The Wild, Complete Story Behind Kevin Smith Reclaiming Dogma For Re-Release

Kevin Smith will always be known best as the kid from New Jersey who made a little low-budget, black and white movie called "Clerks" that launched an unlikely career. Smith's filmography has its ups and downs over the years, but his 1999 religious comedy "Dogma" about an abortion clinic worker who is called upon to save humanity from two renegade angels has increasingly been looked upon as one of his better directorial efforts.

Smith is taking the movie out on tour as we speak at theaters across the country ahead of a full theatrical re-release this summer. For years, "Dogma" was unavailable to even rent or stream because the rights were tied up by former Miramax head and disgraced executive Harvey Weinstein. So, how did the rights to this film finally get sorted out? The story is pretty wild.

/Film's Ethan Anderton recently attended a screening of "Dogma" with a Q&A by Smith where he broke the whole thing down. "[Weinstein] was told by Disney, 'Don't make that movie, don't make that Dogma movie.' And they were like, 'We won't,' and then we did." Disney was none too pleased with this, as religious groups were up in arms over the film. At the time, Miramax was owned by Disney. The solution? Harvey & Bob Weinstein bought it themselves, self-distributed it in theaters, then sold off the home video rights.

Harvey Weinstein originally called Smith to talk about a follow-up to "Dogma" just before the bombshell allegations of sexual misconduct against him dropped in late 2017. Weinstein feigned interest in reviving "Dogma" with a re-release or a sequel, but he was merely seeing if Smith was one of the sources who spoke out against him. "It wasn't even an authentic call, it wasn't even like 'I want to put out Dogma,' he was just feeling me out to see if I had ratted on him or something," Smith said.

Weinstein is now a convicted felon and is spending the rest of his life in prison. Given his troubles, Smith thought maybe, just maybe, he could get the rights to "Dogma" back. It didn't exactly pan out. Per Smith...

"I wrote a very heartfelt letter to a convicted rapist, and said, 'You've made many movies, I've only made a few, this is one of them, and this movie's tied up with my childhood faith, and it's tied up with my father, so I would really appreciate having it back. And you're not doing anything with it.'"

Smith made offers of $250,000 and $500,000, both of which were rejected. As the filmmaker further explained, Lionsgate had theatrical and Sony had home video rights. But those rights eventually lapsed, with Weinstein just squatting on them. So, Smith reached out to some friends, including his frequent collaborators Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, to give it another shot.

"I reached out to some people who might have a vested interest in seeing Dogma perhaps live on, become something else. I called Ben [Affleck] and Matt [Damon]. Then, I wrote the letter and said the same s***, but I offered a million dollars, and we were told no. And that was it, I was like, there's no way I could get more than that. I heard that he was looking for 5 million."

For a little while, that was that. Then, in 2024, Smith revealed that "Dogma" was no longer in Weinstein's control. At the time, he didn't reveal who had the rights or how they were acquired. "One day out of the blue, I get a call from this woman Alessandra, who's like, 'Hi, we bought Dogma, can you come talk about it?' And I was like, 'Yeah, who are you? What the f***?'" Smith revealed. So, Smith agreed to a meeting with the new mystery rights holders.

"There was this woman, Alessandra, and this guy Bay, sitting there, and they told me a story about what happened," Smith explained. "They said, 'Well, Harvey sold off a tranche of movies, he is going into legal battle yet again, so he needed more money, so he sold off a bunch of movies that he owned, 10 films.'"

One of those films was indeed "Dogma," and that's the only one they kept, having sold off the rights to the other nine. "I was like, 'Oh, can we buy it?'" Smith asked. That didn't happen but what did happen was almost just as good.

"They're like, 'No. But you can do anything you want with it,' and I was like, 'Seriously?' And they're like, 'Yeah, man, what do you want to do?' I was like, 'Well, I would f******g take it out on tour and stuff, that's what I've been doing with my movies lately, it's a hoot.' And they're like, 'Okay, well, what about putting it in theaters?'"

Smith and the new owners cut a deal with AMC Theatres, not unlike what Taylor Swift did with her "Eras Tour" concert film in 2023. Hence, Smith is now touring "Dogma" around the country and it proved to be a happy ending. But, amazingly enough, that isn't the whole story. There is what Smith labeled as "the real story," which he only recently heard himself.

The mysterious Alessandra produced a short film and recently invited Smith to watch it at the Gruman's Chinese Theatre, which he did. Smith then revealed that he could help her get the short played at his own Smodcastle Cinemas in New Jersey. That's when things got interesting. "She goes, 'Great, because then my mom could see it.'" Smith recalled. "I was like, 'Your mom, what do you mean?' She's like, 'Well, my mom lives right across the street from your movie theater." It only gets crazier from there, as Smith further revealed:

"She's like, 'You know Jay and Silent Bob Secret Stash?' I was like, 'Very well,' she was like, 'I worked at Coco Pari right next to it.' I was like, 'What the f***, man?' I was like, 'Why didn't you tell me any of this?' She's like, 'I didn't want to scare you.' I said, 'Well, what is happening here? Why do you know...' She's going? 'Well, I saw you talking about Dogma, and then I saw you say that you couldn't get it back. And I love this movie,' she's like, 'My mom, let me watch it when I was 10. She was pretty loose. It was one of my favorite movies, and when you were talking about you couldn't get back, I got sad because I was like, 'Oh, people should see this movie.' So, I thought I'd help."

Alessandra helped indeed. Not only is this tour happening, but Smith also revealed that he's currently writing "Dogma 2." So we may well see a sequel in the coming years. All because a huge fan of his work ended up working for a company that had enough money to rip the rights away from Weinstein.

"I have 31 years in this business, and I've got connections, and famous friends, and a modicum of cash and s*** like that, and I could not get Dogma back. Alessandra, from the sidelines, is like, 'Oh, I bet you I can help,' and f***** manifested all of this," Smith added. "It's been absolute f*****g bliss, man."

Look for "Dogma" in theaters once again on June 5, 2025, and there will finally be new 4K and Blu-ray releases at some point as well.