away from it all for three years and do other s–t. But after conceiving and shooting ‘Tusk’ in less than 6 months (with the help of a s–t ton of amazing professionals and a budget smaller than that of ‘Red State’), I realized that film isn’t in my blood… MY films are in my blood. And some of ’em are still in there, so I better get ’em out!”
Smith goes on to say that production on his latest, Tusk, will finish next month and that plans now call for Clerks III to lens in May. After that, he’s making plans for a new script, Helena Handbag, which has a similar origin as the walrus-themed horror project.
“The idea is to, once again, take an episode of SModcast and turn it into a movie,” he says. “…[T]his time the plot of the movie concerns mankind teaming up with Hell to save existence from extinction at the hands of a Rapturing giant Jesus – which means the budget has to be LOW, because NOBODY’S gonna wanna make that movie. At all. And I know this going in, so I won’t be heartbroken if it never goes beyond the script. But… if the script is funny enough? Who knows?”
You can check out Smith’s full post by clicking here.
