While the comic book behemoths of Marvel and DC have been increasingly testing our patience with their pitiful excuses as to why we have no female-led superhero movies on our cinema screens, it seems that writer-director Kevin Smith has snuck up behind them, and snatched the opportunity from their timid grasp. The independent filmmaker is about to head into production with Yoga Hosers, in which the daughters of Smith and Johnny Depp will team up to save the world.
The film is the second instalment of his latest creative effort – his True North Trilogy – which seeks to focus on Canadian mythology and culture. The first instalment, Tusk, is due to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and in traditional Kevin Smith style, cast members from that previous film are returning for Yoga Hosers. Joining Harley Quinn Smith and Lily-Rose Depp will be Justin Long, Michael Parks, Haley Joel Osment, Genesis Rodiguez and Johnny Depp. Newcomers to the trilogy are confirmed as Tony Hale, Natasha Lyonne, Adam Brody and Jason Mewes.
The film features 15 year old yoga fans Colleen Collette (Lily-Rose Depp) and Colleen McKenzie (Harley Quinn Smith), who work at a convenience store after school in Manitoba, called Eh-2-Zed. The two Colleens find their plans to attend an important party threatened by the ascent of an ancient evil, and so join forces with Montreal manhunter Guy LaPointe (Johnny Depp), to save the day with “all seven Chakras, one Warrior Pose at a time.”
Discussing the project, Kevin Smith explained:
“People always ask me ‘Are you ever going to make a comic book movie?’ This is it – but instead of yet another dude saving the day, our antiheroes are the most feared and formidable creatures man has ever encountered: two 15 year old girls.”
CEO of co-financing company StarStream, Kim Leadford, added:
“The timing couldn’t be more perfect, as so many production companies are struggling to find content to fill a serious void in the market of female superheroes and anti-heroes. And it’s pretty exciting to have their dads making the film with them.”
It really is exciting. Who cares that the film contains the well-worn Kevin Smith themes of teenagers working in convenience stores, and the writer-director populating his cast with faces from his other movies? As Marvel and DC wring their hands about “doing justice to female heroic characters” (in other words, not making them look like porn stars) and “introducing them in the right way” (in other words, Trojan horse-style – as add-ons to a male-led movie), Kevin Smith has created new female heroes from scratch, written a great sounding movie, and got the cameras rolling on it. The giant studios may be telling us we’ll have to wait another five or six years before they can get round to giving us a movie led by a female hero, but Kevin Smith is simply getting it done. It seems that, with Yoga Hosers, Smith will be taking all those other production companies to school, where the lesson of the day will be, ‘you snooze, you lose.’
