Tusk (2014 film)

Tusk is an upcoming horror film written and directed by Kevin Smith, based on the 259th SModcast episode The Walrus & the Carpenter.^[1]

Premise

When podcast host and journalist Wallace Bryton goes missing in the backwoods of Manitoba while interviewing a mysterious seafarer named Mr. Howe, his best friend and podcast co-host Teddy Craft teams with Wallace's girlfriend to find him.

Background

The idea for the movie came during the recording of SModcast 259 The Walrus and The Carpenter. In the episode, Smith with his longtime friend and producer Scott Mosier discussed an article featuring a Gumtree ad where a homeowner was offering a living situation free of charge, if the lodger agrees to dress as a walrus. The discussion went on from there, resulting in almost an hour of the episode being spent on reconstructing and telling a hypothetical story based on the ad. Smith then told his Twitter followers to tweet "#WalrusYes" if they wanted to see their hypothetical turned into a film, or "#WalrusNo" if they didn't. A vast majority of Smiths following agreed that the film should be made.^[2] The post on Gumtree was in fact a prank post by noted Brighton poet and prankster Chris Parkinson, a fan of Smith who hoped to get in touch with him.^[3] Kevin Smith eventually hired Parkinson as a producer in November.^[4]

Smith wrote the 80-page screenplay while waiting for Bob Weinstein's approval of his Clerks III submission package. It was originally titled The Walrus & the Carpenter, but he changed it into a single-word title, saying he "knew what a movie about a walrus had to be called." The film is set in Bifrost, Manitoba.

The movie was originally to be produced by Blumhouse, but due to Smith's expedited timeline for filming the two amicably parted ways.^[5] Tusk was eventually financed by Demarest Films.^[6] Smith had planned on premiering the film at Sundance 2014, but this was later changed to allow more time for the score to be complete.^[7]

Smith was excited about making Tusk, saying "I wanted to right what I felt was the only wrong of Red State by scripting something with no religious or sexual politics that could grow up to be a weird little movie and not an indie film call-to-arms or a frustrated self-distribution manifesto. I just wanted to showcase Michael Parks in a fucked up story, where he could recite some Lewis Carroll and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to some poor motherfucker sewn into a realistic walrus costume."

Unlike Smith's previous film Red State, Tusk will have a conventional theater release in the third quarter of 2014. Distribution will be done by A24.^[8]

Filming

Shooting began on November 4, 2013,^[9] and wrapped up on November 22, 2013.^[10] The starting date was delayed from September to October then to November due to the filming location moving from Canada to North Carolina.^[11] An additional two days of filming is scheduled in Los Angeles for January for scenes involving the Guy LaPointe character.^[7]

Cast

• Michael Parks as Mr. Howe
• Justin Long as Wallace Bryton
• Haley Joel Osment^[12] as Teddy Craft
• Génesis Rodríguez^[12] as Allison
• TBA as Guy LaPointe
• Ralph Garman as TBA
• Harley Morestein^[9] as Canadian Border Agent

References

External links

• Tusk at the Internet Movie Database