Kevin Smith has revealed that he was pitched The Fly comic book movie with Chris Rock attached to star. The pitch is not to be confused with David Cronenberg’s 1986 movie of the same name. Instead, the movie was going to be based on Joe Simon’s 1959 comic series. The character was originally introduced as a part of Archie’s “Archie Adventure Series” and was later renamed Fly-Man as part of the company’s Mighty Comics line. And today, the idea of bringing this to the big screen truly excites Kebin Smith.
On Kevin Smith’s Fatman Beyond podcast, he revealed that he was cleaning out his office. The director/writer pulled out the original Superman Lives pitch letter from Warner Bros. before going on to dust off another letter that he received involving The Fly comic book series, which is something that Smith hasn’t really ever talked about publicly. You can read the letter to Smith below.
“‘The script is inspired by a 1959 comic book of the same name by Joe Simon. As you know, Chris Rock is interested in starring. We are extremely excited about this movie which we see tonally as an action-comedy in the vein of Men in Black with a dose of social commentary that makes it totally unique. The script currently is a bit broad, both we and Chris would like to make the comedy smarter and subtler. We’d also like to better define the world and the rules of the spider and fly people. More importantly however we’d like to know what Kevin Smith thinks.'”
When looking back, Kevin Smith is still shocked about getting asked to be a part of The Fly movie. He says, “I could have made a f**ing Joe Simon comic book movie in the year 2000, ten years before this sht was popular again, with Chris Rock as my lead! Who knew!” He continued, “Why they came to me I have no f***ing idea, again because I was the person that talked about comic books.” Smith has talked about his love of comic books for decades now, which has been portrayed in his work.
Kevin Smith’s The Fly could have been a pretty big hit, especially with Chris Rock on board as the star. As for why the project never got off the ground, that is unclear at the moment. Maybe we’ll get some more answers now that Smith has brought the movie up again. In addition to the big screen adaptation, there was a TV series involving the character that was also in development at one point in time, which like the movie, never went anywhere.
The Fly comic book series wasn’t super popular, which may be why the movie and TV series never made it past the initial development stages. In the original comics, Fly possessed only four talents, the ability to walk up walls, to see in all directions, to escape from any trap, and acrobatic agility. His powers were later changed up as the series progressed. You can check out The Fly pitch above, thanks to Kevin Smith’s official YouTube channel.
