UPDATED:
In an update to this story that appeared to go under my radar, it appears that Kevin Smith announced on his Facebook page the next day that he is actually adapting Smodcast episode #52: The (C)Rapture into a stage musical instead of a film. As the verbose filmmaker started on his first draft, he realized that “there was no way to write [‘Helena Handbag’] inexpensively as a feature film”. So, as an alternative, he was inspired by ‘Book of Mormon’ and his love of musicals in general to write his first musical. Many moons ago, there was talks of ‘Clerks: The Musical’, but I think that only resulted in a musical number in the sequel to his 1994 black and white cult classic. Here’s Smith’s reasoning behind the change of medium in his own words:
“Everything was requiring too many effects that I could never achieve using in-camera tricks like forced perspective. It was starting to feel like a pricier project than I know I’d ever be able to find money to make. And then I remembered this is a SModcast Picture. What do we do on SModcast sometimes? We sing. We make up stupid songs. And my favorite piece of art ever produced by human hands is the glorious ‘Book Of Mormon’. So… I started reshaping the ‘Helena Handbag’ script as a piece of SMusical theater, with ‘Book Of Mormon’ as my spirit animal.”
What do you think of Kevin Smith’s controversial next script ‘Helena Handbag’ manifesting itself in the form of a stage musical? Do you think that it will match up to the critically acclaimed and equally offensive ‘Book Of Mormon’? Do you have any general thoughts on what a musical from the creative mind behind ‘Mallrats’ and ‘Dogma’ would be like? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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If you thought that ‘Comic Book Men’ executive producer Kevin Smith was slowing down, then you thought wrong. While he might have indicated that his film career was coming to an end in the past, he’s recently lined up a number of projects to work on like his new horror film ‘Tusk’ and his return to the New Jersey Trilogy with ‘Clerks III’. Now, he’s added a yet another new project to his ever-growing slate.
In a rather lengthy yet passionate Facebook post earlier this week, the director announced that he would be basing another movie on another episode of his Smodcast podcast. Titled ‘Helena Handbag’, Smith’s take on the end of the world “concerns mankind teaming up with Hell to save existence from extinction at the hands of a Rapturing giant Jesus”. He posted the following screencap along with the post:
He then went into his reasoning behind the creation of ‘Helena Handbag’ saying that he’s out to make movies that only he could make from here on out:
“From now until I drop dead, I’m only ever gonna make a flick that only I would/could ever make. ‘Jersey Girl’, ‘Zack and 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 shit. But after conceiving and shooting ‘Tusk’ in less than 6 months […], 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 has tackled religion before with ‘Dogma’ and, despite having many fans of the film, met some pretty harsh critics because of it, but it sounds like this new movie goes even farther than before. In fact, he knows that it might even be hard for a studio to go for it. Then again, he thought the same thing about his most recent project about a psychopath who forces another man to dress up as a walrus. Either way, the filmmaker’s plan is to work on this script while remaining things come together for ‘Tusk’ and then move on into preproduction on ‘Clerks III’ in May 2014, so ‘Helena Handbag’ is still a way off.
Personally, I’d say that it sounds like a really strange film, but I’d probably see it. I was pleasantly surprised with ‘Red State’, so to see Smith branch out like this even further could be a welcome change of pace for the usually comedic director. But what are your thoughts on ‘Helena Handbag’? Does Kevin Smith’s next script interest or offend you? Do you think that if ‘Tusk’ could find funding, then this could too? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
