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For other people named Kevin Smith, see Kevin Smith (disambiguation).
Kevin Patrick Smith
Kevin Smith
Born (1970-08-02) August 2, 1970 (age 54)
New Jersey Red Bank, New Jersey USA
Occupation(s)Screenwriter
Film director
Film producer
Actor
Comic book writer
SpouseJennifer Schwalbach Smith
ChildrenHarley Quinn Smith
Websitehttp://www.viewaskew.com/

Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American screenwriter, film director and the founder of View Askew Productions. He has also enjoyed some success as a comic book writer and actor. Smith's films are often set in his home state of New Jersey, and while not strictly sequential, do feature crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon, the View Askewniverse.

Personal life

Smith was born in Red Bank, New Jersey to Grace, a homemaker, and Donald Smith, a postal worker.[1][2] He has an older sister, Virginia, and an older brother, Donald Jr. Smith. He was raised in the Catholic religion[3] and attended Henry Hudson Regional High School in Highlands, The New School for Social Research in New York and the Vancouver Film School. He majored in film, but dropped out halfway through his studies, electing to take a partial tuition reimbursement in order to help finance his first film. Smith is married to Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, with whom he has a daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, born in 1999. He named his daughter after the character from Batman: The Animated Series.[4] Smith regularly attends Catholic mass. He never smoked until his debut film, Clerks where he used the cigarettes as a prop, but never actually inhaled. In fact, he has said that prior to filming Clerks he was a staunch non-smoker. Afterwards, he became a two-pack-a-day smoker.

Work as director

Smith's films often feature the same actors (which are also some of his closest friends), including Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams (for whom he wrote the lead role in Chasing Amy), Jason Mewes, and Matt Damon. Other well-known performers featured in more than one Smith film include Chris Rock, Shannen Doherty, George Carlin, Ethan Suplee, Joe Quesada, Jason Biggs, Casey Affleck and Alanis Morissette. Some lesser known regulars in Smith's films include Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Scott Mosier, Ernest O'Donnell, John Willyung, Carmen Lee, Jeff Anderson, Brian O'Halloran, Dwight Ewell, Kimberly Loughran and Vincent Pereira. Also, he casts himself in nearly all of his movies.

Forthcoming

In March of 2006, he first announced he was working on a new, non-Askewniverse comedy.[5][6] In June of 2007, the name of the comedy was released in an LA Times article as Zack and Miri Make a Porno.[7] Smith announced at the Wizard World Chicago 2006 convention that his next project would be a horror movie as he stated that he wanted to move in a different direction.[8] In April 2007, Smith revealed the title of the horror movie to be Red State and inspired by preacher Fred Phelps or as Smith claimed "very much about that subject matter, that point of view and that position taken to the absolute extreme. It's certainly not Phelps himself but it's very much inspired by a Phelps figure." He plans to shoot Red State back-to-back with Zack and Miri Make a Porno.[9] It has been recently posted on Kevin Smith's website that he has finished the script for Zack and Miri Make a Porno and will soon start on the script for Red State.

Another planned project for Smith is Ranger Danger and the Danger Rangers. He has described the project as "My stab at a comic-book/sci-fi movie. It's in the vein of Flash Gordon, something I've noodled with a couple of years. Now I feel we are mature enough filmmakers to tackle it".[10] In an April 2007 post on his blog, he mentioned that he's "planning something special" for his tenth movie.[11] It has been widely speculated that this "special" movie could indeed be Ranger Danger and the Danger Rangers.

Another project that has long been in the works is Clerks: Sell Out, the feature-length animated film done in the Clerks: The Animated Series style.[12] The fate of this project is currently unknown.

Acting roles

As an actor, Smith is known for his role as Silent Bob in Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, and Clerks II. He made a notable cameo appearance in the horror film Scream 3, and was featured along with Jason Mewes in several Degrassi episodes, including a special, Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi (also as a fictional version of himself).

Smith also appeared in a cameo role as Jack Kirby in the film Daredevil, and starred in friend and fellow writer-director Richard Kelly's Southland Tales, to be released in 2007, in which he plays the legless conspiracy theorist General Simon Theory. He has also done small roles on television, such as Law & Order, Veronica Mars, Joey, "Degrassi: The Next Generation", and Yes, Dear. He co-starred in the film Catch and Release, co-starring Jennifer Garner and has done voicework for the CGI films Doogal and TMNT. He also has a small part in the fourth installment of the Die Hard franchise, Live Free or Die Hard. He played roles in the View Askew movies Drawing Flies, Vulgar, and Now You Know.

Comic writer

A life-long comic book fan, Smith's early forays into comic books dealt with previously established View Askew characters, and were published by Oni Press. He wrote a short Jay and Silent Bob story about Walt Flanagan's dog in Oni Double Feature #1, and followed it with a Bluntman and Chronic story in Oni Double Feature #12.

He followed these with a series of Clerks comics. The first was simply Clerks: The Comic Book, which told of Randal's attempts to corner the market on Star Wars toys. The second was Clerks: Holiday Special, where Dante and Randal discover that Santa Claus lives in an apartment between the Quick Stop and RST Video. Third was Clerks: The Lost Scene, showing what happened inside Poston's Funeral Parlor. (This issue was later animated and included as an extra on the 10th Anniversary Clerks DVD.) These stories have been collected in the forthcoming trade Tales From the Clerks, which also includes a new story.

Smith has written a comic mini-series Chasing Dogma, which tells the story of Jay and Silent Bob between the films Chasing Amy and Dogma. He has also written the trade paperback Bluntman and Chronic, published by Image, which purports to be a collection of the three issues of the series done by Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards (of Chasing Amy). It includes a color reprinting of the story from Oni Double Feature #12, purported to be an early appearance by McNeil and Edwards.

Smith makes occasional mention of his desire to do a comic miniseries about Bartleby and Loki (from Dogma), as well as a comic-only sequel to Mallrats called Mallrats 2: Die Hard in a Mall. In 1999, he won a Harvey Award, for Best New Talent in comic books.

Marvel and DC Comics

Smith began a lengthy association with Marvel Comics in 1999 with Smith taking over as the writer of the Marvel Comic Daredevil. His run, which lasted eight issues, was plagued by delays (which artist Joe Quesada publicly took responsibility for, though it was a sign of things to come). His tenure on Daredevil was controversial among Daredevil fans. Some fans accused Smith of misogyny in his handling of Karen Page's death, and others objected to the killing of long-time Spider-Man foe Mysterio in a non-Spider-Man series. John Byrne (then-current writer on one of the Spider-Man titles) would later bring the character back within a few months, with a different identity.

Kevin Smith followed this by jumping to DC Comics, producing a 15-issue run on Green Arrow that saw the return of Ollie Queen from the dead and the introduction of Mia Dearden, a teenage girl who would become Speedy after Smith's run had ended. After his initial "rebirth" storyline Quiver, there was also a short arc featuring a new villain.

Smith returned to Marvel for two mini-series: Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do and Daredevil/Bullseye: The Target. The former is six issues long; the first three issues were published, followed by a delay of three years before the final three. It deals with Black Cat, about having been raped and trying to help another rape survivor come to terms with it. The latter is supposed to be four issues although only one issue was published, in November 2002. As of May 2007, there has been no word on if or when the series will be completed.

He was announced as the writer of an ongoing Black Cat series[13] and Amazing Spider-Man'[14][15][16][17] in early to mid-2002. However, due to the fatal delays on Evil That Men Do and The Target, the plan was switched so that Smith would start a third Spider-Man title[18] (originally planned for then-ASM writer J. Michael Straczynski), and even this plan was eventually abandoned and the title (by then known as Marvel Knights Spider-Man) launched, in 2004, by Mark Millar instead. It has been confirmed in a Documentary Trailer that Kevin Smith will be making a Cameo in the new Superman: Doomsday DVD movie as an extra. [citation needed]

Other projects and media appearances

Film

Smith was co-executive producer for the 1997 movie Good Will Hunting, assisting friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck with making and marketing their film. After Damon and Affleck received Academy Awards for their screenplay, critics alleged that Smith himself was responsible for the script, a rumor which Smith vehemently denies. Rumors also persisted that William Goldman had written the entire script as well, which Goldman also denies. On an episode of "SModcast" in 2007, he also revealed that he was invited to direct the film, but ultimately turned this down, citing an insecurity he had at the time with directing something that he did not also write.

In 1997, Smith was hired by New Line to rewrite Overnight Delivery (1998) which was expected to be a blockbuster teen movie. Smith's then-girlfriend Joey Lauren Adams almost took the role of Ivy in the movie instead of the female lead in Chasing Amy. Eventually she lost out to Reese Witherspoon, and Overnight Delivery was quietly released directly to video. Kevin Smith's involvement with the film was revealed on-line[19], but remains uncredited. He has said that the only scene which really used his dialogue was the opening scene, which includes a reference to long-time Smith friend Bryan Johnson.

For a time Smith was working on a script for a Superman movie. He did a couple of drafts but it was dropped when Tim Burton was hired to direct. Burton brought his own people to work on the project. Smith still sees the whole experience on working on the Superman project as a positive one though, since, in his own words he was well paid and it was a lot of fun. In the end, neither Smith's nor Burton's vision for Superman were filmed. Years later Smith noted the similarity between a scene in one of his comics and a scene in Burton's remake of Planet of the Apes. As Smith explained in a question and answer session featured on An Evening with Kevin Smith, he had jokingly accused Burton of stealing his idea, a comment that ended up being reported in the media as a serious accusation. Burton issued a stern denial, noting that "Anybody who knows me knows I would never read a comic book. And I certainly would never read anything written by Kevin Smith." Smith's response to Burton's comments was (in part), "Which I guess explains Batman."

Smith has been known to do script rewrites, including a draft of the movie Coyote Ugly though, according to Smith, only one line of dialogue from his draft made it to the final film. Not long after Clerks, Smith pitched an idea called "Bussing" about bus boys, described as "Clerks in a restaurant". This idea seems to have been reborn into the 2005 movie Waiting... by writer/director Rob McKittrick who credits Smith for the opportunities he has now. Smith also wrote a screenplay for a film version of The Six Million Dollar Man.

In 2002, Smith pressed his bosses at Miramax to pick up the rights to Gregory McDonald's Fletch series. Smith hoped to helm a movie adaptation of Fletch Won, with the intention of making it more faithful to the original novel than the popular Chevy Chase films. Smith hoped to cast View Askew regular Jason Lee in the title role but was nixed by Bob and Harvey Weinstein. Smith spoke to Zach Braff about the possibility of taking the role, which he eventually accepted. In October 2005, Smith abandoned the project. It has since been revived (though not by Smith), with actor Joshua Jackson slated to portray the titular character. A month later, in November, Fuck was released, a documentary on the word "fuck" and its many uses, centering around the controversy and fight over the word itself. Kevin Smith was featured in this movie as an interviewee, along with excerpts from two of his films, Clerks and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Smith has written a screenplay for a new film version of The Green Hornet. The Miramax head Harvey Weinstein at the time attempted to draft Smith to direct the film, but Smith eventually backed out, noting that his directing style was not really "visual" enough to pull off a big-budget action movie. Though his script is still a part of the development process, Smith has since minimized his involvement in the project.

Print

Smith released his first book, Silent Bob Speaks, a collection of essays dissecting pop culture, the movie-making business, and Smith's personal life. His second book, My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith is due September 2007 through Titan Books.

Television

Sucks Less with Kevin Smith

Main article: Sucks Less With Kevin Smith

This is an MTVu show that gives college students an idea of things to do on the weekends.

Clerks: The Animated Series

File:Animatedjayandbob.jpg
The Animated Jay and Silent Bob.

In 2000, Smith and Mosier teamed up with television writer David Mandel (Seinfeld and SNL) to develop an animated television show based on Clerks. This was an idea Smith had been kicking around since the production of Mallrats and, after pitching it to nearly every major television network, ABC TV picked it up for airing in March 2000.

After being delayed to May, Clerks: The Animated Series aired only two episodes, out of order, before being cancelled as a result of poor ratings. The six produced episodes were released on DVD in 2001, marking one of the first occasions in which a very short-lived TV series found success in the DVD format.

Ebert & Roeper

From July 2006 on, he has guest reviewed on Ebert & Roeper 3 times, in place of the ailing Roger Ebert. These spots have been notable for the arguments between Smith and Richard Roeper over certain films, with Smith often citing Roeper's poor review of Jersey Girl to discredit his review of the film at hand. On his most recent appearance Smith compared Craig Brewer's Black Snake Moan to the works of William Faulkner.

Degrassi

Main article: Kevin Smith and Degrassi

In early 2005, Smith appeared in three episodes of the Canadian-made Degrassi: The Next Generation television show. In the episodes, Smith, portraying himself, visited the school to work on the (fictional) film Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh!. Smith wrote all his dialogue for the shows he appeared in. He also appeared in 2 more episodes in the following season, when he returned to Degrassi for the movie release of Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh!

In addition to appearing on Degrassi: The Next Generation, Kevin Smith is an avid fan of the original Degrassi series, Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High and references to the original are present in some of his early films.

Manchild

Smith played the role of Paul, a cynical married man, in a Showtime television series pilot, "Manchild", filmed in December 2006. However, it was not picked up by the network.[20]

Reaper

Main article: Reaper (TV Series)

According to NewsAskew.com and Kevin Smith himself, Smith has directed the pilot for a CW network show called Reaper. Tv.com's summary of the show is 'A twenty-something slacker finally scores a job as the devil's bounty hunter.' He describes it as "less Brimstone or Dead Like Me and more like Shaun of the Dead than anything else". He also goes on to say that the reason he took the job is that he has always wanted to direct something he did not write, but never had an interest in doing it on the big screen.

Other

Smith has also cameoed in the second season premiere of the sitcom Joey, where he played himself, on an episode of Law & Order in 2000 (episode "Black, White and Blue" playing Tony's wife's nephew), Duck Dodgers (2003 as Hal Jordan, voice only) and Yes, Dear (2004, as himself and Silent Bob). Smith has also created and appeared in several short "Roadside Attractions" segments for The Tonight Show, detailing trips to random locations around the country. These segments are collected on the Jersey Girl DVD. Smith also appeared in the second episode of season two of Veronica Mars, playing a store clerk. He stated on his webpage that Veronica Mars is some of the best television work ever produced.[21]

In the third season of the HBO series Entourage, Michael Bay and Kevin Smith are directing and writing Aquaman 2. In reality, Smith wrote a script for the Superman Lives movie, while Bay was attached to direct a separate Superman movie. In Entourage, the characters awkwardly react with obvious disappointment at Smith's involvement. Smith has speculated that, that jab and another from season 2 may have been motivated by a book he was involved in, in 1995 where he criticized Rob Weiss and his movie Amongst Friends.[22]

In 1998 he directed best friend Jason Mewes as "Gary Lamb - Ground Activist" in a series of Nike commercials.

Evening with

Has appeared in 2 Q&A documentaries titled An Evening with Kevin Smith and An Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder. The first one is a collection from gigs he did at American colleges while the sequel was shot in Toronto and London.

Secret Stash

Smith owns and operates Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank, New Jersey, a comic book store largely dedicated to merchandise related to his films. The current location is its second. The store was first located on Monmouth St; Kevin Smith bragged on "Howard Stern" that he made a lot of money selling that location and moving to a defunct ice cream parlor on Broad St. A second Secret Stash in the Westwood section of Los Angeles was opened in September 2004.

SModcast

On February 5 2007 Smith and Scott Mosier began podcasting. Their podcast is named the SModcast (Smith-Mosier podcast), and is presented by Quick Stop Entertainment. As of July 23, 2007, there have been 21 SModcasts.

There have been several episodes where there were guest stars; other people than Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier. These include Kevin's wife, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, in episode 20, as well as Kevin's friends Jason Mewes, Walt Flanagan, and Malcolm Ingram.

Opie and Anthony Show

Kevin Smith is a frequent guest on the Opie and Anthony Show. He has made several in-studio appearances and sometimes calls in unannounced. His most notable appearance featured an on air argument between himself and movie critic Joel Siegel after Siegel made a scene and walked out of a screening of Clerks II.


On the Internet

Kevin has also become well known for the relationship between himself and his fans, and states in the closing credits of Clerks II that he "spends way too much time on the internet".

Smith has an online blog, "My Boring Ass Life", that chronicles his life and work. Often brutally transparent, his blog has exposed celebrities and the inner workings of Hollywood, as well as given fans a peek into the often mundane yet amusing inner workings of the Smith household. [1].

He posts almost daily at his web board[23] where he posts new information about his films, and interacts with the fans. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back's fictional website MoviePoopShoot.com became real in 2002, converting into an entertainment website covering movies, music, comics, toys, and video games. It is now Quick Stop Entertainment.[24]

Fan gatherings

Since 1998, he has also held a private film festival called Vulgarthon in Red Bank, New Jersey (except in 2005 when it was held in Los Angeles) where fans can buy tickets to come out, see around five films, and meet many of the cast and crew. These events usually have fans flying in from different countries to attend. So far, there have been five Vulgarthons. The most recent, Vulgarthon 2006, featured screenings of the then-yet-to-be released Clerks II. Besides Smith himself, guests have included Brian O'Halloran, Jason Mewes, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Jeff Anderson, and Smith's wife Jennifer. As of 2006, he has an active Myspace account. (see links below)

In July 2005, at a Q & A in Vancouver, BC, Smith was awarded an honorary degree from the Vancouver Film School, where Smith was a student for four months before dropping out.[25] On May 7, 2000, Illinois Wesleyan University awarded Smith an honorary doctorate; In May 2004, Montclair State University awarded Smith an honorary PhD. Smith also has a street named after him in Paulsboro, New Jersey (where he filmed Jersey Girl), "Kevin Smith Way". The road leads to Paulsboro High School, where Smith used the auditorium for several scenes in the movie.

On May 20, 2007, Smith will be receiving Honorary Associate of Letters degrees during the ceremonies surrounding the Commencement of the Class of 2007 of his alma mater, Brookdale Community College. With more than 1,500 graduates, the class is Brookdale's largest ever--and the most ever in NJ State history.

Smith's longest Q&A session took place April 2, 2005 at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey The sold out event was over seven hours long, took place from 8 PM through 3 AM (which due to daylight saving time, was actually 4AM). After he finished the Q&A, he opened up Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash just down the road to do a meet and greet with the numerous remaining audience members. The meet and greet ended around 6:30AM. Smith then hopped a plane and did another Q&A at the Raue Center For The Arts in Crystal Lake, Illinois that night. Planned for 2 hours, it lasted just over 5 hours, ending a little after 1 AM Central time.[26]

In August 2006 Kevin Smith with the support of the Netflix Rolling Roadshow brought Clerks back to Red Bank, New Jersey. Originally slated to be at the "Quick Stop"[27] in Leonardo, NJ the town board declined to grant the necessary permits for the show to go as planned. The show went forward in the Red Bank Marine Park in Red Bank a few blocks from the Secret Stash comic book store, where an estimated 3000 people gathered for the event. An impromptu Q&A led off the event with Smith taking questions from the crowd while introducing members of the original cast of "Clerks" (most being friends and family from Red Bank). After the 90 minute Q&A the screen went up (the largest outdoor screen of its kind) and "Clerks" was officially back in Red Bank. Netflix Rolling Road Show

Filmography

Writer

Director

Producer

Actor

Editor

Miscellaneous crew

Music videos

Awards

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ http://www.jerseypride.com/all_jersey_info/NJ_in_the_News/kevin_smith_a_skewed_view.htm
  2. ^ http://www.filmreference.com/film/89/Kevin-Smith.html
  3. ^ Jeffrey Overstreet. "A Warm & Fuzzy Kevin Smith?". Christianity Today. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
  4. ^ "View Askew Productions - Harley Quinn Smith". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  5. ^ "www.newsaskew.com/cgi-bin/coranto/iSay.cgi?Page=Comments&ID=EEupEZAZyyiBWjiwgQ". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  6. ^ "viewaskew.com/theboard/viewtopic.php?t=44047&start=74". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  7. ^ Kevin Smith's New Comedy 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno
  8. ^ Kevin Smith Announces Horror Film
  9. ^ NewsAskew
  10. ^ "www.newsaskew.com/cgi-bin/coranto/viewnews.pl?id=EpypZZVpylSdOYYHHN&style=Default+News+Style&tmpl=viewnews". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  11. ^ Silent Bob Speaks
  12. ^ "www.newsaskew.com/cgi-bin/coranto/iSay.cgi?Page=Comments&ID=EEupEZAZuZLZgWaazm". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  13. ^ "www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0202/24/". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  14. ^ "web.archive.org/web/20020601183702/http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=001042". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  15. ^ "www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=1129". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  16. ^ "www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/0204/24/press.htm". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  17. ^ "www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=13&t=001042". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  18. ^ "www.comicboards.com/smb/view.php?rpl=030106020056". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  19. ^ "www.viewaskew.com/press/psycomic/5.html". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  20. ^ SModcast 11
  21. ^ "silentbobspeaks.com/?p=160". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  22. ^ "www.joblo.com/index.php?id=12101". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  23. ^ "www.viewaskew.com/theboard". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  24. ^ "www.quickstopentertainment.com". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  25. ^ "movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800020930/bio". Retrieved 2007-03-28.
  26. ^ http://www.newsaskew.com/cgi-bin/coranto/iSay.cgi?Page=Comments&ID=EEEkVVZEEAyrVjcdhf
  27. ^ http://maps.google.com/maps?near=Leonardo,+NJ&q=quick+stop&f=l&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=40.415334,-74.057121&spn=0.00145,0.002494&t=h&z=19&om=1&layer=c&cbll=40.435254,-74.053516
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