SUNDANCE 2014

Kevin Smith's 'Tusk' Won't Premiere at Sundance 2014 But Trailer Will

by Ethan Anderton
December 3, 2013

Along with some first look photos we posted just last month, director Kevin Smith said he was hoping to bring his indie horror film Tusk to the 2014 Sundance Film Festival for a premiere. However, it turns out Smith has a couple more days of filming to shoot in Los Angeles once an unknown actor becomes available to play a small role in December or January. Since Smith wouldn't have time to finish the film before Sundance (in January) with that schedule, he's going to premiere the trailer for the film with one of the midnight screenings in Park City, which usually features some odd horror and comedy worthy of the late night time slot. Smith also posted a comic style flyer advertising the podcast the main characters host  Look!

Here's Justin Long and Haley Joel Osment on a poster for their characters' podcast from Tusk:

As you can see, these main characters were inspired by Smith and his longtime friend and collaboroator Jason Mewes, and all the chatting that's done by way of the filmmaker's Smodcast banner. Smith says:

"This image was created by Phillip McNulty - who has done cartoons for our SmodCo Cartoon Show. See, TUSK is set in the world of podcasting, so I turned to our SModimations animators to help us flesh out our fake world with a bunch of posters for the podcast Justin Long's and Haley Joel Osment's characters host in the flick. The tacky name of the podcast is actually a reference to the fact that Wallace goes out into the world and has adventures, then comes back to tell Teddy about it, since Teddy does NOT SEE the adventures himself. It's this podcast that sets in motion the events which lead to insanity and horror in the backwoods of Canada's Manitoba."

As for the film itself, it's pretty much completely edited with the exception of whatever will be shot on those two days in December or January. Once it's finished, Smith will have a special screening for Smodcast listeners. Why? Well, Smith would probably do this for his fans anyway, but he also adds, “The whole flick is loaded with SmodCo Easter eggs: visual and dialogue references to lots of shit I’ve talked about and said in all of my podcasts these many years. It’s not inside baseball at all, and if you’ve never listened to a podcast, you won’t miss anything – but if you’re a regular listener to all my chatter, get ready to go on an aural treasure hunt.” If you want to read more about the film, check out Kevin Smith's blog. Cool?

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