Anyone remotely familiar with film history knows that the first Star Wars movie, i.e. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope was a game changer, particularly on the special visual effects front. Still, it’s been 42 years since that movie came out, and moviemaking technology has evolved significantly since then.
Keeping that in mind, director Kevin Smith, who’s delivering Jay and Silent Bob Reboot later this year, claims that his latest View Askewniverse entry has more visual effects in it than the original Star Wars. As Smith put it:
This is not bragging and this is not saying this makes me a better filmmaker by any stretch of the imagination, this is just for the layman to show you how far filmmaking and special effects have come from our childhood. We have three times as many visual effects/CG/visual effects in general in Jay and Silent Bob Reboot than they did in Star Wars.
Kevin Smith then clarified that this didn’t mean that Jay and Silent Bob Reboot would be anywhere near the visual treat that Star Wars is. Effects shots can be for something as simple as using a green screen to simulate scenery for a car driving scene, changing the sign on a courthouse or alternating an iPhone screen to make it look more accurate, per Apple’s demands.
The filmmaker noted that these effects shots didn’t cost as much as it did to show the Death Star blowing up in Star Wars, but add them all up, and apparently Jay and Silent Bob Reboot has the first installment in a galaxy far, far away beat by a long shot. In fact, aside from a sequence involving the Bluntcave (the secret hideout of the superheroes based on Jay and Silent Bob, Bluntman and Chronic), Kevin Smith says that Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is “not a visual effects-heavy movie.”
Many of the effects in Star Wars still hold up after more than four decades (obviously not including what’s been thrown into the rereleases), but with the advances in moviemaking and computers being easily accessible, naturally it’s easier for smaller productions to include visual effects nowadays. It’s safe to say Jay and Silent Bob Reboot will not be anywhere near as a culturally significant movie as Star Wars is, but if this effects information Kevin revealed during Fatman Beyond is true, it’s an interesting tidbit of information to know.
Although Jay and Silent Bob last appeared in 2006’s Clerks II, it’s been 18 years since their first “solo” feature, Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back, came out. That movie saw the duo traveling to Hollywood to prevent the Bluntman and Chronic movie from being made. Jay and Silent Bob Reboot is going in a completely different direction… by having those two travel to Hollywood to prevent a Bluntman and Chronic reboot from being made. Okay, so maybe it’s not so different.
Along with View Askewniverse regulars like Shannon Elizabeth, Brian O’Halloran, Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams reprising their respective roles alongside Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot will also includes cameos from the likes of Craig Robinson, Joe Manganiello, David Dastmalchian, Chris Hemsworth, Grant Gustin, Nicolas Cage, Molly Shannon, Rosario Dawson and more.
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot doesn’t have an assigned release date yet, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for that information and any other major updates. In the meantime, find out what movies are hitting theaters later this year in our 2019 release schedule.
