The Passion of the Clerks (Clerks 2)

He's making a sequel. Not sure how I feel about it.

Director Kevin Smith Plans 'Clerks' Sequel

By ANTHONY BREZNICAN, AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES - Kevin Smith is making another convenience store run.

The writer-director of "Dogma," "Chasing Amy" and "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" told the Associated Press on Friday that he has begun work on a sequel to "Clerks," his homemade indie classic from 1994.

That $27,000 movie, shot at night in a store where Smith worked, chronicled the adventures of Dante and Randal, two guys who talk about life, death, sex and movies while working at neighboring stores.

The sequel picks up 10 years later.

"It's about what happens when that lazy, 20-something malaise lasts into your 30s. Those dudes are kind of still mired, not in that same exact situation, but in a place where it's time to actually grow up and do something more than just sit around and dissect pop culture and talk about sex," Smith said during an interview at his Hollywood office. "It's: What happened to these dudes?"

A new 10th anniversary DVD of "Clerks" debuts Sept. 7, and Smith said working on that three-disc set inspired him to write about what became of those characters.

The sequel — titled "The Passion of the Clerks" — is set to begin shooting in January. Miramax Films, which turned the original into a cult-hit after buying it at the Sundance Film Festival (news - web sites), plans to distribute the follow-up.

"It's funny, it's very raw, insanely foul-mouthed. In many ways it's the antithesis of 'Jersey Girl,'" Smith said, referring to his recent PG-13 comedy with Ben Affleck (news) as the widowed father of a little girl.

Smith is also writing the screenplay for a movie version of "The Green Hornet," but no longer thinks he will direct it. The "Clerks" movie has moved to the top of his to-do list.

He said he called Jeff Anderson, who played the combative video-store worker Randal, and Brian O'Halloran, who was the besieged-by-strangeness convenience store employee Dante, to run the idea by them first.

"Jeff was actually very protective of 'Clerks,'" Smith said. "Jeff was like, 'Are you sure you want to do this? That movie means a lot to people and do you want to go back?' I thought about it honestly, and it would seem chicken to not give it a shot just because I'm afraid of (messing) with the first film."

So far, he said he has gotten only positive responses from the people who have read the script, so he decided to move forward with it. Both O'Halloran and Anderson are signed on, and Jason Mewes, will return as stoner Jay, the "hetero life-mate" of Smith's stoic Silent Bob.

"I'm sure there will be naysayers who say, 'Oh my God, it's an opportunistic grab at a buck,' but it's not. We're doing it for nothing," Smith said. "We're going to do it insanely inexpensively. The budget will be somewhere between 250 grand and $5 million."

The original was shot pre-dawn, and most of the actors worked for free and then went straight to their day-jobs with little or no sleep.

"This time around we'll afford ourselves the luxury of nice 12-hour days," Smith said. "And people can get paid."

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i thought this series was supposed to be over.

kevin smith has become very trite.

i mean, clerks was interesting, mallrats was good but not incredibly novel, and by chasing amy it was pretty unoriginal... direction-wise.

that said, all of his movies have had quite a few funny parts to them, and they're fairly enjoyable to watch at least... so, it depends on how much you want to expect from it.

A lot of people rag on Kevin Smith for his direction, especially for "Chasing Amy" which is a more serious film then the others. It doesn't make sense because it is directed in the same style as the other films. It's also a good style, he is subtle with his shots rather than overwhelming, seems to be something he picked up from being a huge comic book fan, his shots seem to be in the style of panels. This is emphasized in the scene at the end of "Chasing Amy" where Holden's "Chasing Amy" comic is shown and the pictures in that book imitate exactly the way they take place in the film. It's an underrated style that is not helped by his claims of how terrible a director he is, but if this is the case, then why did Criterion release a Criterion Collection edition of "Chasing Amy" on laserdisc and DVD? They don't release crappily directed films.

"Clerks" sequel might be good, "Clerks" is one of my favorites and if it's done well then it should be great. The only thing that makes me concerned is "Jersey Girl", which wasn't a bad film, but as Smith says it is the exact opposite of "Clerks". It should be good.

What's interesting is that Richard Linklater just did a similiar thing with "Before Sunset", a sequal to his film "Before Sunrise" in which the characters of the first film are shown again 9 years later. And he did it to critical acclaim and modest box office success, too. Now he's working on "Scanner Darkly", can't wait for that.

I loved Clerks but it really could go either way with the sequel. Hopefully it'll live up to the original.

the only movie i seen by him was dogma. i was all lol