Kevin Smith says he’s cracked the story for the Dogma sequel

Shortly after regaining control of Dogma from the Weinsteins last year, Kevin Smith quickly announced that he was working on a sequel. Since then, Smith has taken the original film on tour, including a screening at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, which prompted him to get bitten by the festival bug again. He told Deadline that he wants to return to the festival with a sequel to Dogma by 2028.

“What I didn’t realize is, I would get there and I’d get bit by the bug again, and I’d be seeing all these places, these haunts from my childhood, from my 20s, so to speak, from the three times I was there when I was a kid, once in ’94 with Clerks, once in ’99 with Dogma, and then again in 2006 with Clerks 2,” Smith said. “And suddenly, I was like, ‘Why is it that you assume that the Cannes-worthy portion of your life is over? You never even expected it to begin in the first place. It was never part of the aim. It just came along with the journey. Maybe if you really try, you could.’ So, it was the 78th edition this year and so I was like, ‘You know what? I wanna come back on the 80th, or the 81st at the latest with the Dogma sequel, like that’s a Cannes-worthy movie.’ And so, I said that on stage when I was intro-ing and everybody applauded, and [festival director] Thierry Frémaux was on stage with me, and he adds, ‘if it is good,’ and I was like, ‘fair enough, if it’s good, yes.’“

As for the Dogma sequel, Smith says he’s been “whimsying about it for the last six months” and has finally cracked the story.

“I absolutely love it. I feel like when people see it, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, I get it,’ like ‘that makes sense’ kind of thing. Hopefully they’ll be like, ‘that’s clever’ and not be like, ‘well shit, I would have done that,’” Smith said. “I will set a place at the table for everyone who was in the first movie who is still alive. Sadly, Alan [Rickman] and George [Carlin] won’t be able to join us, but I’ll set a place at the table for all of them. If they want to come back, they’ll have a role to play, but if not, no harm, no foul. The story I’m telling can definitely make use of everybody who is in Dogma, but I can also tell it without. So, that makes me pretty excited to go forward. It’s its own unique tale.“

Following up a beloved film with a belated sequel doesn’t always work out, but Smith feels that he’s got a winner on his hands, at least at this stage. “I feel very happy with it,” he said. “I can’t drop the ball on it. It’s like one of the last f***ing movies I ever made that’s beloved across the boards and shit like that. So, I would never step up to the plate unless I was like, ‘Oh, this will f***ing work nicely as a companion piece.’ So, I feel pretty great about it, man. But of course during the whimsy stage one always feels great about it. It’s when you make it and everyone sees it and they’re like, ‘Well, that f***ing sucks. You should have left well enough alone.’ You just hope it doesn’t come to that.” Hopefully not.

Just last week, Smith told us that he’s working closely with a “popular physical media distributor” to get a 4K Steelbook version of Dogma ready for a December release.

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