Kevin Smith makes Porno, directs Reaper, much more

Kevin Smith is a busy man. So much so that you begin to write one thing about what's he's doing and another one comes up and insists on being mentioned. So let's start with the big news, which is that Smith has directed an original television show. The show, Reaper, premiered last night at on the CW, starring Bret Harrison as Sam, a kid whose soul has been sold to the devil by his parents. The devil puts him in service on Sam's 21st birthday, collecting escaped souls and sending them to hell. Catering perfectly to the post-Buffy television crowd, the show's reviews so far have been quite positive.

Yesterday was also the publication date for Kevin Smith's book, My Boring-Ass Life: The Uncomfortably Candid Diary of Kevin Smith. The title pretty much says it all. And to support the book, Smith is currently on tour signing copies and doing the whole publicity junket thing, with appearances on David Letterman, MTV, BBC Radio and a plenty more, with rumored upcoming signings on Oct. 16 at Forbidden Planet and Oct. 18 at Borders, both in London.

While not busily working on these projects, though, he's been prepping two movies for filming this winter, the horror flick, Red State, and the perhaps more traditional Smith fare, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. The latter will not be set in Smith's View Askewniverse, so it should still offer some surprises, while Red State looks as if the director has finally been allowed to work in one of the genres he loves that isn't comedy. That it will tackle religious fundamentalism may make it his most controversial film since Dogma, which says a lot when a director's previous feature involves certain, well, "acts" with a donkey.

The next appearance by Smith may instead be in Richard Kelly's Southland Tales. The picture above is Smith in that film, and once again nothing else really needs to be said. Southland Tales comes out in the U.S. on November 9.

Related links:
Paste's on Southland Tales' trailer
Kevin Smith on IMDB
Kevin Smith's blog

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