Kevin Smith, whose latest movie, Red State, is set to be unlike anything he’s ever done before, has announced that his next film will be released in two parts, and they will be titled Hit Somebody: Home and Hit Somebody: Away, The Playlist report.
He also adds that the two-parter, which he’s said could be his final film, will be a PG-13 rating for Home and an R for Away, roughly the equivalent of our 12A and 18. Brilliant!
How you can have such different ratings might confuse many people, but when you take into account the basic premise of the two parts, things become a little clearer. The film follows the rise of hockey played Buddy McCracken (to be played by Nicholas Braun), with the first part seeing him as a young star and the second part seeing him go pro. I might not know a lot about hockey, but I can imagine that players can be a bit more aggressive in pro hockey than might be encouraged when they’re younger, so we could well be in for some decent hockey fights in the second part, which could well push the film’s rating up. Fantastic stuff.
The film is based on a song by Warren Zevon, which was co-written by Mitch Albom (author of The Five People You Meet In Heaven), who’s been working with Smith on the script for the film. As many will know, Smith has been taking Twitter by storm, and doing the vast majority of his publicity himself online, via @ThatKevinSmith. As such, a lot of what we get about his upcoming films is taken directly from the man himself. He announced on Friday that he’s finished the script for Home, and is now moving on to Away:
“The script for HIT SOMEBODY, Pt 1 is done. Now into second script. First part I’m calling HOME. Second part I’m calling AWAY. Fucking bliss.”
He’s also said that he’s planning on filming the two parts all in one, which is excellent news for fans of his films:
“Via @ThatDylanHouse “you filming HIT SOMEBODY all in 1 go, or are you going to break up filming the 2 parts?” I’d like to do one big shoot.”
Whilst I’m sadly still yet to see it, the end credits of Smith’s next film, Red State, which is due out in the UK on 30th September, are said to promise that Hit Somebody will be reaching our screens in 2012. With anyone else, I’d say that would be too hard a target to reach. But with Smith, I’m confident he’ll get it done. But I’d throw a little asterisk in beside the 2012* too.
When Red State was being promoted, it had an early run that effectively toured across America, which must have been amazing for those lucky enough to see it then. For the rest of us, we’ve had to patiently wait for it a little while longer. I can see the same thing happening with Hit Somebody, if Smith deems the release of Red State a financial success.
With the script for the second part getting underway now, and with Smith’s productivity generally being impressive, there’s a good chance that filming could begin very early next year. If that happens, he’ll undoubtedly be working on it night and day, alongside filming, and have a rough cut quite possibly by the summer. This is, of course, speculation, but I’d say it’s an educated guess having followed the production of Red State. If everything falls into place for the writer-director, he could well be giving us at least part one in 2012 – but whether it will be on general release or another North American advanced tour is another question.
However it gets released, and whenever it gets released, this is definitely a project to look forward to, especially if Smith is planning it to be his final film. It’s going to be an epic two-part finale to his career if he does stick to his current frame of mind, and I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Before then, we’ve got the release of Red State to look forward to at the end of September, and you can be sure that’s going to be an awesome film too, one I’ll be seeing more than just once whilst it’s out in the cinema.
