Recently Clerks and Chasing Amy director Kevin Smith hinted that he would be making a sequel to his 1995 comedy Mallrats.
Now Smith has confirmed that he will indeed be making Mallrats 2, with current plans to start filming around this time next year. Before that he makes Clerks III next, Hit Somebody, and Moose Jaws. In addition to confirming the sequel, Smith also explained what compelled him to make the movie.
Continue below to see what he had to say.
Smith confirmed his plans on his Hollywood Babble-On podcast and explained what made him want to make Mallrats 2 (thanks to /Film for the transcription):
“I hate to disappoint people but, yes, I am doing a Mallrats sequel.”…
“About a year and change ago now Jim Jacks, who was a producer on Mallrats, died. And we talked about him during the show and what a good dude he was”¦. Mallrats came out and died at the box office. It only found an audience later on. But for years Jim Jacks would always be like ‘We should do a sequel.’ Because when we were making the movie he was like ‘This is gonna make $100 million.’ He was obviously off his fuckin’ rocker. But he was like ‘You’ve gotta come up with a sequel.’ And I was like, ‘I have one already.’ ‘What is it?’ ‘Mallrats 2: Die Hard in a Mall.’ And he was like ‘Oh that’s perfect we’ll do it.’
So the movie came out, didn’t do any business and no talk of a sequel ever came up again at the studio and what not. But Jim Jacks never fucking lost faith. Even when I would kick Mallrats and make fun of it, Jacks was always the guy going ‘No man. Know what would be funny and what’s gonna redeem us? Mallrats 2: Die Hard in a Mall.’ So it was one of those things that was an ongoing theme in his life.
As I said, he passed away a year ago. I had lost touch with him for quite a few years before that and this was the biggest fucking fan of movies you’ve ever known in your life. And Clerks was the thing that kicked off my career but Mallrats brought me into a complete different world and that movie doesn’t get made without this dude at Universal going ‘Let’s make it, let’s make it.’ So I felt real shitty about missing the last years of his life and I met some people who were like, ‘We ate with Jim every fucking Thursday night and he still talked about you.’ I hadn’t seen him in years and he was still talking about me and that movie. So a year ago I was sitting here talking about this shit and I was like ‘I wanna honor the man in some way’ and this is how we’re gonna do it. We’re gonna finally make the movie I wish to Christ I made when he was living, man. So we’re finally going to make Mallrats 2.”
Whether the sequel will actually be “Die Hard in a mall” or not is not yet confirmed or denied, though it does sound just batshit crazy enough to be a good time. And given Smith’s well-documented past experience working with Bruce Willis on Cop Out, surely he could have some fun with it.
If you’re excited about the sequel, what would you like to see in Mallrats 2?
If they can capture any of what the first Mallrats was, then it’ll be awesome. I’m sure if enough of the cast returns it will do just that.
Comment by UNCARING1 — March 18, 2015 @ 8:51 pm