‘Dogma’ director Kevin Smith is creating a sequel nearly 30 years after the original premiered, following numerous attempts to recover the rights to the movie from disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Miramax Films, a movie production and distribution company now known as Miramax, LLC, was originally founded in 1979 by the brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, with a focus on independent films.
It was acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 1993. Smith’s theological comedy ‘Dogma’ was subsequently released by Miramax in 1999, but the Weinsteins later purchased the rights themselves.
“Harvey Weinstein bought the movie, personally, himself, away from Miramax back in the day, because Miramax was owned by Disney, and Disney wanted this movie out of their lives,” Smith told Fox News Digital. “Harvey and his brother Bob had, in the past, bought movies away from their company and distributed them themselves.”
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Smith cast doubt on whether Weinstein had ever actually paid for the movie, suggesting that Disney hadn’t wanted to make ‘Dogma’ in the first place and that backlash around the time of its release may have been enough to cause the company to allow Weinstein to “just take it” for free.
Regardless, Weinstein owned the movie personally, so Smith couldn’t get to it. He detailed his many attempts to buy back the rights in the wide-ranging interview.
“I was like, ‘Hey, this movie means nothing to you. You’ve made so many movies … and this one’s tied up in my childhood faith and my father and stuff, so can I buy the movie back? You’re not doing anything with it,'” Smith said.
He said he first offered $250,000, then $500,000, which would have required him to shut down Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash, his comic book store of nearly three decades in Red Bank, New Jersey. But it wasn’t enough. Smith needed help.
“I was like, ‘Who else has a vested interest in seeing ‘Dogma’ go forward?’ So I reached out to Ben [Affleck] and Matt [Damon],” who starred in the film.
He returned to Weinstein with an offer of one million dollars. “And we were still told ‘no.’ So that was it. I couldn’t get to it. Every time I wrote [to Weinstein] — absolute stonewall situation.”
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When the rights became available, Smith said it had nothing to do with him.
“A small company bought it, like a hedge fund, and so they didn’t even know that they were buying it. They just bought 10 movies from Harvey Weinstein, who was still going through some legal troubles the way I understand it and always needs money for court,” Smith said. “So he sold off a tranche of movies that he personally owned.”
The company didn’t sell ‘Dogma’ back to Smith, but did partner with him to tour the movie again and make it available for purchase at home after years of scarcity — a move Smith felt was worth it anyway.
“It just felt like, even though I ain’t going to get rich off this — somebody else is, and that’s the movie business — it’s my chance to go play with it. It’s my chance to hang out and enjoy a second bite of the apple,” Smith said.
“So rarely does life afford you the ability to do the same thing twice. Two roads diverge in a yellow wood, right?”
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At this point in his career, Smith told Fox News Digital he wasn’t motivated by money.
“I do things just to see people’s expression change or just to kill a couple months,” he said. “I know the economy is collapsing and nobody has any money left, so maybe it’s even easier to make that decision. But sometimes you just got to do stuff because it’s fun.”
Smith said taking ‘Dogma’ out for a second spin during its 25th anniversary “Resurrection Tour” had been quite rewarding.
“Taking ‘Dogma’ back out into the world for a whole new generation was fun. Turns out, that generation was exposed to it by the previous generation, which does my heart so good.”
He expressed surprise at the variation in ages among the Resurrection Tour’s audience members. He said he expected that most attendees would have seen the movie when it released, and was pleased to find that parents had shared the movie with their children, even as he joked about whether it was age-appropriate for some spectators.
He said his father used to take him to see “stuff that was well beyond my years, like R-rated movies,” when he was young.
“It’s nice to know that tradition continued in suburbia,” Smith said with a smile.
