Kevin Smith Explains Why He Doesn’t Make a Superhero Movie

Ever since his script for Superman Lives leaked online, fans have wondered by filmmaker Kevin Smith has never tried to helm a superhero movie of his own.

When Superman Lives was in development, it was set to be directed by Tim Burton (Batman), who reportedly planned to rewrite Smith’s script significantly to better suit his vision. The rewrites, like the movie, seemingly never came to pass.

Smith has routinely told fans over the years that he wouldn’t do very well with a superhero movie, citing the less-than-overwhelming box office pull of his most action and visual effects-heavy film to date, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. As Smith’s wheelhouse is movies with stationary cameras and a lot of talking, for years people didn’t argue the point — but after the cult success of his horror movie Tusk and widespread acclaim for his first episode of The Flash back in May, the questions of why Hollywood’s most famous comic book geek hasn’t taken a swing at a comic book movie have been resurfacing.

“I get to do something with these shows that I probably would have spent my life going, ‘Yeah, that’s for better people than me,’” Smith told ComicBook.com. “People are like ‘why don’t you make a superhero movie?’ and I’m like ‘Eh, I don’t really have vision for that sort of thing. Zack Snyder’s the kind of guy for that, or the Russo Brothers. But this — working in the Berlantiverse — kind of lets me exercise that and go ‘Oh, I’m not an idiot. There’s an aptitude there.’ But I like this version of it because it’s eight days. Poor Zack, man. I asked him how long he was on that f—ing Justice League movie, right? It was like months and months and months.”

Smith, whose first feature film was made for about $30,000 and who has produced and/or distributed nearly every motion picture he’s ever worked on, told us that the guerilla sensibilities of indie film are helpful in that he appreciates a timeline, and the importance of never letting the perfect stand in the way of the good.

(Not that he won’t push the edges of “good” into “great,” mind you: “That was amazing,” he told the Supergirl cast while we watched him film an episode earlier this month. “If the world ended right now, that would be a fantastic cut, but it’s not, so we’re going one more time!”)

“When you’re working on an episode of Flash or Supergirl — 8 days, dude,” Smith added. “You’ve got all the tools and the talent of a big-budget picture, and the infrastructure most importantly. But you’ve only got eight days so you’ve got the time of an indie feature. You get to kind of balance these two together and my training in indie film allows me to navigate these shows pretty well.”

Earlier today, Smith conducted a Facebook Q&A in support of tonight’s episode of The Flash, titled “Killer Frost,” which he directed. During that Q&A, he was asked whether he would consider directing the feature film version of The Flash, which has now lost three directors since it was announced. He told fans that he would happily take the job — but only if some of the people he thinks would do better had passed on it.

Smith’s season 2 episode of The Flash, titled “The Runaway Dinosaur,” was one of the most acclaimed episodes of the year, although Smith acknowledged in our conversation that it was tailor-made for him, with a lot of dialogue and character beats and comparably little action, especially compared to tonight’s “breathless” and fast-paced “Killer Frost.”

“KEVIN SMITH DIRECTS; KILLER FROST EMERGES — Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) uses her powers to save Barry (Grant Gustin) but as her mother predicted, the effort unleashes her inner Killer Frost. Killer Frost goes on a rampage looking for Dr. Alchemy, kidnapping Julian (Tom Felton) and battling both The Flash and Vibe (Carlos Valdes). Meanwhile, Joe (Jesse L. Martin) and H.R. (Tom Cavanagh) have a heart to heart.”

The Flash airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

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