Jay and Silent Bobare coming back, but like you’ve never seen them before. STX Entertainment has teamed withKevin Smithto bring his classic comedy duo, first seen in his directorial debutClerks, to the world of virtual reality. Smith will make aJay and Silent BobVR series for STXsurreal, the studio’s immersive content division. ThisJay and Silent Bobseries is just part of the studio’s newly announced, all-star slate of immersive content.
Jay and Silent Bob VRis an original short-form, live-action comedy series from Kevin Smith. Smith will write, direct and produce the series, which stars hislongtime collaborator Jason Mewes(Mallrats) as they revisit fan-favorite charactersJay and Silent Bob. Shot entirely from the perspective of Bob, viewers will embody the silent fanboy himself while alpha-slacker Jay leads the way through a string of idiotic adventures. So we won’t actually be seeing much of Smith’s Silent Bob, but this is going to be a pretty interesting way to follow around the comedic duo.
This marks the first major project that Kevin Smith has taken on, or at least announced, since suffering his major heart attack last month. Smithwasted no time getting back on his feetand has been doing live shows recently, in addition to returning to his various podcasts. It’s fitting that this project will be one that brings Smith back to the character that has defined his career.Jay and Silent Bobmay not seem like the kind of thing you would typically expect to enjoy in VR, but it’s the kind of entertainment that will need to eventually work with the technology if it’s ever actually going to become a mainstream way of consuming media, as opposed to a niche trend.
Aside from theJay and Silent Bobseries, STX’s slate features short-form series, including a comedy seriesNew Tricksfrom Ed Helms (The Office), an untitled action-comedy starring Dave Bautista, a spinoff of STX’s upcoming action movieMile 22from director Peter Berg (Deepwater Horizon) and, perhaps most interesting, a sci-fi thriller fromJohn Wickwriter Derek Kolstad. All of the shows will debut on the Surreal channel, which is an app launching later this year for allVR headsets. STXsurreal’s slate of VR programming is being produced in a completely new format, which will help close the gap between traditional widescreen and 360-degree video. Surreal will kick-off withThe Limit, a live-action, short-form VR series from Robert Rodriguez (Machete) which stars Michelle Rodriguez.
Kevin Smith has also been developingJay and Silent Bob Reboot, a follow-up of sorts toJay and Silent Bob Strike Back. We reported in August of last year that the movie would begin filming “soon,” but news has been a bit scarce since. Hopefully, this new VR series doesn’t get in the way of Smith getting that movie made and this is just some extraJay and Silent Bobaction thrown into the mix. This news comes to us courtesy ofDeadline.
