Clerks III is officially happening and set to begin filming next month

Kevin Smith has been talking about making Clerks III for a very long time now, to the point where we had lost hope for it ever getting made. The filmmaker’s been through various iterations of the script, ultimately landing on a draft that he previewed in January which shows that the film begins with My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome To The Black Parade” (Smith and his daughter Harley Quinn are big fans). Clerks III is starting to feel more real now, as Deadline announced that Lionsgate acquired worldwide rights to the film, and it begins production next month.

In a statement given to Deadline, Smith says:

“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! 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 last we heard about the plot, Smith was planning to go very meta. Given how Clerks is based on his humble beginnings working with friends as a Quick Stop clerk, he’s trying to tie the upcoming film back his own life story; Clerks III is about the characters from Clerks making Clerks. Basically, Randal has a heart attack (like Smith) and realizes he wouldn’t be leaving behind a legacy, so he makes a movie about Dante and his buddies (like Smith). Say what you want about this synopsis, but it’s far better than the original extremely bleak plot Smith had come up with, which involved one of the characters being diagnosed with cancer and a mass shooting.