Lionsgate is moving forward with Clerks 3 after securing the worldwide rights to the latest entry in Kevin Smith's View Askewniverse.
Smith will begin production on the film in New Jersey in August, reported Deadline. The script, which Smith completed during the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns in 2020, has Randal (Jeff Anderson) suffering a massive heart attack before reuniting with Dante (Brian O'Halloran), Becky (Rosario Dawson), Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) to make a movie immortalizing his life as a convenience store clerk.
“There’s a saying from the Tao that goes something like ‘To be great is to go on. To go on is to go far. To go far is to return,'" said Smith. "Thanks to Lionsgate, we get to return to where it all started with almost the whole cast that started it all! And for the first time since the first time we ever made a movie in 1993, we’re shooting the entire flick on location in New Jersey, as an ode to both the enduring allure of cinema and the resourcefulness and lunacy of its storytellers. Years ago, Dante and Randal made me a filmmaker – so now it’s time I return the favor.”
The View Askewniverse launched in 1994 with Smith's directorial debut on Clerks, a comedy shot in the convenience store where Smith once worked. Filmed in black-and-white, the movie revolves around Quick Stop Groceries clerk Dante and his friend/fellow under-achiever Randal, who works at a video rental store next door. Twelve years after the movie's critical and commercial success, Smith released Clerks II, a sequel that finds Dante and Randal employed by the fast-food restaurant Mooby's.
Smith began writing Clerks 3 in the early 2010s, but the film was continuously pushed back. Its story changed after he suffered a heart attack that nearly took his life in February 2018. His experience provided inspiration for the revamped version of the film, which he announced on Oct. 1, 2019. "[Clerks 3 will] be a movie that concludes a saga. It’ll be a movie about how you’re never too old to completely change your life. It’ll be a movie about how a decades-spanning friendship finally confronts the future," said Smith at the time.
Clerks 3 will mark Smith's first live-action project since 2019's Jay and Silent Bob Reboot. It has yet to receive a release date.
Source: Deadline