Is Kevin Smith planning to retire from filmmaking following his announced hockey film Hit Somebody and a third and final Clerks movie? A few of the blogs are reporting on a selected comment made by Smith from an interview published in this week’s Boston Phoenix (found via NerdBastards). Here is what Smith told interviewer Barry Thompson:

“Red State is done. Next step is the hockey movie, Hit Somebody. Then I’m done. There’s possibly a Clerks 3. If I have something to say in my late 40s about being in my late 40s, I’ll think of [Clerks’] Dante and Randal. Shy of that, I don’t have any more movies I want to make.”

We decided to contact Smith to see if the quote might have been taken out of context, and find out the real story direct from Silent Bob himself. Smith has given us permission to reprint his response on the site.

In addition to his “retirement” response, Smith gives us a couple tidbits: The lead for Hit Somebody will be announced on Monday and the surprising revelation of how Smith hopes to secure a distributor for his finished indie horror film Red State. Read the full response, after the jump.

The following is Smith’s E-Mail:

This isn’t news. Y’know what is news? That RED STATE podcast – and we give it away every week FOR FREE. Y’know what else is news? That Richard Kelly podcast. That’s one INSANELY juicy and useful document if you’ve ever been interested in making a film, or even if you’ve just wondered about the vagaries of the movie biz.

But THIS “retirement” crap? Not news so much as another sad example of how fucking lazy movie pr ess has become: they cannibalize stories by other writers just to have something to post on their own blogs. Yours was the only website that bothered to go DIRECTLY to the source, Peter – other cats ran articles without even tossing a Tweet my way to check veracity. And I answer Tweets like I answer the dinner bell: often & much. While sweating. And already eating something else.

I’ve always said (since CLERKS, even) that I’ve got about ten films in me (that info might even be on my Wikipedia page). And COP OUT notwithstanding (solely because I didn’t write it), HIT SOMEBODY is the 10th film I’ve got in me. At this moment in time, I’ve got no other flicks I wanna make. The musing about a possible return visit to the View Askewniverse with a third CLERKS is something I’ve been doing since CLERKS II, but I’ve always opened said musings with the disclaimer “If I ever wanna make a flick about being in my 40’s, I’ll think of Da nte & Randal first.” There are no concrete plans for a CLERKS III.

The author of the Boston Phoenix piece did a really nice job of not hyping that throwaway factoid in the article and turning it into the exact piece of specious bullshit “news” the websites you mentioned are trying to create of it.

You want REAL Kevin Smith news? Listen to HOLLYWOOD BABBLE-ON tomorrow morning and I’ll tell you who the lead in HIT SOMEBODY is gonna be. Or download the RED STATE OF THE UNION podcast this Tuesday and find out what actors passed on the flick! THAT shit’s Kevin Smith news, son!

But if you can’t wait ’til then? If you’ve GOTTA have some Kevin Smith news to hold you over? Here’s something that’s not so much news as my stated intentions for RED STATE: if it gets into Sundance, my plan is to pick the RED STATE distributor right there – IN THE ROOM – auction style. Might even bring up a professional auctioneer to make it fun and unintelligible. And if you’re a multi-millionaire who can’t make it to the first screening of RED STATE, fear not: maybe we’ll set up an eBay page for the post-screening bid-calling as well.

See? With a little diligence on a newsie’s behalf, not only did he get to the bottom of his story, he got some exclusive shit nobody else has as well! And it’s not like Peter’s got a secret line to me. I’m WAY reachable. I’m so tired of doing lazy fucker’s jobs FOR them – especially when they’re the same lazy fuckers who’re screaming “YOUR MOVIE SUCKS!” a month later anyway. Some of your peers need to act a little less entitled and a little more Sciretta.

Smith, who made first made it big at Sundance with Clerks, is again trying to push the boundaries or independent filmmaking. Bidding usually goes on behind closed doors, but of course, nothing is too private for Smith. You have to appreciate that. Although I somehow doubt this will really happen. Either way it is sure to be a spectacle. And I for one hope that Smith doesn’t decide to hang it up with a tenth or eleventh film. He’s a natural storyteller, and as much as I love his podcasts, I’m pretty sure he’ll find more stories to tell which require the visual medium.

