Clerks 2 Gets Greenlit!

[Mr_Vindictive]

I'm posting this cause I know that a lot of you are big Clerks fans!  Here's the news!  Unbelieveable!

"We've talked about it, we've hypothesized over it, we've even emailed writer/director Kevin Smith drunk in the middle of the night, begging him to re-visit Dante and Randal from Red Bank's own Quick Stop convenience store and today comes word that Smith is indeed  working on a sequel to his break-out hit, CLERKS, tentatively entitled THE PASSION OF THE CLERKS  (uuuhmm, you might want to change that trendy title though) I'm about as happy as a little girl to hear that Smith will be going back to his roots with this film, which would pick up 10 years after the first one ended (thank God he didn't keep that original ending, eh?) and would apparently start filming as early as January 2005, with Miramax distributing. Here's what Smith himself had to say about it:

"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. It's: What happened to these dudes?"

Both Brian O'Halloran (Dante) and Jeff Anderson (Randal) have already signed on for the sequel, with Smith's alter-ego of Silent Bob and his stoner buddy Jay, returning as well. It will be interesting to see how Smith plays Jason Mewes' real-life drug problems into the story-line. For anyone who thinks this is Smith's way of making even more moolah, he insists that not to be true, estimating the new film's budget to be somewhere between $250,000 and $5M (the original reportedly only cost him $27,000, part of which he raised by selling his comic book collection) This film would now be at the top of his "to do" list, as he continues to write the screenplay for THE GREEN HORNET, a film which he will likely not direct anymore."

joblo.com for more info!

[odinn7]

Awesome. My favorite line from the first movie: "This job would be great if it wasn't for the customers."

[nobody]

I thought "Clerks" was a great film. But I've lost intrest in Smith because of his other movies. The continuation of the "Clerks" storyline (in movies like "Mallrats", "Chasing Amy", etc.) have gone continually downhill. In fact, ALL his movies just seem to get worse and worse. I don't think I'll bother to watch the sequel to "Clerks." It doesn't need a sequel anyway. Not every hit movie needs "to be continued..."

[Mr_Vindictive]

I'm sure that Smith will find a way to make it work.

As for his later films after Clerks, I enjoyed most of them.  Mallrats is extremely funny after watching it four or five times.  Chasing Amy is a great dramady.  Jay and Silent Bob reached a new low of stupidity and is definently Smith's weakest flick.  I have yet to see Jersey Girl but I plan on picking it up along with Clerks X.  First time I'll ever double dip on a DVD.

[mr. henry]

i hope it's good. MY OPINION (please no hate mail) is that clerks and chasing amy are the only two good movies that kevin smith has done.

south park already has a dvd out called THE PASSION OF THE JEW so that "clever" titling gimmick has gotta go...


www.310am.com

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Got to go with Mr. Henry and nobody here - it's been a real downhill slide for Kevin Smith. He and M. Night Shyamalan have both got it pretty much nailed down.

I won't deny that Clerks was a good film but really for me the other films he's done have been at best, passable and at worst self-indulgent nonsense. I have no doubt that this will be more of the same.

But I'm sure that the average fanboy who enjoys his work without ryhme or reason will be falling over themselves with glee.

[Ash]

I will definitely go to see this with one exception...

It MUST be in black & white like the original.
If it's in color, forget it.

[nobody]

The B+W VS Color issue wouldn't bother me. I'd see it either way if I thought it would be a good movie. I just don't have any faith in Smith to write a good script anymore.  

The thing is, the original was so good because it was funny but realistic. It even had a serious message, and you walked away from it a little bit wiser. But this new Clerks will surely be pure stupid entertainment, with situations that are more unbelievable than even the off-the-wall (and quickly cancelled) Clerks cartoon series.

My advice to Smith would be to write a brand new comedy, that strayed as far away from Clerks as possible... and had absolutely nothing to do with romance.

[SaintMort]

but the clerks cartoon series, like he knew it was off the wall, even had an episode dedicated to how much it wasn't like the orginal. I think he knows not to mess with what was enjoyable about the orginal.

[trekgeezer]

Maybe Smith has learned his limitations.  He backed out of directing the Green Hornet  because of the big budget.  After Jersey Girl didn't do so well  he said he wanted to go back to doing independent stuff.  

Here's a little interview with him:

Moviehole

[Dunners]

sweet, sounds good to me .

[Yaddo42]

I read the link and something similar somewhere else, sounds like Smith has had his confidence shaken about big money studio filmmaking. Although he's being a little dishonest (with himself or the reader) to say that critics maybe didn't like "Jersey Girl" because it wasn't edgy, they seemed not to like it because it flew in the face of his earlier work and was just like the kind of movies his characters from his other films would rip apart..

I'm curious to see if a new "Clerks" would just be a rehash or if he could do something worthwhile with the characters. Then again if Randall and Dante are still acting the same way all these years later, at a certain point it crosses over from slacker cool to pathetic and sad.

"J&SBSB" had some good smartass dialogue and a few cute scenes, but the weak story, uneven jokes, and irritating acting from people like Chris Rock. I still like on the commentary track how he explains giving a role to his wife in that film without using the words "I'm whipped".

I'm definitely curious to see what he'd do with the Fletch series since I've been hearing about his involvement for so long. I'd love to see it done right, but I fear considering his plotting can be weak at times that it'd just be Jason Lee (not a favorite of mine to begin with, can take him in small doses) acting snarky for a whole film. Even Chevy wore that gimmick out after a while.

[Eirik]

Hmm...  I loved Clerks, but it was the only Kevin Smith I loved -- in fact, I almost didn't give his third and later movies a chance after Mall Rats.  Normally I don't like sequals of good movies, but I will check this one out mainly because I grew up near Red Bank in the 1980s and the characters in that movie were the most realistic I have ever seen.

You know in the original Clerks edit, Dante got killed?

[dean]

Really, he got killed? how did that work out?

Despite what people say, I think Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is a fantastic movie.

It is the ultimate fan's movie; as Smith said himself 'it was the biggest in-joke ever made'

I am probably a bit biased, but Smith's work is generally enjoyable.  I don't think I need a Clerks sequel, but I am not upset that it is being made.

I guess that's all I have to say...

[nobody]

Dean: "Really, he got killed? how did that work out?"

At the very end of the film, some stranger walks into the Quick Stop and shoots Dante for no reason. The end.

It was an unnecessary scene, as far as I know- and I think that's why Smith pulled it. But I never did listen to any commentary or read Smith's purpose behind filming it.