Kevin Smith has been touting the possibility of CLERKS III for a while now, most recently saying he wanted to retire after making it. But, things may have changed as the famed director has now stated CLERKS may continue in a wholly different format. Having been a movie, an animated series, and a comic book, what else is left for the saga of Randall, Dante, Jay, and Silent Bob? How about a novel?
Now, he said, he would prefer to write a book based on the two central Clerks characters, releasing it chapter by chapter. “I get to go inside the characters’ heads, tell Year One origin stories where the first chapter is Dante and Randall meeting in kindergarten, all the stuff I can’t do in a movie,” Smith said. “That’s what I want to do, because I’m a stoner. I want to investigate the inner life of every character, and I can’t do that in 90 minutes with a film.”
Smith further explained he would like to release the book chapter by chapter, changing the scope and direction of the story as he goes to allow for fans to influence the final product. Is this new idea as a result of difficulty finding funding for a third CLERKS movie?
He said a movie “would be the ultimate expression of Clerks 3. The money will always be there if I do it as a feature, but if I want to get real creative, I’d break it down (into smaller pieces) and do it online.” Moving beyond a book form would, however, mean that he’d need to involve collaborators such as co-star Jason Mewes, who was participating in the panel by relaying questions from online audience members posted through Twitter.
I like the idea of a novel exploring Smith’s New Jersey characters, maybe even bringing in folks from CHASING AMY or MALLRATS as well since a novel would allow for the characters played by the same actor on screen to coexist in a new story. Love him or hate him, Kevin Smith would certainly be a voice to help the ailing publishing industry since I would assume the online release model would work at first with a compiled, printed book would follow once completed.
What do you think? Should CLERKS III exist as a book, movie, or not at all?