KEVIN SMITH
Name: Kevin Patrick Smith
Born: 2 August 1970 Red Bank, New Jersey
Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American screenwriter, film
director, and the founder of View Askew Productions. He has also enjoyed some
success as a comic book writer and actor. Smith's films are often set in his
home state of New Jersey, and while not strictly sequential, do feature
crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon, the View
Askewniverse.
Smith was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, the son of Grace, a homemaker, and
Donald Smith, a postal worker. He has an older sister, Virginia, and an
older brother, Donald Smith, Jr. He was raised in a Catholic household and
attended Henry Hudson Regional High School in Highlands, The New School for
Social Research in New York and the Vancouver Film School, where he met Scott
Mosier, his producer in every movie that he has made. He majored in film, but
dropped out halfway through his studies, electing to take a partial tuition
reimbursement in order to help finance his first film. Smith is married to
Jennifer Schwalbach Smith. He named his daughter Harley Quinn after character
Harleen "Harley Quinn" Quinzel from Batman: The Animated Series. Although
Smith was raised Catholic he has said on Back To The Well, the Clerks II
documentary, that now he only goes to mass on days before he starts production
of a movie, and the day before it premieres. He never smoked until his debut
film, Clerks, where he used the cigarettes as a prop, but never actually inhaled.
In fact, he has said that prior to filming Clerks, he was a staunch non-smoker.
Today, he does smoke regularly. Smith's weight has always been a defining
characteristic, and has gained him unwanted media attention.
His first film, Clerks, was shot in the same convenience store Smith worked for
the sum total of $27,575.00. It went to the Sundance Film Festival in 1994,
where it won the Filmmaker's Trophy and was picked up by Miramax before the fest's
end. In May of 1994, it went to the Cannes International Film Festival where it
won both the Prix de la Jeunesse and the International Critics' Week Prize.
Released in November 1994 in two cities, the film went on to play in fifty
markets, never playing on more than fifty screens at any given time. It was a
critical and financial success, earning $3.1 million.
Initially, the film received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, solely for the
graphic language. Miramax hired Alan Dershowitz to defend the film, At an
appeals screening, a "jury" consisting of members of the National Association of
Theater Owners reversed the MPAA's decision, and the film was given an R rating
instead.
Smith's second film didn't fare as well as his first. Mallrats received a
critical drubbing and earned merely $2.2 million at the box office, despite
playing on more than 500 screens. The film marked Jason Lee's debut as a leading
man. While it later found its audience on home video, earning the title "cult
classic", Smith has said of the movie "It was a six million dollar casting call
for Chasing Amy."
Widely held as Smith's best work, Chasing Amy marked what Quentin Tarantino
called "A quantum leap forward" for Smith. Starring Mallrats alumni Jason Lee,
Joey Lauren Adams and Ben Affleck, the $250,000.00 film earned $12 million at
the box office and wound up on a number of critics' year-end-best lists, and won
two Independent Spirit Awards (screenplay and supporting actor for Lee).
Smith's next film, Dogma, had an all-star cast and found itself mired in
controversy. The religious-themed comedy starring a post-Good Will Hunting Ben
Affleck and Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, Alan Rickman, Linda Fiorentino,
and Smith regulars Jason Lee and Jason Mewes raised the ire of the Catholic
League due largely to a reference about the Virgin Mary having post-Jesus
intercourse with her husband, Joseph. Smith received over ten thousand pieces of
protest/hate mail (some of which were showcased on the film's official website)
and three death threats.
The film debuted at the 1999 Cannes International Film Festival, out of
competition. Released on 800 screens in November, 1999, the $10 million budgeted
film it earned $30 million.
After the controversy surrounding Dogma, Smith said he wanted to make a movie
that couldn't be attacked for its content. Focusing the spotlight on two
characters who'd appeared in supporting roles in his previous four films, Jay
and Silent Bob Strike Back featured an all-star cast, with many familiar faces
returning from Smith's first four films. The $20 million film earned $30 million
at the box office and received mixed reviews from the critics. It was meant to
be the film that closed the book on the "Askewniverse" - the Jersey-based,
interconnected quintet of movies written and directed by Smith.
Jersey Girl was seen as a post-Gigli Bennifer movie (also starring George Carlin
and Liv Tyler) that was meant to mark a new direction in Smith's career took a
critical beating. Budgeted at $35 million, it earned only $25 million.
Clerks II marked one more trip into the Askewniverse, Smith resurrected the
Dante and Randal characters from his first film and looked in on them ten years
later. Roundly criticized before its release, the film went on to win favorable
reviews as well as two awards (the Audience Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival
and the Orbit Dirtiest Mouth Award at the Mtv Movie Awards). It marked Smith's
third trip to the Cannes International Film Festival, where Clerks II received
an eight minute standing ovation. The $5 million dollar film, starring Jeff
Anderson, Brian O'Halloran, Rosario Dawson, Jason Mewes, Jennifer Schwalbach and
Smith himself - reprising his role as Silent Bob - earned $25 million. It was
named one of the Top Ten Films of 2006 on the British television program "Film
2006" and wound up on many year-end top ten critics' lists.
Name: Kevin Patrick Smith
Born: 2 August 1970 Red Bank, New Jersey
Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American screenwriter, film
director, and the founder of View Askew Productions. He has also enjoyed some
success as a comic book writer and actor. Smith's films are often set in his
home state of New Jersey, and while not strictly sequential, do feature
crossover plot elements, character references, and a shared canon, the View
Askewniverse.
Smith was born in Red Bank, New Jersey, the son of Grace, a homemaker, and
Donald Smith, a postal worker. He has an older sister, Virginia, and an
older brother, Donald Smith, Jr. He was raised in a Catholic household and
attended Henry Hudson Regional High School in Highlands, The New School for
Social Research in New York and the Vancouver Film School, where he met Scott
Mosier, his producer in every movie that he has made. He majored in film, but
dropped out halfway through his studies, electing to take a partial tuition
reimbursement in order to help finance his first film. Smith is married to
Jennifer Schwalbach Smith. He named his daughter Harley Quinn after character
Harleen "Harley Quinn" Quinzel from Batman: The Animated Series. Although
Smith was raised Catholic he has said on Back To The Well, the Clerks II
documentary, that now he only goes to mass on days before he starts production
of a movie, and the day before it premieres. He never smoked until his debut
film, Clerks, where he used the cigarettes as a prop, but never actually inhaled.
In fact, he has said that prior to filming Clerks, he was a staunch non-smoker.
Today, he does smoke regularly. Smith's weight has always been a defining
characteristic, and has gained him unwanted media attention.
His first film, Clerks, was shot in the same convenience store Smith worked for
the sum total of $27,575.00. It went to the Sundance Film Festival in 1994,
where it won the Filmmaker's Trophy and was picked up by Miramax before the fest's
end. In May of 1994, it went to the Cannes International Film Festival where it
won both the Prix de la Jeunesse and the International Critics' Week Prize.
Released in November 1994 in two cities, the film went on to play in fifty
markets, never playing on more than fifty screens at any given time. It was a
critical and financial success, earning $3.1 million.
Initially, the film received an NC-17 rating from the MPAA, solely for the
graphic language. Miramax hired Alan Dershowitz to defend the film, At an
appeals screening, a "jury" consisting of members of the National Association of
Theater Owners reversed the MPAA's decision, and the film was given an R rating
instead.
Smith's second film didn't fare as well as his first. Mallrats received a
critical drubbing and earned merely $2.2 million at the box office, despite
playing on more than 500 screens. The film marked Jason Lee's debut as a leading
man. While it later found its audience on home video, earning the title "cult
classic", Smith has said of the movie "It was a six million dollar casting call
for Chasing Amy."
Widely held as Smith's best work, Chasing Amy marked what Quentin Tarantino
called "A quantum leap forward" for Smith. Starring Mallrats alumni Jason Lee,
Joey Lauren Adams and Ben Affleck, the $250,000.00 film earned $12 million at
the box office and wound up on a number of critics' year-end-best lists, and won
two Independent Spirit Awards (screenplay and supporting actor for Lee).
Smith's next film, Dogma, had an all-star cast and found itself mired in
controversy. The religious-themed comedy starring a post-Good Will Hunting Ben
Affleck and Matt Damon, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, Alan Rickman, Linda Fiorentino,
and Smith regulars Jason Lee and Jason Mewes raised the ire of the Catholic
League due largely to a reference about the Virgin Mary having post-Jesus
intercourse with her husband, Joseph. Smith received over ten thousand pieces of
protest/hate mail (some of which were showcased on the film's official website)
and three death threats.
The film debuted at the 1999 Cannes International Film Festival, out of
competition. Released on 800 screens in November, 1999, the $10 million budgeted
film it earned $30 million.
After the controversy surrounding Dogma, Smith said he wanted to make a movie
that couldn't be attacked for its content. Focusing the spotlight on two
characters who'd appeared in supporting roles in his previous four films, Jay
and Silent Bob Strike Back featured an all-star cast, with many familiar faces
returning from Smith's first four films. The $20 million film earned $30 million
at the box office and received mixed reviews from the critics. It was meant to
be the film that closed the book on the "Askewniverse" - the Jersey-based,
interconnected quintet of movies written and directed by Smith.
Jersey Girl was seen as a post-Gigli Bennifer movie (also starring George Carlin
and Liv Tyler) that was meant to mark a new direction in Smith's career took a
critical beating. Budgeted at $35 million, it earned only $25 million.
Clerks II marked one more trip into the Askewniverse, Smith resurrected the
Dante and Randal characters from his first film and looked in on them ten years
later. Roundly criticized before its release, the film went on to win favorable
reviews as well as two awards (the Audience Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival
and the Orbit Dirtiest Mouth Award at the Mtv Movie Awards). It marked Smith's
third trip to the Cannes International Film Festival, where Clerks II received
an eight minute standing ovation. The $5 million dollar film, starring Jeff
Anderson, Brian O'Halloran, Rosario Dawson, Jason Mewes, Jennifer Schwalbach and
Smith himself - reprising his role as Silent Bob - earned $25 million. It was
named one of the Top Ten Films of 2006 on the British television program "Film
2006" and wound up on many year-end top ten critics' lists.