It doesn't seem possible that Kevin Smith's debut film Clerks is 27 years old this year, but time has marched on as always. And now, after a few years of trying, Smith is looking to return to the story he started with that movie and continued with 2006's Clerks II, as Clerks III starts shooting next month in New Jersey.
Smith has rounded back up the main recurring characters from the Clerks story, including Randal (Jeff Anderson), Dante (Brian O’Halloran), Jay (Jason Mewes), Silent Bob (Smith himself) and Becky ([Rosario Dawson](//members.stg.empireonline.com/people/rosario-dawson/ http://)) for a story that draws on Smith's brush with death via his 2018 heart attack. Randal enlists Dante, Elias (which points to the return of Trevor Fehrman from the second film), Jay and Silent Bob to make a movie immortalizing his life at the convenience store that started it all. Very meta, in keeping with the likes if Jay And Silent Bob Reboot.
As well as being shot in New Jersey (unlike much of Clerks II), the third film also marks Smith's return to more traditional distribution methods, as Lionsgate has picked up the rights to the film.
"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.’ Thanks to Lionsgate, we get to return to where it all started with almost the whole cast that started it all!" Smith says. "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."
Smith's Masters Of The Universe: Revelation kicks off on Netflix this Friday.