Kevin Smith Confirms ‘Jay and Silent Bob’ Reboot, Starts Pre-Production

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Kevin Smith has launched pre-production on his long-promised  “Jay and Silent Bob” reboot with Jay Mewes and producer Jordan Monsanto.

Smith, who first announced the project in August, 2017, made the announcement in Jan. 1 tweet: “Spent the first day of 2019 having a #JayAndSilentBobReboot pre-pre-production meeting.”

Smith and Mewes made their film debut in the 1994 comedy “Clerks,” funded for $27,000 through Smith maxing out his credit cards. Smith wrote, directed, co-produced, and acted in “Clerks,” portraying the character Silent Bob as part of the team of Jay and Silent Bob.

Smith’s subsequent films featured Jay and Silent Bob and were mostly set in his home state of New Jersey. Those included “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy,” “Dogma,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” and 2006’s “Clerks 2” — the final film in which the characters appeared. Smith produced the interconnected films through his View Askew Productions, which he co-founded with Scott Mosier.

Smith also directed and produced films outside the View Askew universe, including “Jersey Girl,” “Zach and Miri Make a Porno,” the action comedy “Cop Out,”  the horror film “Red State,” the horror comedy “Tusk” and the “Tusk” spinoff “Yoga Hosers,” starring Smith’s daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, and Johnny Depp’s daughter, Lily-Rose Depp, in which they both reprised their two characters from “Tusk” alongside Depp reprising his inspector character.

Smith suffered a massive heart attack on Feb. 25 after performing a stand-up comedy special. He told fans that he would have died if he had not canceled the second show of the special and gotten to hospital for treatment. Smith has announced that he subsequently lost more than 50 pounds from his weight at the time of the attack to less than 200 pounds.