Filmmaker Kevin Smith is purchasing the cinema that made him love filmmaking.
The 52-year-old Red Bank, NJ, native is purchasing the Atlantic Moviehouse in Atlantic Highlands, where his father brought him as a kid, sometimes allowing him to cut school for the knowledge.
The filmmaker, who announced the news headlines on Instagram, is likely to close the offer on the house, which he’ll co-own along with his wife, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith and other business partners, on Sept. 14.
His plans on renovating the 250-seat interior of the theater, already renamed SModcastle Cinemas, involve erecting a mural in the lobby featuring characters from his movies which were set in NJ.
They include Clerks, that was shot in convenience and video stores where he worked in true to life for $27,575 and earned an astounding $3million at the box office Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma.
He also pledged to host lives shows, develop a Merry Marvel Movie Society for fans of Marvel Studios releases and open a film school on the premises.
Smith also plans to call home in the apartment above the theater, a twist on his childhood imagine surviving in a cinema, he said in his post.
This certainly isnt about an investment deal, Smith told NJ Advance Media. That is aboutowning just a little piece of my own movie history, a building that helped forge the filmmaker that I wouldbecome.
