Kevin Smith High on Blu-ray

26 Nov, 2008 By: Fred Topel

Kevin Smith

Filmmaker Kevin Smith has an idea for a special Blu-ray Disc edition of his film Chasing Amy. The film’s DVD was released by Criterion, which rejected Smith’s proposal for a 10th anniversary edition because Criterion does not double dip. However, now that Criterion is releasing Blu-rays, Smith proposes adding new extras to that edition.

“For Chasing Amy’s 10th anniversary, we wanted to put out a fat DVD with a look-back documentary and this Q&A that we had shot a couple years ago with the full cast,” Smith said. “Now we’re going, ‘Hey man, let’s do it as a Blu-ray so it won’t be double dipping. It will be for people who want to own it on Blu-ray. So it’ll have everything that was on that first DVD plus all the extras we want to bring to it.’ But I haven’t heard word back on that yet.”

Smith also joked that his first film, Clerks, shot in black and white on a shoestring budget, should be the last of his films to make it to Blu-ray.

“Clerks on Blu-ray would be a total waste of Blu-ray technology, man,” Smith said. “That’s a movie that I don’t feel needs to be on Blu-ray until Blu-ray is the only format. Then, of course, I would like to see it be on there.”

Smith is a recent convert to Blu-ray. He did not want to rebuy his whole movie collection in a new format, until Paramount gave him a 103-inch TV and Blu-ray player.

“It is the most astounding television I’ve ever seen in my life, until recently they introduced an even bigger one,” he said. “This f***er is so big it looks like one of the small screens at the Beverly Connection. It’s really big, and it sits about five feet from the end of my bed, maybe even less. Maybe two, two-and-a-half feet. I lie down in bed when I watch TV, so you’re right on top of the screen. You’re no longer watching the movie. You’re in the movie.”

As an actor, Smith doesn’t mind seeing himself in high-definition.
“The first movie I watched on Blu- ray was Live Free or Die Hard, and I was really in that movie,” he said. “So I was able to stand next to myself on screen full length and be like, ‘Wow, I’m fatter.’ It was very, very cool. So I fell in love with Blu-ray. Now I’ve been rebuying all the stuff I already have but I don’t care because now I just want to get high and watch a Blu-ray Disc.”