Clerks 3 Just Hit A Huge Production Milestone

Kevin Smith fans wanting a return to his particular take on the zeitgeist as portrayed in 1994's "Clerks" and its 2006 sequel, "Clerks 2," have waited a very long time to go back to the View Askewniverse. But now, "Clerks 3" has reached a pretty big moment in its production cycle: it has completed filming. 

Deadline reported in July that Lionsgate had obtained worldwide rights to "Clerks 3."  At the time, it was in pre-production in New Jersey with production set to begin the following month. Smith then posted to Twitter on August 1, saying that he would turn 51 on August 2, the day they start filming "Clerks 3." 

Yesterday, Smith posted a tweet showing himself with actor Jason Mewes, confirming that the shoot was in its final stages. "Last Day of CLERKS III. It's been a blissful shoot," Smith said. "I've already cut together about an hour of the movie and it's a funny as f**k, emotional paean to cinema. Tonight, these 2 old fools wrap their 10th movie together." And today, he posted another statement, saying, "We wrapped CLERKS III around midnight, our final shot replicating the scene from CLERKS in which Jay & Silent Bob were dancing in the dark outside of RST Video!"

There's no set release date for the film yet, but this good news means that despite how busy Smith is, what with projects like "Masters of the Universe: Revelations" airing now and "Twilight of the Mallrats" in the works, "Clerks 3" is coming out sooner rather than later. 

Kevin Smith has been talking about making "Clerks 3" for approximately forever. In 2012, there was talk of it being envisioned as a Broadway show (via Broadway Buzz). In 2015, Smith told "The Hollywood Reporter," "I wrote 'Clerks 3' like a 'King Lear' movie in a convenience store. It's funny, but it's f**king sad." And then in 2017, he said in a podcast (via comicbook.com) that he was hoping to "put the scripts out there" for 'Clerks 3' and 'Mallrats 2,' saying he had ideas of turning them into comic books. At the time, actor Jeff Anderson, who played Randal, had stepped back from the project and Smith didn't want to go forward without him (via /Film).  

Cut to 2019, when Smith said he was re-doing the script completely, in part to get Anderson back on board. He said about the previous script (via comicbook.com), "I love it, it's one of my favorite scripts, but it's dark. It's bleak, and it's not what Dante and Randal deserve. We're never going to make that version of 'Clerks 3,' but I'm going to write a different 'Clerks 3' and we're going to make that f**king film, I promise."

The current script of "Clerks 3" was inspired by the fact that Smith suffered a heart attack in 2018 (via Cinemablend). Randal goes through the same thing and realizes how meaningless his life has been. "And in the recovery, while under fentanyl, he comes to the conclusion at mid-life, having almost died, having worked in a movie store his whole life and watched other people's movies, he tells Dante, I think we need to make a movie. So Dante and Randal make 'Clerks.'"

Sounds very meta, as it should be. Hopefully, it'll come to a screen near us as soon as 2022.