BPS 181: Clerks, Sundance and Making $500 Million+ at the Box-Office with Scott Mosier

03/11/22 • 98 min

You guys are in for a major treat. I'm always talking about those "lottery ticket" filmmaker stories that we all dream of happening to us one day. Well, today's guest's story is one of the mythological stories that come to life.
We have a 90’s independent film icon, Scott Mosier. Scott is an indie film producer, editor, writer, director, actor, and podcaster of Smodcast, which he co-hosts with his long-term filmmaking partner, Kevin Smith.
From Vancouver Film School to Hollywood, Scott's trajectory has been inspiring for many in the industry. He produced some of the best 90s classics like Clerks 1 & 2, Jersey Girl, the Oscar® Winning Good Will Hunting, Dogma, and many, many more.
Scott acted in, edited the movie, original sound, and contributed to Clerk’s budget. After the massive hit, they followed up with the embattled Mallrats. The film was not well received and did no money at the box office. Kevin and Scott were essentially discarded and called a one-hit-wonder. For most filmmakers that would be all she wrote but not for Kevin and Scott.
They decided to go back to their roots and make another low-budget indie and prove to Hollywood that they were here to stay. Their next film was the brilliant romantic comedy-drama, Chasing Amy. The tells the unfortunate twist of a male comic artist who falls in love with a lesbian woman, to the displeasure of his best friend.
After self-financing, the majority of their initial projects (Mosier & Smith), 2001, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was Mosier’s first big-budget ($20 million) production.
Based on real-life stoners Jay and Silent Bob, so when they get no profit from a big-screen adaptation they set out to wreck the movie.
If that wasn't enough Scott also co-executive produced the Oscar® Award-Winning Good Will Hunting in his spare time.
Wanting a change Scott decided to branch out and start directing himself. His 2018 directorial debut was a stand-out project! A box office hit, grossing about $512 million globally and the highest-grossing holiday film of all time. Dr. Seuss: The Grinch became the third screen adaptation of the 1957 Dr. Seuss book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
I had a ball talking shop with Scott. We discussed the genesis of the independent film movement as we know it today, dealing with studios, what was it like being in the Clerks hurricane, and much more.
Enjoy my conversation with Scott Mosier.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.

Previous Episode

BPS 180: Nicolas Cage and Jumping Into Willy's Wonderland with Kevin Lewis

Get ready for a crazy ride! On the show this week we have indie filmmaker and screenwriter, Kevin Lewis. He’s been active on the scene and directed several indie films between 1996 to the present. Kevin's vastest film is the trippy indie (soon to be a cult classic) feature, Willy’s Wonderland, starring the legendary Nicolas Cage.
Lewis has definitely paid his dues. He started out making films in Highschool with his VHS and Super 8 comers. Between the short film releases amongst his peers earlier on, to internships at Columbia Pictures, he was in the right position to secure a scholarship into USC Film School where he graduated from.
The Method, Lewis’ directorial debut was his first feature film right out of college. It is about four guys' college life centered around a theater production of a bank robbery and how to make it better.
In 2003, he directed and wrote Malibu Springbreak, about two Arizonan girls who headed out to the Malibu beaches for a spring break of partying and fun in the sun.
He met an actor on the set, Jeremy Daniel Davis who didn’t play a big role in the film, but Lewis stood up to producers and kept Davis's scene. Fast forward to some years later, Davis joined the production team of a project he was working on at the time and the two kept in contact.
The universe realigned and Davis popped up with the script of Willy’s Wonderland for Lewis out of the blue. This cosmic aligning of a movie, Willy’s Wonderland was directed by Kevin and released in Feb 2021, after his thirteen years of filmmaking sabbatical.
The action-comedy horror film stars Academy Award® Winner Nicolas Cage - A quiet drifter who is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Willy's Wonderland. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-out fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash -- and only one side will make it out alive.
Get ready for a wild ride. Enjoy my entertaining conversation with Kevin Lewis.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.

Next Episode

BPS 182: Inside Pixar's Brain Trust Turning Red with Julia Cho

Award-winning playwright and co-writer of Pixar’s TURNING RED, Julia Cho was born and raised in the arid suburbs of Southern California and Arizona. After a fairly uneventful childhood, she unexpectedly discovered theater as a teen and subsequently foiled her parents’ expectations of a life of respectability and normalcy.
Instead, armed with an MFA in writing from NYU and a prestigious fellowship at The Juilliard School, Julia launched herself into the New York theater scene. She soon landed residencies at the Sundance Lab and New Dramatists and productions at high-profile theaters in NYC and across the country. Memorable productions include “The Language Archive” (winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award), “Aubergine” and “Office Hour.” For her body of work, she received the 2020 Windham-Campbell Literary Prize for Drama which wrote: “Alternately lyrical and sharp, rigorous and whimsical, Cho’s plays demand that we listen.”
Alongside her theatrics, Cho has also cultivated a career as a writer and producer of a broad range of television shows from cult sci-fi (“Fringe”) to character-driven drama (“Big Love,” “Halt and Catch Fire”). She also adapted the critically-acclaimed novel The Madonnas of Echo Park for HBO and Starz, which showcased her ability to transform eloquent fiction into dynamic and propulsive narrative.
Driven by keen curiosity and a passion for language, Julia strives to create work that expands our worlds and sparks our deepest empathies. She’s currently under commission for South Coast Repertory to write a new play and is a Co-Executive Producer for the Amazon series, “Paper Girls.” In other words, she’s following a movie about four thirteen-year-old girls with a series about four twelve-year-old girls. A project about four eleven-year-old girls is forthcoming.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.