Kevin Smith Vows Return to Cannes 2028 with ‘Dogma 2’: “If It’s Good,” Says Thierry Frémaux

Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” was announced to finally be getting a 4k release after another company purchased the distribution rights from Miramax, making it also available to stream for the first time ever.

A “liberated” Smith wasted no time revealing plans for a sequel, sounding very confident that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon would be back to reprise their original roles as fallen angels Bartleby and Loki.

Since then, he’s taken the 1999 film on a festival tour, including a screening at this year’s 78th Cannes Film Festival — an experience that reignited his passion for the festival circuit.

Speaking to Deadline, Smith revealed how returning to Cannes after nearly two decades reignited his spirit — he’d doubted he still belonged there, but being back on the Croisette awakened a new fire within him:

What I didn’t realize is, I would get there and I’d get bit by the bug again, and I’d be seeing all these places, these haunts from my childhood, from my 20s, so to speak, from the three times I was there when I was a kid, once in ’94 with “Clerks,” once in ’99 with “Dogma,” and then again in 2006 with “Clerks 2.”And suddenly, I was like, ‘Why is it that you assume that the Cannes-worthy portion of your life is over?

Smith, a rejuvenated man, now says that not only is he going to shoot a “Dogma” sequel, but goddammit, he plans to go back to Cannes and premiere it in 2028 (quality permitted).

So, it was the 78th edition this year and so I was like, ‘You know what? I wanna come back on the 80th, or the 81st at the latest with the Dogma sequel, like that’s a Cannes-worthy movie.’ And so, I said that on stage when I was intro-ing and everybody applauded, and [festival director] Thierry Frémaux was on stage with me, and he adds, ‘if it is good,’ and I was like, ‘fair enough, if it’s good, yes.’

“Dogma” starred Affleck and Damon as angels traveling to New Jersey in search of a loophole that will get them back to heaven. The film had a stacked ensemble which also included Linda Fiorentino, Salma Hayek, Alan Rickman, Chris Rock, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes and and Alanis Morissette as God.

Smith’s brand of slacker comedy was all the rage in the ‘90s with the filmmaker practically becoming the spokesperson for dick jokes and a misfit generation of geeky basement dwellers with such films as “Clerks,” “Chasing Amy,” and “Mallrats.” These last 20 years, Smith has mostly been directing B-movies. and low-rent Hollywood vehicles (“Yoga Hosers,” “Red State” “Tusk,” “Cop Out,” “Clerks III”).