Kevin Smith To Shoot MALLRATS 2 Next

Film shoots are primarily dependent on the schedules of the actors involved, but sometimes other factors come into play. In the case of Kevin Smith’s announced comedy Mallrats 2, the availability of its titular location has moved the project up Kevin Smith’s shooting schedule to sooner rather than later. Be warned, that reason also contains a potential spoiler.

As is usual with his projects, the news came from Smith’s Hollywood Babble-On podcast (transcribed by Nerd Bastards).

We’ve been putting together Mallrats 2….It’s been a real, like Blues Brothers ‘We’re putting the band back together, on a mission from Smod.’ So this week, we had a lot of activity behind the scenes as well and it looks like we might — it’s Mallrats and so we require a big old empty mall, and it would be nice if we could do things to the mall. So if you had a mall and the mall was eventually going away, that would let you like blow the f—ing mall up, which happens in the third act.

So we found a place that we can go to and in order to get to that mall before it goes away, we were talking about initially shooting Clerks 3 this summer and then we were going to get to Mallrats in the beginning of 2016. And then it jumped into 2015, where we were going to shoot Clerks and then hopefully Mallrats before the end of the year. But now, based on a f—ing mall that we all dig that will be going away, the priority has become Mallrats. So the next f—ing movie I’m making is Mallrats 2. No word on Batfleck yet… but it would be fun to see if we could get him.

That Smith and company sound like they are looking for a location that they could trash lines up with the writer/director’s previous statements that a Mallrats sequel would be “Die Hard in a mall.” And the Blues Brothers reference, with that film’s classic shopping mall destruction sequence is probably a very telling Freudian slip as to the havoc that will wrought in the course oft he film’s story.

Mallrats 2 has been in the news a lot these past few weeks, as Smith has announced the names of various Mallrats cast members who have already agreed to return for the sequel. So far Jason Lee, Jeremy London, Shannen Doherty, Michael Rooker, Ethan Suplee, Jason Mewes, Renee Humphrey, Joey Lauren Adams, Sven-Ole Thorsen, Stan Lee, Scott Mosier, Brian O’Halloran, Walt Flanagan and Bryan Johnson have committed to reprising their roles. Smith is still looking to have another three actors return and although he hasn’t mentioned any names, the aforementioned Ben Affleck as well as Claire Forlani and Priscilla Barnes are three of the most likely candidates.

And while I am excited to see what Smith has in store for Mallrats 2, I am a bit disappointed that this has pushed back Clerks 3. Still, it does work a bit in Smith’s favor in that this year is the 20th anniversary of the film’s original release. Of course, whether or not he’ll be able to get the film released this year remains to be seen.