{"id":12871,"date":"2014-10-07T23:46:30","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T23:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/cult-classic-clerks-confirmed-for-third-film\/"},"modified":"2014-10-07T23:46:30","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T23:46:30","slug":"cult-classic-clerks-confirmed-for-third-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/cult-classic-clerks-confirmed-for-third-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Cult classic \u201cClerks\u201d confirmed for third film"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Zoe Hicks<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Contributing Writer<\/em><\/p>\n

artsent.asp@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> \u201cI\u2019m not even supposed to be here today,\u201d convenience store clerk Dante Hicks first grumbled to his coworker Randal Graves 20 years ago this month, finding solidarity with anyone and everyone who had ever worked a thankless retail job, when writer-director Kevin Smith\u2019s classic slacker comedy \u201cClerks\u201d was released in Oct. 1994. It was a labor of love, shot in black-and-white by night in the convenience store Smith worked in by day. Filmed on a meager $ 27,575 budget procured by selling off his comic book collection and maxing out multiple credit cards, \u201cClerks\u201d went on to not only make more than a 10,000 percent profit but to define a generation. With its quirky cast of relatable losers stuck in dead-end jobs or living deadbeat lives, Smith fused humor with truth to create a timeless movie not just about retail, but about being in one\u2019s twenties and trapped, complete with plenty of dick and fart jokes.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The cast of the original \u201cClerks\u201d in 1994. Photo credit: themadeblog.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> The success of \u201cClerks\u201d led to a series of related films set within the same universe, the View Askewniverse, so named for Smith\u2019s View Askew Productions, and tied together by \u201cClerks\u201d supporting characters, and fan favorites, Jay and Silent Bob. But despite \u201cClerks\u201d leads Brian O\u2019Halloran and Jeff Anderson making occasional cameos, generally in other roles, Dante and Randal did not get another chance to show off their exceptionally poor customer service in their own film for over ten years until \u201cClerks II\u201d debuted in 2006. The sequel, which provided entirely new and thoroughly disgusting ways for them to torment patrons, as ten years later they no longer worked at the Quick Stop, but instead a fast food chain called Mooby\u2019s. The sequel received an eight minute standing ovation at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. It was lauded for keeping the humor of the original film alive if not lacking some of the depth. Fans were left hungering for more, and though a third \u201cClerks\u201d installment was teased, no plans for any View Askew films at all were made until 2012.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> The planned \u201cClerks III\u201d underwent an evolution of sorts, originally conceived as breaking the mold and being produced as a Broadway play. It was later set to be crowd-funded and Smith\u2019s final film, though ultimately all these plans were abandoned. Despite the success of the franchise, financial backing still proved to be an issue, and The Weinstein Company who had assisted with \u201cClerks II,\u201d rejected the film for having too high a budget. Though the first film may not have needed more than $ 30,000 for its budget, the third one\u2019s is set at $ 6,000,000. Still, plans for \u201cClerks III\u201d carried on, though they were put on hiatus as Smith focused on other projects.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> The most recent of these side projects was \u201cTusk\u00b8\u201d a horror-comedy starring Justin Long as the host of a podcast who falls victim to a sadistic walrus-obsessed man played by Michael Parks. The film was poorly received, and yet Kevin Smith gives it credit as the reason \u201cClerks III\u201d was finally given funding.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0<\/span> \u201cA year and change ago I was desperately trying to get \u2018Clerks III\u2019 made for the 20th anniversary and that desperation \u2014 I must have reeked of it because I couldn\u2019t fucking find money and shit,\u201d he said on Sept. 26 during his regular podcast, Hollywood Babble-on. \u201cBut it was \u2018Tusk,\u2019 people going \u2018Holy fuck, what else do you have?\u2019 and I was like \u2018Clerks III\u2019 and they\u2019re like \u2018done.\u2019 So, everybody that\u2019s like, \u2018He failed, he failed,\u2019 I\u2019m like \u2018Thank you, I failed into doing \u2018Clerks III.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span> So while the reaction to \u201cTusk\u201d is unfortunate, there is a saving grace. Despite the negative reception, an action-adventure \u201cTusk\u201d spin-off called \u201cYoga Hosers\u201d is already in production, set to star Johnny Depp as well as both Depp and Smith\u2019s daughters, Lily-Rose Depp and Harley Quinn Smith. For Smith fans it seems this can be counted as a win, with two new movies greenlighted, one of which being a long-awaited follow-up to the one that started it all. Although no concrete details or time frame have been released yet in regards to \u201cClerks III,\u201d a 2016 release date has been speculated. None of Smith\u2019s recent films, including \u201cRed State\u201d and \u201cCop Out\u201d have been well received, so perhaps going back to his filmmaking roots will provide a refreshing reprieve and spark a new curve upwards in his career. Possibly, he should simply listen to his own advice, or rather that of Holden McNeil\u2019s grandmother in Smith\u2019s 1997 film \u201cChasing Amy.\u201d \u201cIt all goes back to something my grandmother told me when I was a kid, \u2018Holden,\u2019 she said, \u2018the big bucks are in dick and fart jokes.\u2019 She was a church goer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\nThe Albany Student Press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Zoe Hicks Contributing Writer artsent.asp@gmail.com \u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not even supposed to be here today,\u201d convenience store clerk Dante Hicks first grumbled to his coworker Randal Graves 20 years ago this month, finding solidarity with anyone and everyone who had ever worked a thankless retail job, when writer-director Kevin Smith\u2019s classic slacker comedy \u201cClerks\u201d was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[983],"tags":[1654,3950,3948,2835,1996,3949],"class_list":["post-12871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albany-student-press","tag-classic","tag-confirmed","tag-cult","tag-film","tag-third","tag-clerks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12871"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}