On Friday, Kevin Smith announced via Twitter that Clerks III will be his last film before retiring from the medium. Smith says the project will be a go if and when he gets the thumbs up from Jeff Anderson, who plays the abrasive Randal Graves in the Clerks movies.
My first response to this news was basically, “not this old song and dance again.” How many times is Kevin Smith going to tell us he’s planning to retire? Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the man’s work. I even liked Jersey Girl, which is not a popular thing to admit. But seriously, he needs to stop announcing his retirement. Shortly before he went on the Red State tour, he was suggesting on various Smodco shows that he was done making movies. Then when Red State premed at Sundance, Smith officially announced that Hit Somebody would be his final film before retiring from the movie biz.
Then last week, Smith announced that Hit Somebody was going to be produced as a miniseries on the small screen. While details about this new deal are still pending, Smith has since suggested this change has left a hole in his intended ten-piece filmography (that is, if you ignore Cop Out, which Smith is only too happy to do). It would seem the long speculated-upon Clerks III is to be the remedy. Much as Clerks II followed Dante and Randal in their thirties, the third installment will check in on the duo in their forties.
Of course, all this is dependent upon Jeff Anderson coming back for another round of Randal, but the news is certainly positive for Kevin Smith fans. Personally I’d prefer another Jay and Silent Bob story, but that’s neither here nor there. Really the only thing that bothers me in all of this is the retirement issue. It seems as though Smith is becoming the boy who cried wolf. “No, this time I really mean it! I’m totally going to retire after this next one.” What happens if he comes up with another story he wants to tell after Clerks III? Think McFly, think.
