Draft:MallBrats

Production

On March 13, 2015, Kevin Smith confirmed that Mallrats 2 was being written and was slated to begin shooting in summer 2016. Also in March, Smith announced the return of Jason Mewes and himself as Jay and Silent Bob respectively, Michael Rooker as Jared Svenning, Stan Lee as himself, Shannen Doherty as Rene Mosier, Jason Lee as Brodie, Ethan Suplee as William, Jeremy London as T.S. Quint, Renee Humphrey as Tricia Jones, and Joey Lauren Adams as Gwen Turner. In April 2015, Smith confirmed the return of Sven-Ole Thorsen as Lafours, Scott Mosier as Roddy, Bryan Johnson and Walt Flanagan as Steve-Dave Pulasti and Walt "Fanboy" Grover, Brian O'Halloran as Gil Hicks, and Claire Forlani as Brandi Svenning. Also in April, Smith announced that Mallrats 2 would be his next film and not Clerks III like originally intended and would begin filming in 2015. Smith said "we were talking about initially shooting Clerks III this summer and then we were going to get to Mallrats in the beginning of 2016. And then it jumped into 2015, where we were going to shoot Clerks and then hopefully Mallrats before the end of the year. But now, based on a f—ing mall that we all dig that will be going away, the priority has become Mallrats. So the next f—ing movie I’m making is Mallrats 2."

As of April 30, Kevin has confirmed the participation of 16 of the 18 actors he would like to have return in the film. The remaining two are assumed by most to be Ben Affleck and Priscilla Barnes.

On May 11, 2015, Smith revealed that the film would be called MallBrats. The next day, Smith elaborated on the possibility of shooting the film at the mall they intend on filming in: "I would love nothing more than to shoot at the Granite Run Mall, it’s gorgeous, it’s iconic, it looks exactly like what we need, and they’re getting rid of it. The only problem is they want to knock it down fairly soon, in September I think. We can’t do September because Jason Lee isn’t available until October, and he’s the lead.”

In June 2015, it was revealed that during San Diego Comic-Con International 2015, Smith will be answering questions regarding the film. In July 2015, during his Comic-Con Panel, Smith gave an update regarding the casting of the film: “I reached out to 17 out of the 18 cast members. I didn’t reach out to Ben yet until everything is locked in with the cast along with a shoot date. I wrote him a very cool cameo that we can shoot anywhere and we hope he can do it. If he can’t, then we make a fuckton of Ben Affleck jokes!!” while also going on to say that the film would not be made if it wasn't for Kim Ledford, among others.

In August 2015, during the 20th anniversary screening of Mallrats, Smith confirmed that all 18 cast members from the original film will be appearing and elaborated on the film's plot.

In October 2015, Smith announced that Ralph Garman will portray the antagonist of the film, the leader of a terrorist group who takes over the mall in the film. Also in October, Smith announced that Bruce Campbell will be in the film.

In June 2016, Smith revealed that because Universal owns the rights to the Mallrats title that a sequel will not be made, instead, it will be turned into a 10 episode TV series produced by Universal Television. Also in June, Smith confirmed that the entire cast from the film will reprise their roles in the series. Towards the end of the month, Smith announced that he had closed a deal with Universal Television to pitch the series to networks and streaming services in August.

On July 1, 2016, Smith revealed that his daughter, Harley Quinn Smith will portray Brody Bruce's daughter, Banner Bruce, while also saying the series will be influenced by John Hughes films, as Mallrats was. Also in July, during San Diego Comic-Con 2016, Smith officially confirmed that all cast members will be returning for the series, although he stated he's unsure of Ben Affleck's involvement because he has yet to reach out to him. Smith also revealed that the film will be multigenerational, in the same vein as Degrassi: The Next Generation, with returning characters from the film having kids and them playing into the series. Smith also stated that he's looking to shop the series around to Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, Showtime and HBO.

In August 2016, Shannen Doherty and Smith exchanged emails concerning her role in MallBrats, with Smith stating "Get better soon because we're heading towards Mallrats." with her response being: ""I'm not too sick to work. Don't worry! Moving forward." regarding her battle with cancer.

In September 2016, Smith reiterated his statements about the series plot being influenced by Degrassi and John Hughes stating:

"It’s a multi-generational tale. It’s my chance to do John Hughes and Degrassi Junior High, because much like the Degrassi formula we know our legacy cast – we know Brody and Rene and T.S. and Jay and Silent Bob – and then we meet their kids. So we meet Brody and Rene’s daughter Banner Bruce, and the story takes place in his world and her world. Nobody goes to the fucking mall anymore, so the kids are baffled by it, and Brody still believes in it in a big, bad way. The thing that I’m happiest about is that when I was doing it as a movie – I always saw the two inspirations for Mallrats as John Landis and John Hughes – and the Mallrats 2 script was very John Landis. Very antic, with guns everywhere, and lots of explosions and action, and less John Hughes. The chance to do Mallrats as a series allows me to do more John Hughes than John Landis and particularly the area of Hughes that I never got to tackle as much as I did in Yoga Hosers: high school. Yoga Hosers was the first time I got to play with high school characters and, oddly enough, as a forty-six-year-old man I think my maturity level is just at high school level right now? … Mallrats is high school and family melodrama with cursing in it. It’s like Degrassi Junior High if everyone said “motherfucker” and it was set in America. I love it so much. I cannot wait to do that. It excites me just to think about it."

In October 2016, Smith announced that he is currently pitching the series with Universal Televsion to Showtime, Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu while also going on to say that Stan Lee is a major part of the series, with Lee telling Smith at New York Comic-Con: "hurry up! I’m not getting any younger!"

Filming

Filming was slated to begin in the summer of 2016, but due to the closure of the mall Smith wanted to shoot in, filming was moved up to 2015. In July 2015, Smith, his daughter Harley, and Jason Mewes paid a visit to the Granite Run Mall to scout the location, with indication that an October 1 shoot date was possible. In August 2015, Michael Marksman, President of BET Investments stated that it was unlikely that the film would be shooting in the mall due to a "snag with the movie people". In September 2015, Smith revealed that filming will commence in January 2016 and will be filmed at the Exton Square Mall. In February 2016, it was announced by Smith that filming will start in Fall 2016 after wrapping production on Moose Jaws. In June 2016, Smith stated they still intend to shoot at Exton Square Mall despite it being turned into a television series.