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November 1, 2007
Kevin Smith interviewed
The UK SciFi Channel has posted an interview with filmmaker Kevin Smith who created the classic indie film Clerks. (I also liked Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma, they're not classics, but fun.)
Some interesting bits about indie filmmakers and also his involvement with Heroes:Origins (which sadly looks like it's been postponed until next year).
Here's some extra excerpts from the interview not posted on the blog.
Firstly about superheroes...
Some interesting bits about indie filmmakers and also his involvement with Heroes:Origins (which sadly looks like it's been postponed until next year).
Here's some extra excerpts from the interview not posted on the blog.
Firstly about superheroes...
Kevin Smith [KS]: Yeah, I mean, not so much for print, but I know there is this movie we’ve talked about doing for a few years called Ranger Danger that we’ll eventually get to. You know, it’s definitely a little more tongue in cheek. It’s not strictly sci-fi. I mean, it’s very sci-fi oriented, but it’s more humorously done. But I don’t know, I've never really thought about kind of creating my own superhero from the ground up. I like playing in the DC and Marvel sandboxes because all the heavy lifting has been done for you already inasmuch as the character has been created and there’s tons of back story to work with. And every once in a while introducing a new villain is kind of fun, but I've never thought like ‘I know, I've got this dude that the world has never seen before!’
SciFi's Tom [TM]: I guess in one sense that it’s difficult to think of anything that hasn’t been done before in the world of superheroes as well.
KS: It’s true, and it’s like what was the last great comic book character to come down the pipe. I mean, it’s a matter of taste, I guess. Some people would say like Gambit, but you know, I guess for me it’s either like The Punisher or Electra, the last creations where I was like wow, you know, I can’t believe these characters didn’t exist before. It’s tough to find a come book character or superhero that’s been created in the last ten years that kind of blows your doors off that isn’t some variation of what’s gone before.
TM: And they’re running out of decent names.
KS: [coughs] They would have to, right? You can’t just put something in front of ‘man’ anymore.
TM: Yeah, like blue lightning, black lightning, yellow lightning…
KS: Right [chuckles]. When I did Green Arrow, I went with Onomatopoeia for a villain, just because I loved that word, and it kind of formed the character inasmuch as he would say sounds out loud. It only kind of works – I think – on a comic book page because if you have a gun going off, they usually write BLAM! and then you can have, you know, the character saying “BLAM!� in a word balloon, but like if you tried to do that cinematically you can’t really rock it. A gun in a film sounds completely different. It doesn’t read as BLAM! and so to have a dude say BLAM! after a true gunshot, all these people would be like ‘he’s just retarded’. [TM laughs]. I think it works great in print and on a comic book page. I don't think that character would translate very well outside of that.
...and more on indie films...
TM: Yeah, I was interviewing Lloyd Kauffman recently. Well, not so recently. Do you know Lloyd Kauffman?
KS: Yeah, totally.
TM: Of course you do, sorry. He is obviously a very, very passionate advocate of indie filmmaking, and he got quite worked up, you know, he was talking a lot on tape about for example I think was it the Warner Brothers independent label?
KS: Yeah, WP or whatever.
TM: Yeah, and he’s like ‘that’s not independent’.
KS: I agree.
TM: That’s a Warner Brothers independent, which doesn’t count.
KS: It’s more of a boutique label, you know, like going as far back… Even Miramax. Once it was bought by Disney, they were no longer indie filmmakers. You know, that was Disney’s art house label. But part of that, they were kind of the lifeblood of indie cinema in terms of the big guns in independent distribution, but that went away when they were bought.
TM: Yeah, exactly.
KS: Just making classier films that aren’t necessarily meant for the mainstream.
TM: It’s kind of like they’re just adopting the indie persona…
KS: The formula that [Miramax boss] Harvey Weinstein created, which is to take offbeat cinema, alternative cinema, art house cinema, and bring it to the mainstream, you know, put some famous people in it and get it into multiplexes. And once the studios figured out how to do that, they started doing it with regularity, opening up their own boutique arms to do so. So, you know, calling them independent is a f*cking joke.
TM: As soon as there’s a market that’s clearly profitable in some way…
KS: Totally, and also, it’s just a label that kind of fits because nobody else wants to bother doing all the work. It’s like rock and roll. You know, when you look under rock and roll, you see so many different bands where you’re like ‘I don’t think that’s rock and roll at all’, but it’s a catch all, and that’s kind of what indie film is as well. It’s a catch all for anything that’s not, you know, mainstream driven, anything that’s not ‘let’s open it on 3,000 screens!’
TM: Yeah, if it’s not Harry Potter or James Bond it must be indie.
KS: Exactly.
TM: Which is quite a large category.
KS: Very big category.
SciFi's Tom [TM]: I guess in one sense that it’s difficult to think of anything that hasn’t been done before in the world of superheroes as well.
KS: It’s true, and it’s like what was the last great comic book character to come down the pipe. I mean, it’s a matter of taste, I guess. Some people would say like Gambit, but you know, I guess for me it’s either like The Punisher or Electra, the last creations where I was like wow, you know, I can’t believe these characters didn’t exist before. It’s tough to find a come book character or superhero that’s been created in the last ten years that kind of blows your doors off that isn’t some variation of what’s gone before.
TM: And they’re running out of decent names.
KS: [coughs] They would have to, right? You can’t just put something in front of ‘man’ anymore.
TM: Yeah, like blue lightning, black lightning, yellow lightning…
KS: Right [chuckles]. When I did Green Arrow, I went with Onomatopoeia for a villain, just because I loved that word, and it kind of formed the character inasmuch as he would say sounds out loud. It only kind of works – I think – on a comic book page because if you have a gun going off, they usually write BLAM! and then you can have, you know, the character saying “BLAM!� in a word balloon, but like if you tried to do that cinematically you can’t really rock it. A gun in a film sounds completely different. It doesn’t read as BLAM! and so to have a dude say BLAM! after a true gunshot, all these people would be like ‘he’s just retarded’. [TM laughs]. I think it works great in print and on a comic book page. I don't think that character would translate very well outside of that.
...and more on indie films...
TM: Yeah, I was interviewing Lloyd Kauffman recently. Well, not so recently. Do you know Lloyd Kauffman?
KS: Yeah, totally.
TM: Of course you do, sorry. He is obviously a very, very passionate advocate of indie filmmaking, and he got quite worked up, you know, he was talking a lot on tape about for example I think was it the Warner Brothers independent label?
KS: Yeah, WP or whatever.
TM: Yeah, and he’s like ‘that’s not independent’.
KS: I agree.
TM: That’s a Warner Brothers independent, which doesn’t count.
KS: It’s more of a boutique label, you know, like going as far back… Even Miramax. Once it was bought by Disney, they were no longer indie filmmakers. You know, that was Disney’s art house label. But part of that, they were kind of the lifeblood of indie cinema in terms of the big guns in independent distribution, but that went away when they were bought.
TM: Yeah, exactly.
KS: Just making classier films that aren’t necessarily meant for the mainstream.
TM: It’s kind of like they’re just adopting the indie persona…
KS: The formula that [Miramax boss] Harvey Weinstein created, which is to take offbeat cinema, alternative cinema, art house cinema, and bring it to the mainstream, you know, put some famous people in it and get it into multiplexes. And once the studios figured out how to do that, they started doing it with regularity, opening up their own boutique arms to do so. So, you know, calling them independent is a f*cking joke.
TM: As soon as there’s a market that’s clearly profitable in some way…
KS: Totally, and also, it’s just a label that kind of fits because nobody else wants to bother doing all the work. It’s like rock and roll. You know, when you look under rock and roll, you see so many different bands where you’re like ‘I don’t think that’s rock and roll at all’, but it’s a catch all, and that’s kind of what indie film is as well. It’s a catch all for anything that’s not, you know, mainstream driven, anything that’s not ‘let’s open it on 3,000 screens!’
TM: Yeah, if it’s not Harry Potter or James Bond it must be indie.
KS: Exactly.
TM: Which is quite a large category.
KS: Very big category.