Kevin Smith says Dogma is being “held hostage” by Harvey Weinstein
"My movie about heaven is in limbo," Smith said while on the promotional tour for Clerks III
Aux News Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith has given a new interview this week, discussing the current status of his 1999 religious comedy Dogma, and asserting that the movie is being “held hostage” by producer Harvey Weinstein.
Dogma has become an unlikely “lost film” of the streaming era: Although the movie—still the biggest box office win in Smith’s whole ViewAskewniverse of films—was released on DVD and VHS in 2000, and on Blu-Ray in 2008, it’s since gone out of print on home video. (It’s not available on streaming, either.) The reasons for that scarcity all come back to rights owner Weinstein, who was an early champion of Smith’s work, and who helped Dogma make it to theaters despite pressure from religious groups to censor the film.
That relationship has now, of course, soured mightily in the wake of the many allegations of sexual assault and coercion made against Weinstein by Hollywood actresses—including Dogma star Salma Hayek, who recounted a number of horrifying incidents in relation to her Miramax movie Frida. When the allegations against Weinstein became public in 2017, Smith pledged to donate the residuals from all the movies he made with Weinstein toward a charity for women filmmakers.
In a new interview with The Wrap this week—timed to the release of Clerks III—Smith opened up about a conversation he had with Weinstein shortly before those allegations came to light. Smith said Weinstein called him up out of the blue to talk about a possible continuation of Dogma, long a topic of both desire and speculation. “And I got really excited because I was like, ‘Oh my God, for the first time. The dude remembered me. Like, after a decade he remembered that I was part of the Miramax family,’” Smith said. “And he remembered that he had Dogma and had a cool cast and I don’t know, I felt like wow, that’s, that’s cool.”
A few weeks later, reality (and headlines) set in. “He was calling not because he wanted to do anything with Dogma,” Smith realized. “He wanted to see if I was one of the people who had spoken to the New York Times. I hadn’t, because I didn’t know any of that stuff.”
A few years later, Smith says, he heard that a new DVD of Dogma was supposedly being produced, learning that Weinstein was trying to sell off the rights to the film for $5 million. (Which, as even Smith notes, is significantly more than the film is worth at this point.) Although Smith made it clear that he wouldn’t participate in any new features for a Dogma DVD that Weinstein would profit from, he was willing to try to buy the film himself, albeit not happily:
Which we felt very dirty about because we didn’t want to give him money…But at the same time, it’s like my movie and he’s got it. He’s holding it hostage. My movie about angels is owned by the devil himself. And if there’s only one way out of this, maybe we could buy it away.
But Weinstein—who’s in jail, and likely will be for years, on convictions for sexual assault and rape—”scoffed” at offers from Smith’s camp, continuing to demand that $5 million figure. “My movie about heaven is in limbo,” Smith says. He says there’s also not much recourse at this point: “You can make a public stink, but I don’t think that guy reads the news anymore.”
119 Comments
So my Dogma bluray is potentially valuable?
Yep. On average the eBay selling price is around $100.
How about my VHS copy of Clerks signed by Marilyn Ghigliotti and Brian O’Halloran?
$37
TRY NOT TO SELL ANY TAPES ON YOUR WAY ACROSS THE PARKING LOThey you get back here
…valuable?On most private tracker torrent sites? Not at all
Yeah, but there are enough bootlegs out there.
I hopped on Mercari and am seeing some sold recently for $50-75. So a lot for a Blu-Ray these days, but not a huge fortune or anything. The value on physical movies has hit rock bottom recently. Basically nothing but the rarest of the rare (and sought-after) in perfect, unopened condition is worth much these days. Mostly super-limited exclusive releases or box sets.
Stick it on eBay for $5 million!
C’mon Kevin, set up a GoFundMe or something. I’d chip in to see you get the shit you created.
That fund would also be a fund to give Harvey Weinstein millions of dollars.
(It’s not available on streaming, either.)Huh, I was wondering why it’s seemingly the only Smith movie not available on Amazon Prime.
Funny enough, it’s not entirely true that it isn’t available to stream – the entire movie has been uploaded to Youtube several times, seemingly without issue. This subtitled version has been up for almost three years now:
ha, nice I don’t even need 5 mil to stream this now
There’s also torrents.
We all know just, that’s theft.
Everyone should steal from rapists.
There’s a certain irony to it when they get upset about your not asking for permission.
It’s also available on Kevin’s website, although it’s labelled as “Jay and Silent Bob meet God” to avoid any controversy.
Whoa, I forgot they used the original Diablo font for the opening titles…
I’m always happily surprised at the films I find on YouTube that don’t have a basic DVD or Blu, and can’t be found on any streaming platform. If I want to watch something appears to be OOP, I just search YT first.
same here. Great movie, maybe my favorite Kevin Smith movie, hilarious premise and an incredibly smart and thoughtful (and nasty) discussion and dissection of religion.
I can’t think of a better way to portray God than how Alanis Morrissette did it. Just some wacked-out goofball who doesn’t say anything but really loves trees..
Honestly a bit shocked the article doesn’t have any snark and attacks directed at Kevin Smith just for existing… AV Club can’t help but love to dump on him when they can.
It’s not a Sam Barsanti article (which I purposely avoid), so it improved the odds of it being snark-free
What, there’s another male director that sloppy bottom loves to write shit about? Heavens!
Nah, bagging on Smith is mainly reserved for the comments. Lotta Gen X folks disappointed he wasn’t the second coming of Jarmusch.
I’m not even sure Jarmusch is the second coming of Jarmusch. Sure, Stranger than Paradise was amazing, and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai was pretty good too, but without going to Wikipedia I can’t even think of a third film by him.
Down by Law? Mystery Train? Sheesh!
Sheesh! was my fave.
Broken Flowers. Dead Man. Down by Law. All off the top of my head, but I’m a fan.
Dead Man and Mystery Train are the ones you’re looking for
Dead Man?
This is a completely ridiculous statement. Do you even watch movies? Down by Law? Only Lovers Left Alive? Broken Flowers? Cmon man
Smoke??? FFS, do you even movie?
Only Lovers Left Alive, Mystery Train, Down by Law, Patterson …
Down by Law and Mystery Train were both very good too.
Only Lovers Left Alive is like a parody of a Jim Jarmusch movie made by Jim Jarmusch. It’s pretty good though.
Dead Man should be that third film. It’s fucking awesome.
It’s pretentious trash.
Dead Man is also pretty amazing.
I’m not terribly familiar with his work, but I enjoyed “Mystery Train” and “The Dead Don’t Die.”
his third credit for me is a guest spot on What We Do In The Shadows
I actually think a lot of the bagging on Smith doesn’t come from Gen X but instead late Millenials and Gen Z who look down on it as “old”.Personally I like a lot of Kevin Smith movies. The comedy has not really aged well but I’m okay with that, I’m watching them these days out of nostalgia. He’s never been a director who really knew how to wow with his camera work but that’s why he makes comedies and not action flicks or epics. Sure Smith and some of the jokes can be really gringy these days but I assure all those Gen Z kids that their favorite things will be gringy in a couple decades too.
Not sure what Gen Xer’s you’re talking about, but this gal has loved -almost- everything he’s done (We don’t talk about Jersey Girl). Even Red State (≧▽≦) His humor jumps from intelligent to potty, and there is always more going on in the story if you just look. A perfect storm for my ADHD, truly (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤I do hope somehow, Smith gets back the rights to this movie. I had originally watched it enough that I can quote the whole thing. I will support him and get a copy for my Movies Anywhere collection the second I can. My fingers are crossed for him.
Jersey Girl is fucking fantastic. When Affleck loses his shit on his kid is an underappreciated moment. Like 20 years later, Breeders is getting the love Smith deserves.Also, Carlin plays a great working class grandpa.
I’d say a lotto Gen X folks are disappointed that he couldn’t develop beyond rehashing the same jokes and characters that make Clerks great. He didn’t need to be Jarmusch.
I love Dogma and think it’s brilliant, but Kevin Smith is what he is, no less, but also no more.
…is there a timeframe on second comings? These guys’ first features were 14 years apart. (This could go either way, I guess.)
I can dump on him a little if you want. I don’t for a second buy his “aw geeze I didn’t know about any of that stuff.” I’m not even in the entertainment industry and I’d heard the rumors for years before 2017. There was a character on Entourage clearly based on him. Not to mention the man just oozes sleaze from every pore of his body.
Notably though the “Harvey Weinberg” character from Entourage is exclusively shown as a massive asshole but in the non-sex-pest sense.
Oh my bad, it’s been a long time.
I mean you don’t have to apologize lol. I just mean they chose to only show him as verbally abusive. Not sure if that was a purposeful choice, or if the rapey part of Weinstein was unknown to them.
During Miramax’s heyday Weinstein had a reputation for taking films out of directors’ hands and editing them to death, or burying films he’d spent a lot of money to acquire. Not sure of the extent the rapey part was known outside of Hollywood circles.
That’s because the main characters of Entourage are also sex pests.
Plus, has to be said: there’s a certain subset of Kevin Smith fans who tend to interpret even the mildest and most fair of criticisms of the man and his movies as “attacks directed at Kevin Smith just for existing”.
I’m kinda doubtful the guy that tells anecdotes about everything knew, mostly because he would have blabbed and because he doesn’t exactly travel in Hollywood circles.
I think it’s pretty normal for people to be able to not tell anecdotes about something that makes them uncomfortable. The idea that he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from going on a podcast and accusing one of his benefactors of abusing his position to coerce women to sleep with him doesn’t really hold water.
AND Salma Hayek was a major victim of Weinstein’s- it’s one of the reasons she got a role in this movie (it’s complicated, but generally she had a five movie deal ,and than Herr Weinstein decided to punish her , and this Indy movie was sort of a favor that I believe Matt Damon helped her get). So, is it really possible KS didn’t know?
Exactly.
I feel that’s usually in the comments – same for Adam McKay, and anyone who isn’t…Dawes? Maybe? I don’t know.
It’s okay to not say anything, you know? This space *was* free from snark and hostility until you introduced it.
I think it has to do with (1) Dogma being a film that actually had a bunch of interesting things going on and (2) the other person in the story being Harvey Weinstein.
I mean, it’s an article about how Smith got screwed over for doing the right thing. You’d just look like an asshole for snarking at him in this context (not that that hasn’t stopped some AV Club writers in the past.)
Oh, that Kevin Smith? I didn’t recognize him without his eyes popping out of his head.
I simultaneously don’t like and understand the ragging on Kevin Smith. For one, I’m from Monmouth County, so he’ll always hold a special place in my heart. And his first 4 films are genuinely funny and solid rewatchable films. He also gets really great performers to star in his movies and they all have good things to say about him. If he wasn’t doing something right, they wouldn’t keep coming back. However, it’s easy to rag on him because he’s a little too self deprecating and since those first 4 films, his career has been very miss-heavy with a lot of rehashing of the same stories and jokes. I’m also not buying that he didn’t know Harvey Weinstein was a total scumbag.
7 comments now, 5 of which are in the greys. What are we going to do about this? If anyone uses reddit, go up r/THEAVCLUB
Just checked out that sub, it has like 100 members and averages 1 post every 5 months….
I know. It’s pretty ridiculous.
https://the-avocado.org/
I feel like if I remember correctly, the Avocado was founded by the more annoying commenters around here. In any case, I’ve never really been grabbed by what I saw over there. I’m not necessarily grabbed by a lot here either, I’m just so used to coming here I can’t stop.
They obsess way too much about Marvel over there. It’s exhausting
The format of its site is what turns me off.
The Avocado had a ton of potential when it started. I wouldn’t say it was founded by the most annoying commenters but maybe the most emotive commenters? In any case it could have been an AV Club in exile, with some moderation to keep the worst commenter tendencies at bay. But it was too egalitarian for it’s own good: by letting anyone contribute articles there are metric tons of banal fanboy writing, like a Stereogum comments section let lose. The comment sections themselves are usually sparse or, more frequently, online therapy sections. (There’s one commenter in the live SNL thread who I swear is triggered into an emotional breakdown every week.) I think by now most of the AVC refugees that founded it have largely stepped away from it. I think it would be a great place if they cultivated a couple of decent front-page writers.Wasn’t there another place–a message board?–where old AVC commenters gathered?
There was another message board. ..I can’t remember what it was called, but I remember it being very dead. I think the best place for an AV Club in exile is Reddit (from a platform POV). Starting a website would probably be an exercise in frustration. Plus Disqus isn’t much better than Kinja. Maybe it’s just time to accept that the glory days of commenting are gone forever.
Gone. Forever. Sad.
Me too
There’s some fun to be had at Avocado. There’s a daily Jeopardy thread that has roots in AVC. And also some of the insufferable stuff.
I used to be ungreyed here and on Jezebel. Then there was some update and I’ve been greyed ever since. Pretty frustrating.
It’s just weird, you’d think they’d want more comments to be visible than not.
You’d think a lot of things about this place..
I try not to. I find depression turns a lot of little things into big things, though.
Yeah, but every time I’m ungreyed, I just go on a racist rant about how women are ruining Marvel movies. I deserve to be here.
All the comments from my original Kinja account were rendered invisible late last year, so I started a new account which has been in the grays ever since.
And you’re kind of well known around here, right? I remember you, anyway.
I’ve been commenting here regularly since years before the Kinjapocalypse.
*starts chanting ONE OF US, ONE OF US, ONE OF US
I’ve been in the grays forever and don’t know how to get out.
There’s no rhyme or reason to it that I can discern.
STORY OF MY LIFE.I was an AV commentator for 10+ yrs and then one day: went gray.never got back again. No matter what I do. (I used to post under another name, which died somewhere when I got mad and then I tried a NEW account thinking I’d get ungrayed and NOPE.)
It’s funny to think that Gawker (or whoever owned them at the time) thought Kinja was going to be adopted all over the internet and rival Disqus. They’ve literally never gotten it to work properly.
I don’t think anyone cares about it working properly as long as it’s good enough.
Well, Disqus is oftimes effed-up beyond everything else.
This makes three months I’ve been reverted to grey. It sort of sucks.
Makes no sense. Maybe a Kinja glitch?
Why can’t this happen to any movies I like so that way I can burn my DVD copy into the computer and hoard it for future generations while selling the physical copy for cash?-An Anonymous Nerd
I find it genuinely hard to believe Dogma isn’t worth $5 million.
It’s an idea-based movie, littered with interesting dialogue…and the cast succeeds in breathing life into their characters. Plus….”Buddy Christ”, and George Carlin-genius casting there.
Look at him. Doesn’t he just… Pop? Buddy Christ!
Christ didn’t come down to Earth to give us the willies. He was a booster!
The Catholic Church doesn’t make mistakes. … Alright, mistakes were made.
I got a “Buddy Jesus” statue for one of my non-Gentile friends probably 10 years ago for her birthday. She wasn’t a huge fan of Smith but had watched all his movies from the 90’s and was falling over laughing when she got it and called me up. I’m horrible with gifts and I consider that a Grand Slam.As for Dogma, I had no idea it was out of print as a DVD/whatever and I can’t even recall seeing it on any streaming services in years. I came across a DVD at the local thrift store a year ago and bought it on a whim. Watching it for the first time in years, I was reminded of how it’s assembled like an SNL movie, at least scene wise. I also forgot how much Smith loves his monologue info dumps in Dogma, which aren’t bad most of the time, but it allows me to skip to the next bit that finally keeps the movie rolling again.
He set a price, you refused to meet the price. That is not being “held hostage” in any sense of the term.
Umm didn’t a investment group buy Miramax so Weinstein doesn’t have the rights to any movie anymore.
Weinstein personally owns the rights, independent of Miramax. I remember looking into this a while ago when I couldn’t find the movie anywhere, then I remembered I got the movie a long while ago as part of one of those 8 Dvd’s for a penny deals from Columbia House or something lol.
Yeah. Miramax was owned by Disney and there were some films that Disney just wouldn’t let them release, so the Weinstein Brothers and their team would set up one-off studios to distribute those films. Larry Clark’s Kids was another one.
In retrospect, it’s sort of funny that Disney has now released Little Demon which has a somewhat similar premise to Dogma, the religious right has lost their shit over it, but the general public seems pretty indifferent and the controversy may have actually helped the shows ratings.
So is my old “Dogma” DVD worth a lot of money now?
Such a great, funny movie, easily my favourite of Smith’s work – perhaps because I was raised Catholic. Shame Weinstein continues to play any role in the world, other than convict.
featured [publicity] pic: Selma Hayek posturing communicates long-haired curly bigotry
If only they’d let us jerk off.
Ah, Dogma. Also known as “That Film I Put On To Purposefully Piss Off My Uber-Catholic Cousin And Ruined Her Relationship With God”. Possibly one of the biggest – and nastiest (and yet hilarious and true) – bits was this…Now, more importantly – why hasn’t Weinstein met a “mysterious end” in prison yet, hmm? You’re slacking, Yanks, you’re slacking!
Kevin Smith knew who Harvey Weinstein was.
Loved Dogma, didn’t know this is why it was never on Streaming. I still have my VCR copy which I watched like 2 years ago (yes I still have a DVD/VCR player but it’s on it’s last legs) and I still love it.Maybe my favorite Smith film.
Definitely my favorite Smith film, honestly one of the few I actually like unequivocally.
Same here, it’s one that I find very little fault with and use to rewatch alot.
My cousin borrowed my Dogma DVD and never returned it. I’m still pissed off about it.
Just to say that I love Dogma. I aspire to Alan Rickman’s level of sarcasm.
Do you think he might trade it for Chasing Amy?