So despite a lot of hype, Kevin Smith‘s "Tusk" opened earlier this month and pretty much died. It earned a paltry $1.4 million theatrically but that said, the VOD numbers might be more encouraging. Either way, the filmmaker knows how to hustle, and he’s already at work at the low budget "Yoga Hosers," with "Moose Jaws" in the pipeline (part of what Smith calls the "True North Trilogy"). But perhaps you forgot about a project in his back pocket: "Clerks 3."
Earlier this year, Smith revealed that The Weinstein Company had balked on producing the movie, budgeted at $6 million, but offered distribution. This left the status of the sequel unclear at the time, but it looks like things are back on track.
“Because of ‘Tusk’ I got my financing for ‘Clerks III.’ And honestly, that wouldn’t have happened [without ‘Tusk’]. A year and change ago, I was desperately trying to get ‘Clerks III’ made for the 20th anniversary and that desperation —I must have reeked of it because I couldn’t fucking find money and shit," Smith said on the Hollywood Babble-On podcast. "But it was ‘Tusk,’ people going ‘holy fuck, what else do you have?’ And I was like ‘Clerks III‘ and they’re like ‘done’. So, everybody that’s like, ‘he failed, he failed’, I’m like ‘thank you, I failed into doing Clerks III.’ So never trust anybody when they tell you how your story goes, man. You know your story. You write your own story.”
So Smith’s enthusiasm, as well as proof he could turn around a movie on a minimal budget with decent names, seems to have enabled "Clerks 3" to happen. That, and it’s still a recognizable series. No word yet on when it might shoot, but we’re sure the always chatty Smith will keep us apprised of every movement that happens between now and whenever cameras roll. [via Flickering Myth]