Kevin Smith is a man known for speaking his mind. And when he gets an idea for a film in his noggin these days, he tends to act upon it. Case in point? His latest, Tusk, a horror movie spawned from, of all things, a comical Gumtree advert asking for a roommate willing to dress as a walrus. Smith has taken the idea to its chilling, man-as-sea-mammal conclusion and is nearly finished shooting it. He’s now tweeted the first look at the creature through the medium of an anatomical image.
What began as a joke on his Smodcast podcast has now become a reality, with the script following a podcaster (Justin Long) who answers the ad looking to see what type of strange story might be behind it. When he vanishes, his friend and co-host Teddy (Haley Joel Osment) joins forces with his girlfriend (Genesis Rodriguez) to find him. They discover that something very odd is going on, something that involves a distinctly deranged type played by Red State’s Michael Parks.
Smith has also recently posted a picture of Osment and Rodriguez in the film, and has been talking up the fact that production will be complete by the end of this week and that he’s already edited a big chunk of the footage.
For a man who once said he was retiring, the writer-director certainly isn’t taking it easy just yet. While there’s no word on a release date yet, Tusk should be in cinemas next year.