Director/writer Kevin Smith set out to write another movie script but quickly gained some inspiration from ‘Book of Mormon’ and decided to turn it into a musical instead…
Kevin Smith may not seem like the busiest guy in Hollywood seeing as the last film he directed — Red State — came out in 2011 but that’s only for the random movie goer that doesn’t keep up with a guy who apparently never sleeps given all of the projects he has going on at any one time.
Smith produces a slew of podcasts each week in addition to his show Spoilers! (currently running in Canada) and recently wrapping up production on his newest horror film titled ‘Tusk’. Just after finishing up that film, Smith decided that he had another great idea for a movie based on Episode 52 of his SmodCast podcast in which a giant rapturing Jesus is about to destroy Earth and mankind has to team up with Hell to stop him.
The film was going to be called ‘Helena Handbag’ but after only a day or so writing the script Smith had an epiphany.
“I got about 20 pages in when I realized there was no way to write this inexpensively as a feature film,” Smith wrote on Facebook. “Everything was requiring too many effects that I could never achieve using in-camera tricks like forced perspective. It was starting to feel like a pricier project than I know I’d ever be able to find money to make. And then I remembered this is a SModcast Picture. What do we do on SModcast sometimes? We sing. We make up stupid songs. And my favorite piece of art ever produced by human hands is the glorious BOOK OF MORMON. So… I started reshaping the HELENA HANDBAG script as a piece of SMusical theater, with BOOK OF MORMON as my spirit animal. And holy shit… does THIS feel right!”
Book of Mormon was a musical written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone that ended up being a critical and financial success in the Broadway circle and now Smith will look to add yet another credit to his IMDB page.
Now for those of you that might doubt Smith’s musical endeavors let me caution you of a few things — first I believe Smith can do pretty much anything he wants and do it well. He’s re-invented himself from ‘the Clerks guy’ to become one of the funniest podcast producers on the planet. Second, if you are wondering where Smith will get the musical inclinations to write the songs for his project look no further than Smodcast No. 210 titled ‘Teddy Bear Picnic’ and fast forward to about an hour and 10 minutes in and listen to Smith and producer/co-host Scott Mosier break down the art of the spoken country song.
It’s worth your while.
