From an outsider’s perspective, it seems like Kevin Smith has had a tough month, given the abysmal run of his new horror-comedy walrus creation. And if you follow his tweets, you also know he’s been cutting out sugar lately. But despite Smith’s desperation to bring sugar back to his diet — apparently he would do some R-rated things with male genitalia just to get a bowl of Lucky Charms — he’s not even remotely discouraged by his recent box-office disappointment. Smith appeared at New York Comic Con showing off his pride for Tusk and explaining how the film had everything to do with getting the chance to make another sequel to Clerks — well, Tusk and weed, that is.
Apparently weed makes Smith more productive than most people on any given day. It’s not a new concept for Smith to share — he even mentioned the weed-to-productivity ratio in his book. But Smith clearly very intensely believes that working while smoking has helped him create so much more. “In the last … 7 years, I’ve been more productive than I was the first 15 years of my career. And that’s because I love smoking so much. So every time I was smoking I was like, ‘I better do something creative,’ so it makes more output.†Just like anyone else, he obviously would prefer to “sit there, smoke, and watch South Park.†But Smith wants to be a “responsible stoner.â€
He understands that not many people are happy with the output he’s released since his weed habit began; he read the New York Post article about it, but he doesn’t care. “The lesson is supposed to be ‘He made a fucking stupid movie about a guy who turned another guy into a walrus, and now he is punished with no movies.’ But really it was ‘He made a stupid movie about a guy who turned another guy into a walrus, and somehow he’s making three more fucking movies.’ The lesson you take from this is just express you. You do you.â€
The need to express his individuality is what made Smith stay away from mainstream films, because he can’t make what most people would want to watch. “Like, what do people like? Movies where Ben Affleck shows his dick and his wife gets kidnapped. But other people who are talented can do that. Like David Fincher can do stuff like that … I’m just trying to make a Kevin Smith movie, and since the beginning it’s kind of worked our for me.†What he realized was that making movies like Tusk are fun because no one else makes movies like that and, he admits, “probably with good reason.†Smith stated that people can fail as long as they’re trying something out of the box, and that’s what he did with Tusk. “You know what Tusk means? It means the next time I make a walrus movie, it’ll be better.â€
So what can we expect next from the self-titled Fatman? Well, Clerks 3 is definitely happening, and Smith revealed the first ten minutes of the film would be in black and white. He also mentioned that his new film Yoga Hosers was three-quarters of the way finished filming. Finally, he talked about his newest Canadian horror-movie creation called Moose Jaws, which Smith described as “Jaws with a moose.†And that movie would require the production to make a giant man-eating moose that would have to be big enough to “eat a 9-year old child†as the film will take place in a summer camp. A fan gamely suggested the Comic Book Men make an appearance in the movie, to which Smith replied it was an “excellent fucking idea†and guaranteed that he’s not done writing the script, but that scene would now be in it.
Clearly Smith isn’t talking out of his butt when he says he’s going to make whatever kind of movies he wants to make. Shouldn’t we be lucky to have someone who will make moose serial killer and man-to-walrus transformation movies for us? It’s pretty much guaranteed he’s the only one who will try, for now.