Today, I start pitching the #Mallrats series which began life back in March 2015 as a movie. But now, with Jim and Dan from #universaltelevision, I'll spend the next week trying to find a home for our sequel series at places like @showtime, @netflix, @amazon & @hulu. When I saw @therealstanlee at @nycomiccon this weekend, I told him Rats pitches start today. Stan (who is a major part of the series) said "Well hurry up! I'm not getting any younger!" To psych myself up, I've been staring at these script sides from Day 4 of our #1995 shoot. Sides are mini versions of the script for that day's work - so the last time I studied this particular set of sides, I was a 24 year old who never expected he'd get as far as he did with his first film. Ironically now, as a 46 year old grown-ass man, I still feel the same way. This flick's 21 year ride has been a gift, and if any of the places we're pitching see fit to help me continue telling the story of Mallrats two decades past the original expiration date and in loving memory of the late, great #JimJacks - my producer friend who made Mallrats happen in the first place? Well, let's just say that would be the exact opposite of a stink-palm. @jasonlee? @theshando? For nearly 2 years now, I've dreamed of seeing you both in a mall again as Brodie and Rene'. Today, I stop dreaming and try to make that fantasy a reality. Jim? This one's for you... #KevinSmith #jasonlee #stanlee #shannondoherty #jaymewes #michaelrooker

Kevin Smith
·
2019 was seriously one of the best years of my life! So many of my dreams came true this year, as well as a few big things too dazzling to even dare dream about! From the return of @jayandsilentbob, to having my career literally cemented at the legendary @chinesetheatres, to Clerks being accepted into the @librarycongress - 2019 kept giving and giving! Sooooo glad I didn’t drop dead back in 2018, because I would’ve missed all the stuff I listed with my pic. Thank you to everyone who supported the #jayandsilentbob #rebootroadshow Tour: we’ve made over 3 million bucks from our 2 @fathomevents screenings and the 37 cities we’ve visited so far (Tour resumes January 10th in Oakland for another 25 cities through Feb 26). Many thanks for powering my dopey dream of reopening the Askewniverse and making me and @jaymewes feel so welcomed in all your towns and cities! It’s gonna be hard for 2020 to measure up to 2019 - but I’m off to a fun start by writing stuff for Brodie Bruce & Co. to say in the new script I’m calling TWILIGHT OF THE MALLRATS! The CLERKS III script is also underway, so we’ll see which flick will be my first film of the roaring 20’s! But tonight, I end the year like I always do - standing on the stage at the @hollywoodimprov with @ralphgarman, making BABBLE until the Ball drops (a few tix left at the link in my bio)! It was a decade that began badly with COP OUT and the TOO FAT TO FLY incident. The decade of the Red State Tour, @tuskthemovie and @yogahosers! It was the decade in which I almost died of a massive heart attack, and the decade where I went Vegan and got down to my high school weight! Who knows what the next decade holds in store for us - but I’m ready to turn the page and find out! Happy New Year, my friends! (Jedi Kev piece by NEED A NAME .) #KevinSmith #newyearseve #2019

Earlier this week, EW posted a chat with writer-director Kevin Smith in which he reminisced about making 1995's Mallrats and discussed how, over time, this box office bomb achieved the status of a cult classic. But what about the future of what it seems we now need to start calling "the Mallratsfranchise"? At the end of our walk down memory lane, Smith teased the film's sequel, Twilight of the Mallrats, which will revolve around Jason Lee's superhero comics-obsessed Brodie.

"Looks like we’re heading toward it now in 2021, which is very exciting for us," said Smith. "It takes place 25 years after the original and features the entire cast, [and] a new cast of characters as well. It’s about Brodie and his daughter and the death of the mall. The Brodie that we met in Mallrats has only been proven right in life. The world came around to his way of thinking. So, based on that, Brodie never really had to grow up and now, at this juncture in time, we face the moment when he might actually have to become an adult." The cast of the original Mallrats also included Shannen Doherty, Jeremy London, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Claire Forlani, Jason Mewes, Michael Rooker, and the director himself.

Smith will be making the film in collaboration with Universal, which released the original Mallrats. According to the director, the studio was unaware it held the rights to the film, which grossed a mere $2.1 million back in 1995.

"When I handed them the script for Mallrats 2, they were like, 'We own Mallrats 1?'" said Smith. "I was like, 'Yeah, it’s yours!' Mallrats is a movie that’s a little bit lost in time in many ways. It’s a real relic of its era, but at the same time, maybe except for the lack of cell phones and the haute couture, that movie still plays today, probably better than it did in 1995."

"When I handed them the script for Mallrats 2, they were like, 'We own Mallrats 1?'"

“I called my agency and I said, ‘Hey man, can I just make a Mallrats sequel? Universal owns it, but do I really need to make this with Universal? Can’t I just write a script and buy the title from them?’ And the agent told me, ‘Yeah, absolutely, they’ll let it go.’ And I said, ‘Are you positive? Because I don’t want to start this if that’s not the case.’ He says, ‘Oh yeah, there are three ways you can make this movie: You finance it yourself; you finance it with the studio, co-financed; or they finance it, but, you know, it’ll probably be, since it’s an old movie and it’s a small title, it’ll probably be you financing it yourself.’

“So, I was like, ‘Oh my god, alright, right on, that’s what I like to hear, nobody can stop me from self-expressing.’ So I wrote my script, put everything together, and then I told my agent, when I was done, ‘Alright, I’m ready to go, do we have to reach out to Universal for approval or something or let them pass or whatever?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, we have to submit the script.’ And I was like, ‘Why do we have to submit the script?’ ‘Because they own the property and it’s a formality … it’s going to be fine.’

“And so we submitted the script and my agent comes back to me and he goes, ‘Well, apparently Universal has never let a catalogue title go, any title they own, they’ve retained, they’ve never done something where they’re like, ‘Oh, you can take it back and go make a sequel. Never in the history of the studio.’ So, I was like, ‘Wait, but you told me that was one of my options.’ ‘Well, apparently I was wrong. So, right now there are two options: you make it fully studio financed or you co-finance it with the studio.’ So we entered a protracted negotiation with Universal trying to get it made in different pockets of the studio.”

After realizing he hadn’t told anybody about this, he confirmed, “It is happening. It’s taking us a longer time to build it, but what we did was reconfigured it. You know, Mallrats is a 20 year old movie, and the idea of sequelizing a 20-year-old movie to some people is like, ‘Why would you bother? It wasn’t successful the first time. What’d you guys make?’ We’re like, ‘Two million?’ ‘Alright, well, I don’t know if the world is screaming out for this.’ However, I went and directed an episode of The Flash, and when I went up there, it was kind of a weird game changer for my career. I felt at home in the medium.

“And suddenly because I did the episode of The Flash, like MGM reached out about Buckaroo Banzai and suddenly that came together and we went out and pitched yesterday and found a home for it. I can’t say who it is because that deal is not final, but yesterday we sold Buckaroo Banzai as a TV series. So, while I’m in that world and space, a couple months ago, we started reconfiguring the idea of doing Mallrats not as a film but as a series, and Universal and I are just about to close our deal to do Mallrats the series. Then we take it out into the world and find a home for it. So, instead of doing a Mallrats movie, I’m going to do 10 episodes of a Mallrats series.”