The Hollywood Byte #44: Kevin Smith

Writer/director/actor Kevin Smith has managed to carve out a niche in Hollywood that allows him to make the movies he wants to make. With each new film, the Smith loyalists support him both at the box office and on DVD. Clerks, the cult favorite that continues to attract new fans on DVD, most recently with the 10th Anniversary Edition, now has a sequel out in time for the holidays. Clerks II brings Jay and Silent Bob and the entire crew back for another round of laughs. Smith's fans should enjoy this latest outing, because it will be a while until another sequel comes out, if at all.

"If I did it wouldn't be until I was in my mid-40s," said Smith. "Clerks is what I felt like to be in my 20s. Clerks II is what it felt like to be in my 30s. I figure if I would ever touch down and return to these characters again it would be in my mid-40s, but I don't know if we'll get there."

For the new DVD, Smith has provided a lot of extras to appease his fans that did see the film on the big screen.

"The documentary is pretty awesome," said Smith. "By the time most people buy the DVD most people have seen the flick. The 90-minute documentary called 'Back to the Well' is a pretty comprehensive history of why and how we made the movie. And the deleted scenes are kinda cool and we put together a blooper reel that was kind of fun."

For those who didn't know, Smith is a huge gamer. In fact, he had to tear himself away from his Nintendo DS and the New Super Mario Bros. game to do this phone interview. He already went through the game once as Mario and then returned as Luigi for another go-round.

"I'm a big fan of scrolling games," said Smith. "I'm not into first-person games. My theory is you're a game fan of the games you came up with and I came up in the scrolling world. So I still love to this day scrolling games. That's why I'm so entranced with that Mario game on Nintendo DS. It's just a total scrolling game with great graphics."

Smith was a die-hard Genesis and Super Nintendo fan. He logged a lot of hours playing Electronic Arts' NHL franchise on Sega's machine. He even held tournaments with his friends, including actor Jason Mewes, that featured a real trophy for the winner. Smith recently bought one of the EA Sports TV Games plug-and-play devices because it had the classic NHL game on it.

"I loved the Death of Superman game," said Smith, who's well-known as a comic book fanatic. "That was one of my all-time favorites. The Super Nintendo Star Wars Trilogy games I really liked. I used to play The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle on Genesis all of the time."

In addition to the steady stream of comic book movies, Smith is happy to see so many comic book videogames hitting store shelves these days.

"I think it's awesome that they do so many comic book games," said Smith. "Sometimes you like them when they're easily beat, but sometimes you like a bit of a challenge. I played the Daredevil videogame on Game Boy Advance."

When it comes to challenges, Smith sticks with games and likes to play them through to the end, even if it may take a while.

"This is so f--king sad, but I was on that Carnage board of Ultimate Spider-Man for Nintendo DS for a year," said Smith. "I couldn't get past Carnage. Finally, what I wound up doing was putting it down and I went off and made Clerks II and put it together and released it. A year later, I picked up the game after reading the hints online and I was finally able to finish that game."

When it comes to comic book games, next generation visuals and all of the modern technology out there don't necessarily make better games.

"Superman Returns is one of those games," said Smith. "Sometimes there's something to be said about less options. I love that Death of Superman game because it followed the comic book pretty closely and it scrolled. You flew, but you kind of just hovered. You didn't do that full 360 flying thing. I liked some of the Spider-Man games that they've done. The two that they did based on the movies were really great."

Smith loves the fact that the Internet and a Google search can help gamers get through games, when stuck.

"I know games weren't nearly as complicated back in the old days, but what did we do when we got stuck back in the old days?" asked Smith. "The Internet is great for game information today."

Being a Hollywood director, Smith tries to keep up with Hollywood's latest infatuation with bringing games to the big screen.

"It's fine to make a game based on a flick, but to make a flick based on a game you run the risk of ruining the game franchise," said Smith "Like whatever happened to Lara Croft after those two movies? Sometimes movies based on games work, sometimes they don't. I saw Silent Hill and it was kind of a weird departure from the game itself. I didn't see Doom, but I was never a big Doom enthusiast anyway."

When it comes to the convergence of Hollywood and games, Smith believes there's a way to bring Jay and Silent Bob to the interactive realm, but he needs some help.

"I'm really not good enough to pull it off," said Smith. "Games is one field that I like to be entertained, rather than try to be entertaining. For years, people have been telling me to do a Jay and Silent Bob game. I'd be all for it, but I'm just not the guy to do it. I'd be happy to write the back story for the game, but when it comes to what are the levels and challenges and bosses and things like that, I'm so not good at coming up with that kind of stuff. It'd be nice if someone came out with a Jay and Silent Bob game. I'd play it in a heartbeat."

The Hollywood Byte makes a weekly visit to the converging world of video games and traditional media.