“Dogma” fans — keep praying.
Kevin Smith’s 1999 religious satire has yet to be resurrected on streaming services.
The director, 52, noted in a recent interview that the film rights are currently being held “hostage” by disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein.
The comedy is not available to be watched online or purchased digitally; meanwhile, Blu-ray DVDs are selling them for almost $100 a pop.
“In order to tell the story, unfortunately, I’m gonna have to say the name that nobody wants to hear anymore. But of course, Harvey Weinstein figures into the story,” the “Mallrats” director told The Wrap.
“I mean, honestly, not even a thought. I don’t think he realized that he still owned that movie,” he added. “I don’t think he realized that it went out of public distribution or anything like that.”
The New Jersey native then explained how Weinstein, now 70, called Smith “out of the blue” in 2017 to produce a “Dogma” TV series or sequel.
Weinstein was convicted in 2020 and is currently serving 23 years in prison for his crimes of rape and sexual abuse.MediaPunch/Shutterstock The “Chasing Amy” screenwriter continued, “All the people that were in it are still around, so we can we can make a pretty good sequel or series even better.”
“And I got really excited because I was like, ‘Oh my God, for the first time. The dude [Weinstein] remembered me. Like, after a decade he remembered that I was part of the Miramax family.’ And he remembered that he had ‘Dogma’ and had a cool cast and I don’t know, I felt like wow, that’s, that’s cool,” Smith said.
However, scandal rocked the Miramax founder’s world (and Hollywood) when a bombshell New York Times exposé uncovered the numerous sexual assault allegations against him a week after that fateful phone call.
Smith even tried to buy back the rights for “Dogma,” but Weinstein was asking for too much.
Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek and Alan Rickman starred in the 1999 religious comedy “Dogma.”©Lions Gate/Courtesy Everett Collection“We felt very dirty about because we didn’t want to give him money,” Smith said. “He’s holding it hostage. My movie about angels is owned by the devil himself. And if there’s only one way out of this, maybe we could buy it away.”
Smith noted that the movie is currently under the ownership of a mysterious company — which he believes is owned by Weinstein.
The comic book writer has been attempting to get the film back for a while “My movie about heaven is in limbo,” he said.
“What sucks is that he’s also sitting his fat a– on my movie. And the right thing to do would have been to sell it back to me even if you didn’t want to sell for the price that I first said.” Smith pointed out. “Tell us what that price is and sell me my self-expression back.”
