Kevin Smith has shared a first behind-the-scenes look at the long-awaited Clerks 3 – scroll down the page to see it now.
The writer and director started writing the script for the third instalment of the franchise in 2013, but said the movie was no longer happening after he fell out with Jeff Anderson, who plays Randal.
After Anderson and Smith made up, they began work on a new script, which is now in production.
Posting on his Instagram page on his birthday earlier this week (August 3), Smith shared a photo of himself, Anderson, Brian O’Halloran (who plays Dante), Jason Mewes (Jay), Trevor Fehrman (Elias) and Austin Zajur.
“How I Spent My 51st Birthday! Clerks III, Day 1 – with @briancohalloran and #jeffanderson and @jaymewes and @trevorfehrman and @austinzajur,” he captioned the post. “Thanks to that sweet @lionsgate cash, we *are* supposed to be here today!”
In 2019, Smith revealed that the plot of Clerks 3 is in part inspired by the heart attack that almost killed him in 2018. In an interview, the filmmaker said the movie would centre around Randal recovering from a heart attack. Following his near-death experience, Randal undergoes a mid-life crisis before teaming up with Dante to make a film.
“Randal has a heart attack, decides that he came so close to death, and his life has meant nothing, there’s nobody to memorialise him, he has no family or anything like that,” he explained.
“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. That’s the story of Clerks 3.”
