Kevin Smith has revealed the working title of his controversial 1999 religious comedy Dogma was God: The Movie in early drafts. The movie was Smith's fourth in just five years, after making a splash with his low-budget debut Clerks in 1994. Dogma reunited Matt Damon and Smith's frequent star Ben Affleck, who also appeared in Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Jersey Girl, as a pair of fallen angels who set off to exploit a loophole in Catholic dogma that would get them back into heaven.
Despite being considered one of Smith's best movies, combining his trademark stoner comedy with an interesting plot and solid performances, it isn't available to stream online, or buy physically due to an outdated distribution model that won't be renewed because of the Weinsteins. Along with Damon and Affleck, Dogma starred Linda Fiorentino, Salma Hayek, Chris Rock, Alan Rickman and also featured Smith's recurring duo Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith). Alanis Morissette also makes a cameo as God in the film's final scene, but it turns out her role might once have been much larger.
On Twitter, Smith shared some old floppy disks and relics from his past during a cleaning session of some old cabinets. Along with disks containing the scripts for a number of his other movies, he revealed a very old one containing an early draft of Dogma with its original title: God: The Movie. You can see the tweet, accompanied by the dirty, old school physical storage device below:
Smith's revelation that his early ideas for the film were written before he had finished Clerks, prove it truly was a passion project, taking him at least five years to complete. It's also a sign that Smith's early ideas for the film clearly focused more on Morissette's deity rather than the duo of fallen angels who eventually take center stage in the plot. It would be fascinating to know how much his ideas changed from God: The Movie to what eventually became Dogma. Maybe Smith will be able to extract the data from the disk and release it to fans, or talk more about it on one of his podcasts.
Sadly, in addition to Dogma not being available on any streaming service, Smith has confirmed he won't ever make Dogma 2, saying he's not going to go near another religious movie at this point in his career. Perhaps, though, the renewed interest in the film as a result of this tweet could see a deal being made to get Dogma on a streaming service. As one of Smith's best efforts, it certainly deserves to be given a digital distribution deal.
Source: Kevin Smith/Twitter