Kevin Smith’s new, personal film, The 4:30 Move, belongs to the same realm as Kenneth Branagh (Belfast) and James Gray (Armageddon Time), all of whom who have made period dramas about their childhoods.

Most recently, Spielberg directed The Fabelmans, a semi-autobiographical movie, which detailed how his parents’ divorce intersected with his budding filmmaking prowess.

Smith’s 16th feature about his four first loves — his neighborhood movie theater, his adolescent crush and his two best friends — is already being compared to Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film.

But instead of following Spielberg, Branagh and Gray, as well as Alfonso Caurón’s Roma (2018) and Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari (2022), Smith’s coming-of-age tale was born out of his 2022 purchase of Atlantic Cinemas, his childhood movie house in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey.

Now known as SModcastle Cinemas, Smith knew he could give himself a deal on a filming location. So he decided to tell the 1986-set story of how 16-year-old Brian David (Austin Zajur) found magic, heartbreak and love in a place like Atlantic Cinemas. (Smith’s parents nearly named him Brian David Smith until they noticed another baby with the Brian David moniker in their hospital’s nursery.)

Initially, Smith planned to have his daughter, Harley Quinn Smith, play the Brian David role since their family’s matriarch, Jennifer Schwalbach Smith, considers Harley to be a chip off her father’s block. However, Harley, who previously starred in her dad’s films Yoga Hosers (2016) and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019), declined the offer.

“She was just like, ‘You don’t think I’ve got enough nepo baby shit to deal with online? You now want me to play you? Fuck that,’” Smith recalls.

The filmmaker, 54, didn’t have to look very far for Harley’s replacement, as her boyfriend of five years, Zajur, had already worked with the Smith family on Clerks III (2022) and the TBS reality show Celebrity Show-Off (2020).

“Honestly, Austin Zajur was more Kevin Smith than Kevin Smith. He was the perfect, perfect choice,” Smith says.

For years and years, Smith has been trying to make a sequel to his sophomore feature, Mallrats (1995), which starred Jason Lee, Shanned Doherty and Jeremy London. But given Doherty’s death in July after a long battle with cancer, he briefly jettisoned the idea since she was committed to reprising her role as one of the co-leads.

“Shannen’s closest friend was Sarah Michelle Gellar, and I worked with Sarah on Masters of the Universe: Revelation,” Smith says. “So her being Shannen’s bestie and having already tried out for Mallrats 30 years ago next year, I would ask Sarah to step in for Shannen if there’s a possibility that we get to make Twilight of the Mallrats. I think that’d be personally meaningful for her on some level because of her relationship with Shannen … She’d bring Shannen’s warmth with her, and it’s maybe the next best thing to having Shannen there.”

Smith also shared his and Doherty’s final text exchange after taping her Let’s Be Clear podcast in Malibu last December. Their final back-and-forth shows how eager she was to convince Mallrats rights-holder Universal to clear the way for a long-awaited sequel.

“She said, ‘Why don’t you and Jason Lee and me go meet at Universal?’  I said, ‘We totally can.’ And she said, ‘Let’s do it. I’ll pull the cancer card.’ And then she put one of those crying-laughing emojis.”

Smith adds: “Over the last month, there’s been these weird glimmers of conversations and hope. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but it suddenly seems like there could be path to victory. And we know who that movie is going to be dedicated to, that’s for damn sure.”