Kevin Smith to Direct Ranger Danger and the Danger Rangers… Eventually

Posted by on January 11th, 2008   Filed under: Comedy, Sci-fi
Source: MTV Movies Blog

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How many directors do you know that would come up with a logo and t-shirt for a movie years before they wrote the script? Dedicated View Askew fans may recall that there was a time when Kevin Smith was talking about doing a Flash Gordon-esque sci-fi/comedy called Ranger Danger and the Danger Rangers. Eventually the title turned up as a subtle inside joke in Clerks 2 (Randall is wearing a Ranger Danger t-shirt) but the movie itself still has yet to materialize. It seemed like Smith had either forgotten about it or lost interest, but we should all know better. How could he let such a great marketing tie-in go to waste?

It turns out that Smith was actually serious about making Ranger Danger, but like every other cool movie that he’s talked about over the past few years, in the end he was too scared to take it on. In particular, the idea of working with special effects and anything other than a barebones budget was enough to send him running back to his bread and butter (ie. foul-mouthed comedies).

Speaking with the folks at MTV Movies Blog, Smith recently broke the news that he is considering shooting Ranger Danger after Zack and Miri Make a Porno and Red State (which would make it his 10th movie). Apparently working on the CW series Reaper helped him feel a bit more comfortable with special effects and gain some confidence in his directing skills.

We’ll see if he actually follows through, but I will say that this is probably the only thing that could get me excited about a new Kevin Smith movie at this point. I want to see him try something different. Sure, there’s something to be said for knowing your strengths and sticking to them, but unless you challenge yourself you’ll never know what you’re capable of, right? Not to mention the fact that there are a lot of talented people out there willing to help a director realize his vision. Here’s to hoping he gets Zack and Miri out of the way quickly and moves on to something new.



  • Primal

    Can this guy just finish the movie he is working on at the moment before talking about what he’ll be doing two movies from now? I guess he has so much confidence that his future projects will be golden to able to talk about a 3rd film.

  • Kevin Smith is a relatable guy but the fact that he gets millions of dollars (Zack and Miri costs 25 MILLION DOLLARS to make) is fucking ridiculous. If he can make Clerks for 27.000$, what does he need 25 MILLION DOLLARS for? I can’t get over that ridiculous number.

    The fact that he doesn’t want to do anything he hasn’t done before is fine. But then don’t demand all this cash. I mean seriously, 25 MILLION DOLLARS is more expensive than any danish production in history, and they have done way more than Kevin Smith has done.

    In his defense though, I like his podcast – mainly because his friend and producer Scott Mosier sounds like one of the nicest people alive.

  • les w00t! I’ve always loved the idea of Ranger Danger and the Danger Rangers — hell, the best gift I’ve ever recieved was a Ranger Danger shirt from my wife this past Christmas.

    Not going to hold my breath on this one though — Smith has proven himself too afraid of failure to ever work outside of his comfort zone, as his trail of aborted projects (like Ranger Danger was until now) will show. Likewise, I don’t think we’ll ever see Red State either.

  • What happened to Smith’s proposed Fletch film? He mentioned it fairly recently on his podcast as though some progress was being made with it. Will Ranger Danger be before or after Fletch, and where exactly does Red State fall into play, because I seem to recall him saying several times that he’d be doing Red State before Zak and Miri. I get the feeling that it’s best to take anything Smith says with a grain of salt and just wait for a movie to hit theaters before assuming that it’s even going to get made. Maybe he should just stop making movies altogether and begin talking about them to rooms full of college students full-time.