Mallrats TV Series to be Pitched by Kevin Smith to Many Outlets

Kevin Smith saw formerly auspicious plans for a sequel to his 1995 cinematic comedy classic Mallrats get treated as an unwatched child caught in the proverbial escalator when Universal nixed the project’s big screen prospects back in June. However, in a silver lining, the studio did salvage Smith’s efforts, greenlighting a prospective 10-episode television series. Now, the writer/director/geek icon is revving the engine of his small-screen-reinvented Mallrats, taking a pitch tour to all the right outlets.

In an update posted on his Facebook, Smith has confirmed that he will be taking this week to pitch the Mallrats sequel series project to prestige television parties, specifically naming streaming platforms Netflix, Amazon (who carry his latest film Yoga Hosers), Hulu and even one from the world of premium cable with Showtime.

This is certainly an encouraging development, especially after Smith’s plans for the film sequel he intended to title Mallbrats had seemingly achieved the successful corralling of most of the original film’s cast members, notably Jason Lee, Shannon Dougherty, Jeremy London and Michael Rooker only to fall apart. However, at this point it hasn’t been revealed if the actors would be up for the retooled television rendition and Smith’s post seems to discuss the possibility of their return in the context of speculation.

Interestingly enough, according to Smith, another notable cast member from Mallrats in the enigmatic, advice-giving, cameo-coaxing comic-book-deity Stan Lee also chimed in on the television project. Smith does have plans for Lee to return an apparently “major part” in the series. However, when Smith ran into Lee at this past weekend’s New York Comic-Con, he pitched his series ideas, to which Lee – who turns 94 in December – responded, "Well, hurry up! I'm not getting any younger!"

For fans, especially of the comic-book-savvy variety, Smith’s 1995 sophomore directorial effort Mallrats represented an intriguing waypoint between the sardonic indie rawness of Clerks and the studio-funded mainstream efforts he would eventually tackle (to varying degrees of success). While the film carried its own nostalgic themes, a special layer of compounded nostalgia has been developed for its mix of wit, ribaldry and slapstick stunts. Thus, any one of the television outlets hearing Smith’s pitch would be well-advised to pick up the Mallrats sequel series.

Our original article below as it appeared on 6/10/16:

Mallrats 2 is Dead as a Movie, Will Instead Become a 10-Episode TV Series

For about a year, writer/director/geek-icon Kevin Smith has been using social media platforms to hype getting the band back together for the impending production of the long-awaited sequel to his 1995 comedy Mallrats, which was given the title Mallbrats. However, it appears that movie studio minutiae have necessitated a change in format from the big screen to the small one.

This morning Smith showed up for a radio interview on the Preston and Steve show of 93.3 WMMR. Appropriately enough, Smith chose the Philadelphia-based Rock station located close to the Exton, PA shopping mall in which the new movie was to be filmed to drop a bombshell bit of news about the project. According to Smith, the long-gestating film sequel that was to become Mallbrats just got the proverbial stinkpalm with IP owner Universal passing on the project. However, Smith revealed that he has come to a different agreement with the studio and will see the Mallbrats story salvaged and modified as a 10-episode television series.

EXCLUSIVE @ThatKevinSmith confirms #MallRats2 is heading into production...as a 10 episode series! Filming dates TBD pic.twitter.com/jCCQmlEldI

— Preston & Steve Show (@PrestonSteve933) June 10, 2016

In the interview (transcribed via Consequences of Sound), Smith claims that the genesis of the Mallbrats film project came about after he was initially assured by his agency that Universal studio would be amenable to the idea of selling the property back to him, allowing the self-financing of the film project. Thus, Smith wrote the script and eventually corralled several of the original cast members, notably Jason Lee’s original protagonist Brodie Bruce. The film project, while inevitably lower in budget, was set to become fully realized. – That was, until red flags started to show when Universal wanted the script submitted. As Smith recounts:

“And so we submitted the script and my agent comes back to me and he goes, ‘Well, apparently Universal has never let a catalogue title go, any title they own, they’ve retained, they’ve never done something where they’re like, ‘Oh, you can take it back and go make a sequel. Never in the history of the studio.’ So, I was like, ‘Wait, but you told me that was one of my options.’ ‘Well, apparently I was wrong. So, right now there are two options: you make it fully studio financed or you co-finance it with the studio.’ So we entered a protracted negotiation with Universal trying to get it made in different pockets of the studio.”

The incident made Smith rethink the feasibility of releasing a sequel to a 20+ year-old film (Even though sequels to 20-year-old efforts like Independence Day and Trainspotting are imminent). Consequently, the movie that would have been Mallbrats was nixed before it even got out that gate. However, Smith still had an idea about how to save the long-awaited Mallrats follow-up story by parlaying his recent success in getting a television revival greenlit of the 1984 Peter-Weller-starring cult classic The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8^th Dimension. Thus, the continuing story of Mallrats will live on in the realm of television.

Interestingly enough, as Smith's latest writing and directorial effort Yoga Hosers gets set for its July 29 theatrical release, it could be the case that the star of AMC’s Comic Book Men reality show and director of a recent episode of The CW’s hit genre series The Flash, could find an entirely new Renaissance for himself on the small screen.