Director of film and builder of podcast empires Kevin Smith has been talking about his retirement as a movie man for quite a while now. The plan, until very recently, has been for him to go out with a film called Hit Somebody, an epic in scope hockey movie that follows a sports career from its beginning in the ’50s all the way through to its end in the ’80s. What wasn’t quite clear was exactly what form Hit Somebody was going to take. At first it was thought to be one film, then it got confirmed that it was going to be split into two films, and then, just a couple days ago, Smith confirmed on Episode 99 of his ‘Jay & Silent Bob Get Old’ podcast [via /Film] that it’s now going to be split into six hour-long episodes of a mini-series, to be aired on a yet to be named TV channel.
That’s not the end of the story though. Apparently Smith still wants to make one big final film that he can market as his retirement project, and earlier today he took to his Twitter account to fill everybody in on what that would be. He started things off by explaining to his followers that, “Since HIT SOMEBODY is now gonna be a mini-series, yes – that leaves room for a new final flick before I retire from directing feature films.” And then followed that up by dropping the fairly big bombshell that, “ … the minute Jeff Anderson signs on, my last cinematic effort as a writer/director will be CLERKS III.”
Of course, an announcement like this raises a lot of questions. Does Smith have concrete plans of what a Clerks III is going to look like, or is he just in the beginning stages of putting it together as an idea? Is this something he’s committed to, or just an idea that he’s spitballing in public? And, given that condition that he has to wait until Jeff Anderson signs on to the film for it to be official, does that mean that he’s having trouble getting Anderson to agree to come back?
Whichever way things end up hashing out, what’s clear is that it’s now Smith’s intention to turn Clerks into a trilogy. While the accusations that this is just a way for Smith to make a grab for another big paycheck before he stops doing movies will certainly start popping up almost immediately, it does seem pretty fitting that he would revisit his most enduring work for his last go-around with a movie camera. That is, if the guy actually does stick to his guns and gets out of the movie game. What do you say, View Askew fans? Did you like Clerks II enough to welcome a Clerks III as being good news? Or were you more enamored with the idea of Smith closing his career with a story involving new characters?