Earlier this month, we learned that filmmaker Kevin Smith would be adapting yet another podcast episode into a film as he and some other members of the SModCast family would be creating a Christmas-themed horror anthology called ‘Comes The Krampus’. With the screenplay already written, directors chosen, and budget meetings under way, Smith was lining this film up as his next project after ‘Clerks III’, which was gearing up to begin shooting in April. However, it appears that plans have changed so that they beat everyone else to the punch.
During Smith’s recent Reddit AMA, he revealed that he had a change of heart about scheduling ‘Comes The Krampus’ after ‘Clerks II’. Apparently, after he realized how much fun he had making ‘Tusk’, Silent Bob chose to step away from his New Jersey Trilogy (which contains six movies at this point) and continue on with his unique original ideas spawned from podcasts. After assuring fans that his sequel featuring the Quick Stop boys will still happen, he explained his reasons behind the swap in his schedule:
“So now that TUSK is nearly done (we still have our Guy Lapointe scenes to shoot this month), the idea was to gear up for CLERKS III. But then I started thinking ‘Isn’t that stepping backwards? Like literally?’ While I love it with all of my heart, CLERKS is my past. It’s how I got started. And I’m just getting started again, after taking 3 years off, certain I was done making movies. TUSK represents something bold and new. No matter how bold I make it, CLERKS III will always have a number in the title. It will never be new. It will rock, I assure you, and it will be a worthy final installment in my mini-mart magnum opus. But it’s predicated on something I did a long time ago. I wanna keep moving forward. SModcast Pictures is becoming exactly that: we’re starting to make movies based on podcasts. TUSK was the first, and now COMES THE KRAMPUS will be next.
Now, at this point in time, nobody but me can make a CLERKS film. But ANYONE can make a Krampus picture. So before anyone else does, I figured it’s time to keep moving forward: we’re gonna shoot COMES THE KRAMPUS in April, before CLERKS III.
We’ve got a 20 day schedule and an under-3 million budget, and lots of folks returning from TUSK as well as other flicks I’ve done. Gonna be a SModCo CREEPSHOW, set at Christmas. And if we stay on schedule, by the time we start, it will have been only 4 months since the initial conversational whimsy about it on the EDUMACATION podcast, right before Christmas. That’s a real fuel to my fire now: taking weird ideas from podcast to film as quickly as possible, before anyone realizes they’re dumb ideas and they have time to fall apart.
CLERKS III is still coming. I love the script so much, I’ll make it happen, I promise. But the muse (and the Mewes) is pulling me away from something old for the moment and pulling me toward something new. And when the muse whispers, I listen. When the Mewes whispers, it’s just kinda creepy. And he spells shit wrong – even though he’s just whispering and not writing.”
I’d say that is a pretty sound decision on the part of Smith. It’s true that only he can make a ‘Clerks’ movie, so he definitely should pursue the Krampus idea before someone else comes along and does it. While it’s a bummer that we have to wait even longer to see Dante and Randal again, I understand completely why this is all happening.
What do you think about Kevin Smith swapping ‘Comes The Krampus’ and ‘Clerks III’ on his slate of upcoming features? Are you excited for the horror anthology from the SModCo crew or were you looking forward to seeing the familiar faces of Jay and Silent Bob on the big screen once again? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
