Moviemaker Kevin Smith Plots Film With 'Rapturing Giant Jesus' Destroying All Life on Earth

January 1st, 2014 9:02 AM

Filmmaker Kevin Smith wasn’t satisfied making a religion-bashing comedy in “Dogma,” or a religion-bashing gore film with overtones of David Koresh and Fred Phelps called “Red State.” The website Film School Rejects reports Smith has a new film in the planning stages.

It’s “the punnily-titled ‘Helena Handbag’....he’s currently writing the screenplay based off [his own podscast] SModcast called ‘The (C)rapture.” Does it sound like the wit is overflowing? The villain is a “rapturing giant Jesus” out to destroy the world as we know it:

As he describes it, Helena Handbag is a rapture flick with a twist on where the good people want to wind up when the world starts ending. That’s because in this version of the end of days, mankind teams up with Hell to stop a vengeful, Rapturing giant Jesus from destroying the world and causing the extinction of all earthly existence. Smith smartly reasons on the podcast that the budget is probably going to be low for this production because people are probably going to hesitate getting their names getting attached to this script.

Still, more offensive and far-fetched ideas have made it to theaters. It would also be a satisfying conclusion to the end of Red State that never was; Smith has stated before that he originally wanted the film to end with an actual (bloody) rapture after the trumpet heralds, rather than just a fakeout messing with the vastly devout family. If anything, the premise of the film is going along with Smith’s filmmaking motto, that “from now until I drop dead, I’m only ever gonna make a flick that only I would/could ever make.” Sounds about right.

Move over, Orson Welles.

"Red State" never ended up for a stay in theaters (it made a brief appearance in a few cities), but went direct to On Demand. This doesn't exactly sound like a "mainstream" film, either. It sounds like Smith is never going to grow up out of adolescent ennui.