The last time we visited Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse was in 2006 with Clerks II, and while Smith has kept his directing muscles in shape since then with movies like Red State, Tusk and Yoga Hosers, not to mention The Flash and Supergirl on TV, it looks like he's finally ready to return to the world he built in his early years as a filmmaker. He'll be doing so through Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, but don't let the title fool you, we won't see new actors playing the pot-smoking hereto-life mates. Instead, the movie will rehash the general premise of 2001's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, while at the same time poking fun at the many sequels, remakes and reboots being released. Smith explained:
It's us, it's me and Jay so it's not really strictly a reboot in the way that people think of a reboot. If you remember Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back it was a movie in which Jay and Silent Bob found out Hollywood was making a movie about them so they went cross country to Hollywood to stop that from happening. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is completely fucking different. In Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, Jay and Silent Bob find out that Hollywood is making a reboot of that old movie that they had made about them, and they have to go cross the country to Hollywood to stop it all over again. it's literally the same fucking movie all over again. It's a movie that makes fun of sequels and remakes and reboots while being all three at the same time.
When Jay and Silent Bob Strike came out, X-Men had only come out the year before, meaning that superhero movies hadn't yet become a Hollywood mainstay. More than a decade and a half later, not only are they among the most popular blockbusters, but we've been treated several versions of notable characters (I'm looking at you, Batman, Spider-Man and Superman). In fact, sequels, remakes and reboots have become more widespread among other cinematic genres. So while Jay and Silent Bob Reboot's main plot is derivative (Smith mentioned that there will even be a new group of girls riding around in a van), rest assured, there will be plenty of new elements. While talking about Jay and Silent Bob Reboot during a Fatman on Batman Q&A (via Comicbook.com), Smith compared the project to Gus van Sant's Psycho remake, and while Jay and Silent Bob Reboot isn't a total shot-for-shot, word-for-word redo like the 1998 Psycho movie was, Smith acknowledged that he looked to the Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back script to build the new movie's script.
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is the third time that Kevin Smith has tried to revisit the View Askeniverse. Originally the plan was to make Clerks 3, but because one of the main cast members didn't want to reprise their role, the threequel was set aside, though it might still be released as a comic book. Then Smith was working on a Mallrats sequel called Mallbrats, which morphed from a movie to a TV show, but none of the networks and streaming services that Smith visited were interested in picking up. Now Jay and Silent Bob Reboot looks to be Smith's best chance to revisit these characters, and while production on the sequel was originally supposed to begin last fall, the director days that now cameras will begin rolling this August. If Smith and his team can stick to that schedule, he hopes to have the movie ready to be seen in 2019.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on how Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is progressing. In the meantime, look through our 2018 release schedule to learn what movies are coming out this year.
