Kevin Smith Coming Out of Non-Retirement for Hammer-Style Horror Flick ‘Tusk’

By  · Published on September 26th, 2013

Since dropping out of film school, Kevin Smith has learned how to be a director in the public eye. However, that process has really only taken shape with his last two movies – Cop Out and Red State. Everything before was like watching a friend who’s naturally good at drawing make comic books that everyone seems to like. Smith had the walk-and-talk down, and he’d tapped into a realistic brand of slackerism that came with grand romantic gestures, but he hadn’t pushed to where real learning happens: outside his comfort zone.

Cop Out was definitely outside, and Red State became the equal, opposite reaction to the maligned studio comedy. There were flaws (Smith still doesn’t know how to frame or edit a shootout), but the good ideas and potential were there the way they’d be with any student trying something new. That’s why it was disappointing when he announced his retirement just as he was entering adolescence. Fortunately, it seems like his retirement is a bit like Steven Soderbergh’s “retirement” – Smith is making another horror film before launching into the capstone course of Clerks III.

Oh, and it sounds as crazy as the neighbor who has binoculars on the windowsill facing your house. According to Indiewire, Smith will be reteaming with the astoundingly talented Michael Parks for Tusk, the story of a mad man who lures a guy (presumably Justin Long) to his house to turn him into a walrus using fake blubber. They’re shooting this October with an eye toward Sundance, which will be the perfect place to sell tie-in blubber suits and cause an avalanche.

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