Kevin Smith

Kevin Patrick Smith (born August 2, 1970) is an American screenwriter, film director, comic book writer, and creator of View Askew.

Miscellaneous information

• Smith married Jennifer Schwalbach on 25 April 1999. She was a USA Today reporter who met him when she interviewed him about his films. They have a daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, named after The Joker's sidekick Harley Quinn. Both Jennifer and Harley have appeared in his films; in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Jennifer played jewel thief Missy and Harley played young Silent Bob.
• Smith's films often feature the same actors including Jason Lee, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Mewes, and Matt Damon. Comedians Chris Rock and George Carlin have also been featured in more than one Smith film.
• Smith's production company is called View Askew Productions.
• Smith was co-executive producer for the 1998 movie Good Will Hunting, assisting friends Matt Damon and Ben Affleck with making and marketing their film. After Damon and Affleck received Academy Awards for their screenplay, critics surmised that Smith himself was responsible for the script, a rumor which Smith vehemently denied.
• In 1997, Kevin was hired by New Line to rewrite Overnight Delivery (1998), which at the time was expected to be a blockbuster teen movie. Kevin's then-girlfriend Joey Lauren Adams almost took the role of Ivy in this movie instead of acting in Chasing Amy. Eventually she lost out to Reese Witherspoon, and Overnight Delivery was quietly released directly to video. Kevin Smith's involvement with Overnight Delivery was only revealed when he wrote about his experience with it in an online column (see link below).
• Smith is a noted comic book author who has written for Marvel Comics' Daredevil and Black Cat and DC Comics' Green Arrow, and even had a cameo role in the 2003 Daredevil movie starring Ben Affleck. He has also written three original comic books based on his movies: Clerks., Chasing Dogma, and Bluntman and Chronic.
• Smith owns and operates Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank, New Jersey, a comic book store largely dedicated to merchandise related to his films; a second Secret Stash in the Westwood section of Los Angeles was opened in September 2004.
• For a time Smith was working on a script for a Superman movie, but the script was eventually discarded when Tim Burton was attached to the product. Neither Smith's nor Burton's vision for Superman were filmed.
• Not long after Clerks., Smith pitched an idea called "Bussing" about bus boys, described as "Clerks in a restaurant".
• Smith once wrote a screenplay for a film version of The Six Million Dollar Man.
• Smith has been known to do script rewrites, including a draft of the movie Coyote Ugly. (Smith said that no dialogue from his draft made it to the final film.)
• Smith has created and appeared in several short "Roadside Attractions" segments for The Tonight Show, detailing trips to random locations around the country.
• In 2002, Smith pressed his bosses at Miramax to pick up the rights to Gregory McDonald's Fletch series. Smith hopes to helm a movie adaptation of the first book in the series, Fletch Won, with the intention of making it more faithful to the original novel than the popular Chevy Chase films. Smith hoped to cast View Askew regular Jason Lee in the title role, but was nixed by Bob and Harvey Weinstein. Smith has recently spoken to Garden State's Zach Braff about the possibility of taking the role. More recently, Kevin Smith has expressed hope that the Weinsteins may change their mind based on the success of Lee's sitcom "My Name Is Earl".
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back's fictional website MoviePoopShoot.com became real in 2002, converting into an entertainment website covering movies, music, comics, toys, and video games.
• In October, 2002, Applause Theatre and Cinema Books published a study of Kevin Smith by film author John Kenneth Muir, entitled An Askew View: The Films of Kevin Smith.
• Smith has written a screenplay for a new film version of The Green Hornet. Then-Miramax head Harvey Weinstein attempted to draft Smith to direct the film, but Smith eventually backed out, noting that his directing style wasn't really "visual" enough to pull off a big-budget action movie.
• In May 2004, Montclair State University awarded Smith with an honorary PHD.
• In early 2005, Smith appeared in three episodes of the Canadian-made television show. In the episodes, Smith, portraying "himself", visited the school to work on the film Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadaian, Eh!. Smith recounted later that the idea was so good, he could almost see himself making such a movie.
• In addition to appearing on Degrassi: The Next Generation, Kevin Smith is an avid fan of the original series (Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High) and refrences to the original are present in some of his early films.
• In July 2005, at a Q & A in Vancouver, BC, Smith was awarded an honorary degree from the Vancouver Film School.