Kevin Smith Says 'Hit Somebody' Back To One Movie; No Timetable On Production

Earlier this year, Kevin Smith told fans he was hoping to begin production on his final film, Hit Somebody, over the summer aimed at a 2013 premiere at Sundance. That didn't happen, and the reasons for the delay are plentiful. Smith himself has been incredibly busy, working on books, TV, and a speaking tour. He admits he may have been overly ambitious. The director had hoped to make Hit Somebody an epic two-part send-off for his directing career, and in a new interview he's updated the timeline.

Smith has decided two films, especially expensive period films like Hit Somebody, would be too much, so he's currently working at combining his two scripts back into one. He also said there's currently no timeline on production, mostly because he doesn't want to rush out an inferior product. Read his quotes after the jump.

This news came from an interview Smith did with The Playlist promoting his new EPIX special.

Here's what he said about the film going back from two to one:

The problem with 'Hit Somebody' is that I wanted to do it as two movies. It's tough to get one hockey movie made, let alone two. So I've switched back to one movie. I had one-and-a-half scripts that I had to get down to one. I want to get it down to a 150-page script and I know that's longer than the average script length but I figure I give myself a two-and-a-half hour length on paper knowing that I'm really ruthless in editorial and I can get it down to 2, 2:05, because this is a movie that takes place over 30 years," he explained. "So at the end of the day if I can get the script down to 150 pages then I can pull the trigger and we're off and running. And right now I'm at page 240. So I've still got to page 90 pages out. It's a lot of material that I'm just paring down.

As for when we might see that film, Smith is confident but not in a rush:

I've been occupying myself with 'Spoilers' or the 'Jay And Silent Bob' tour from which the EPIX special comes, I wrote the book, and there's other TV stuff coming down the pike that's kind of exciting. I've been keeping myself busy. People are like 'What's with that last movie?' And it's like, well, it is my last movie so I'm going to do it right and do it on my own timetable. I feel no need to rush into production. I still want to do it for as little money as possible. You're talking about a movie that takes place between 1950 and 1980 – period piece. It's going to be expensive, in a way that none of my other conversation pieces have been expensive, because those were pretty much set in the present. You're talking about not only dressing motherf***ers through 30 years of period, but all the equipment, cars, so it's going to cost a little bit of money. I'm going to try and keep it low. When I say a little bit of money I'm talking about $20 – 30 million.

Depending on how you look at this, the news can be seen as either good or bad. Personally, I was always a bit wary of the two film approach, just because it felt like Smith wouldn't rein himself in. Going back to one film should remove any doubt of that. And while it's disappointing we won't see Hit Somebody any time soon, the fact that Smith is taking his time with it can only make it better.

What are your feeling on this latest Smith update?

UPDATE: /Film reader Travis H tweeted us saying at a new Q&A in Edmonton, Smith spoke about Hit Somebody possibly being a miniseries. The discussion will reportedly be in episode 99 of Jay and Silent Bob Get Old.