Kevin Smith announces Jay and Silent Bob reboot plans

Looks like it’s time for some more snootchie bootchies, whatever that actually means. Kevin Smith, indie writer-director turned professional pop culture commentator, has announced plans to revive his signature characters Jay and Silent Bob in a new reboot, at present literally entitled ‘Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.’

Played by Smith and his longtime cohort Jason Mewes, drug-dealing duo Jay and Silent Bob were the one constant thread connecting Smith’s first five films: 1994’s ‘Clerks,’ 1995’s ‘Mallrats,’ 1997’s ‘Chasing Amy,’ 1999’s ‘Dogma,’ and 2001’s ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.’ Whilst this last film was meant to close the book on Smith’s ‘Askewniverse’ (named for his production company of the time, View Askew), the characters later returned again in Smith’s 2006 film ‘Clerks II,’ plus little-seen 2013 animation ‘Jay and Silent Bob’s Super Groovy Cartoon Movie’ from director Steve Stark.

Whilst Smith has mainly focused on podcasting in recent years, in between making oddball indie movies ‘Tusk’ and ‘Yoga Hosers’ and directing episodes of TV’s ‘The Flash’ and ‘Supergirl,’ the writer-director has also been making efforts to return to his earlier days with plans for both a third ‘Clerks’ and a ‘Mallrats’ TV series. However, as Smith announced to his Facebook followers on Thursday, neither project looks likely to happen now.

Smith explains, “Sadly, Clerks III can’t happen (one of our four leads opted out of the flick). So I worked on a #Mallrats movie instead… which also didn’t happen because it turned into a #Mallrats series. I’ve pitched said sequel series to 6 different networks only to find no takers thus far.”

Rights issues also complicate the matter: “Since I sold #Clerks and #Mallrats years ago, they’re owned by others, which limits my moves with my own material… So I don’t own Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy or #Dogma… But I DO own #jayandsilentbob.

“And so all last month, I had the time of my life laughing while writing “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot” – a fun flick in which the Jersey boys have to go back to Hollywood to stop a brand new reboot of the old “Bluntman & Chronic Movie” they hated so much. It’s a tongue-in-cheek, silly-ass satire that pokes fun at the movie business’s recent re-do obsession, featuring an all-star cast of cameos and familiar faces! And I already met with the good folks at Miramax and they’re into it, so I’m hoping we’ll be shooting in the summer!”

Miramax themselves have not yet made any public statements on the matter; watch this space to see how the ‘Jay and Silent Bob Reboot’ progresses.

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