On his Hollywood Babble-On podcast, Kevin Smith briefly stopped talking about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to discuss all the opportunities he’s received since directing an episode of CW’s The Flash. “I’ve never f*cking done anything in my life that had more people saying, holy sh*t, good job,” he said. “Like 22-year career, man. Not even in the beginning, when they liked me and sh*t.” That episode has opened up some “weird doors,” including a meeting with MGM about turning The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension into a television series. The 1984 Peter Weller-starring film, which defies any simple genre classification (it’s a science fiction comedy drama romance adventure thriller), is one of Smith’s favorites, and “one of the reasons why I make f*cked up movies and can’t be like J.J. [Abrams] and sh*t.”
MGM executives wanted to know if Smith had any ideas on how to turn Buckaroo into a TV show. Boy did he! “Basically you just do the entire movie for season one, then season two you finally do the sequel we’ve all dreamed about, Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League.” (The credits mention the sequel, but it was never made.) Apparently, MGM liked what Smith pitched (I imagine hockey jerseys and Johnny Depp were involved) because next month, “we take it out and try to find a home for it.”
Our own Andrew Husband named Buckaroo Banzai, which also stars John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, and Christopher Lloyd (as John Bigbooté!), “hands-down the best B-movie ever created.” I’d go even further: I’d say it’s the best movie about a neurosurgeon who’s also a rock god and physicist ever.
Head to 11 minutes in to hear more Buckaroo speak.
