Jay and Silent Bob are coming back. Or, at least, we get to see what Dante and Randall look like in their 40s. Kevin Smith announced on his Hollywood Babble-On podcast this past weekend that he has finally received the financing to make Clerks 3.
Smith was trying to get financing last year but no one would pony up the money. That kind of sucked since Smith wanted the movie to come out this year to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the original Clerks. Of course, that original movie was about two 20-something clerks, one in a convenience store and the other in a video rental store. Clerks 2 came out 12 years later and showed the same two guys working in a fast food restaurant in their 30s. Now, eight years after that, Smith can start to show where they are now.
Don’t expect them to have made it much further.
Kevin Smith released a photo last year that showed that he was working on the script, and called it the best script he has ever written. Despite that, no one bought in on it. As a result, Smith went back to the horror theme that he explored in Red State. That resulted in his latest movie, Tusk, a movie with some interesting themes but a structure that makes it hard to really love.
However, there were a lot of good things about Tusk, including the amazing Michael Parks and some of Smith’s best directing work. The problems with the movie came from a patchwork script, but when it comes to the world of Clerks, that shouldn’t be a problem. Smith said that, while Tusk might have flopped at the box office, it impressed the financers enough to give him money for Clerks 3.
This is great news for Kevin Smith fans, who thought that the movie was dead in the water when the Weinstein brothers, who have long been Smith supporters, said they would distribute the movie but wouldn’t put up any of their own money for it. The question now is when Kevin Smith will make Clerks 3.
Kevin Smith is currently working on the action comedy Yoga Hosers, which stars his daughter alongside Johnny Depp’s daughter. Depp will also return to co-star in that movie, revisiting the role he created in Tusk.
