Kevin Smith Is Making a ‘Dogma’ Sequel and Wants To Bring It To Cannes

It’s been a big year for Dogma, Kevin Smith’s 1999 religious comedy film. After spending decades in a weird, legal limbo where it couldn’t be reproduced or released, thanks to the Weinsteins personally owning the rights. It was just sitting there, despite being one of Smith’s best efforts. However, the Weinsteins finally sold the rights, and Smith plans to release the film digitally and on Blu-ray or 4K for us physical media freaks. He’s also taking it on tour, as part of a re-release in theaters, and kicked that off by bringing it to the Cannes film festival, where it was screened in 1999.

This is all going so well that Smith has confirmed his intent to make a sequel to the film, which is a wild turn of events. But, as Smith explained to Deadline, he’s been swept up in the magic of his victory lap. “What I didn’t realize is, I would get there and I’d get bit by the bug again, and I’d be seeing all these places, these haunts from my childhood, from my 20s, so to speak, from the three times I was there when I was a kid,” Smith noted. “And suddenly, I was like, ‘Why is it that you assume that the Cannes-worthy portion of your life is over? You never even expected it to begin in the first place. It was never part of the aim. It just came along with the journey. Maybe if you really try, you could.’”

It’s interesting that Smith wants to make not only a sequel but also one that is “Cannes-worthy.” I love Smith and most of his movies. I don’t think any of the ones he’s made recently would find themselves at Cannes. Clerks 3 made me dry-heave while tackling the inevitability of death, but I don’t think that was the case for everyone. It doesn’t help that Smith took a few years of his career to direct CW shows, and while he did some great work, his movies began looking more like television. By his own admission, he was moving quickly through setups, and the results looked as such.

That being said, Smith still can portray emotion onscreen. He could hit all the right beats in a Dogma sequel, especially given all he’s been through since the first. “Dogma’s been around longer than I was a normal human being. So, I’ve had a whole other lifetime to kind of fill up a script,” he explained. “And so I feel like, if I had done a Dogma follow-up two years, five years, even 10 years after it, it wouldn’t be what this one’s gonna be. Now, I have the perspective of somebody that almost died from a heart attack a few years ago, too, so I feel like I can talk about the mortal coil and what exists beyond.”

I’m onboard. I was going to be onboard, but hearing why he wants to make it solidifies my support. Smith went on to say that there is room for everyone from the original film (with an obvious and unfortunate exception), saying, “If they want to come back, they’ll have a role to play, but if not, no harm, no foul.” The man is dead set on getting a sequel made, and I’ll be there watching it happily. Hopefully, it’s good, but I’ll be psyched regardless.