Kevin Smith Was Once Pitched Directing The Fly Superhero Movie Starring Chris Rock

As fans likely know, filmmaker Kevin Smith has long been vocal about his love for comic books and superheroes years before it was a cornerstone of Hollywood. Smith was previously attached to direct an adaptation of The Green Hornet, later turned into a comic book series with Dynamite, but in a recent podcast Smith revealed another property that had been offered to him and he’d either forgotten about it or didn’t even realize that an offer had been made. Speaking on the latest episode of FatMan Beyond, Smith was reading through old correspondence to him that ranges through his feature film career and reveals some projects that might have been.

Reading from a letter dated April 3, 2000, Smith revealed he was offered the change to re-write and direct a script based on The Fly, no relation to the horror film series of the same name. “The script is inspired by a 1959 comic book of the same name by Joe Simon,” Smith revealed the letter to read. “As you know, Chris Rock is interested in starring. We are extremely excited about this movie which we see tonally as an action-comedy in the vein of Men in Black with a dose of social commentary that makes it totally unique. The script currently is a bit broad, both we and Chris would like to make the comedy smarter and subtler. We’d also like to better define the world and the rules of the spider and fly people. More importantly however we’d like to know what Kevin Smith thinks.”

Smith reacted to the letter in real time as well, saying: “I could have made a f***ing Joe Simon comic book movie in the year 2000, ten years before this s**t was popular again, with Chris Rock as my lead! Who knew! …Why they came to me I have no f***ing idea, again because I was the person that talked about comic books.”

For those unaware, The Fly was in fact created by Joe Simon in 1959 as part of the “Archie Adventure Series” from Archie Comics, later part of their Red Circle Comics imprint. The series took some big swings with its hero, whose powers came from a magic ring that hailed from an ancient race of magic Fly people (yes). Some of his powers included walking up walls, seeing in every direction, escaping from traps, agility, with later versions of him adding more insect themed powers in addition to flight.

It’s a little difficult to imagine this working in the year 2000, but it seems like this is a concept that will no doubt be revisited by someone down the road.