Filmmaker Kevin Smith is a man who wears many hats, and I don’t just mean the literal ones for his head. Along with his extensive movie and TV work both on and off camera, which includes serving as one half of the Jay and Silent Bob duo with longtime friend Jason Mewes (although another actor almost ended up playing Jay), he’s also a podcaster, comic book writer, comic book store owner and podcast theater owner. Now we can also add movie theater owner to his list of bonafides, since it was recently announced that Smith is buying The Atlantic Moviehouse in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. However, just a few days after the big news broke, this movie theater has received a bomb threat, but Smith has some questions about it.
Kevin Smith shared on Instagram that The Atlantic Moviehouse got a call from someone on Saturday who asked its manager if Smith was buying the theater. After getting confirmation, this unidentified individual, who called from a California phone number, said that if this purchase went through, there would be “bomb threats.” The police has since been informed, and while Smith’s daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, is concerned about this being a legitimate threat to the theater, which is being renamed to SModcastle Cinemas, Smith is looking at this from a different angle. As he put it:
*I* think it’s a joke about how my movies have ‘bombed’ in theaters. So… Should I be giggling at the shade or worried about a warning? Thoughts?
Kevin Smith isn’t one to shy away from self-deprecating humor about his body of work (particularly the brutally-reviewed Yoga Hosers), so him thinking this person is making a joke about how some of his movies haven’t performed well at the box office is keeping with his schtick. Still, in this instance, it’s probably better to err on the side of caution and treat this call seriously, even if it is just, as the person who passed along what had happened, “some a-hole kids.” Hopefully this situation is resolved soon so that the people who work at the movie theater don’t need to be worried for their lives.
Having frequented The Atlantic Moviehouse in his younger years, Kevin Smith decided to buy the movie theater with business partners Ashley DiGennaro, Jeff Swanton and Ernie O’Donnell (who also co-owns the SModcastle podcast theater). The deal isn’t finalized just yet, but along with changing the name of the theater, Smith has big plans for it use. The filmmaker told NJ.com that he plans to hold live events, including podcast shows and script readings, at what will be SModcastle Cinemas, and he’ll live in the apartment above the movie theater whenever he’s in town. Smith has also written a 1986-set movie set in a movie theater, so naturally he intends to use this space for filming the production down the line.
Kevin Smith’s next movie is the long-awaited Clerks III, which dropped its first trailer last month and will primarily be shown across the United States through Clerks III: The Convenience Tour, as well as screen on September 13th and 15th in theaters through Fathom Events. Smith is also on deck to showrun Masters of the Universe: Revolution, the sequel to the Netflix show Masters of the Universe: Revelation, which Smith also spearheaded. You can also read his NSFW rant about the Batgirl movie being cancelled, as well as our ranking of Kevin Smith’s movies so far.