It’s a very busy time for Kevin Smith. Earlier this month, the filmmaker released his long-delayed NFT-exclusive horror anthology film, killroy was thereand it’s only a matter of months before his next film, Clerk III, makes its theatrical debut. With the latter completed, Smith is (presumably) ready to wrap up the decades See Askew’s universewho debuted in 1994 with his first feature film, Clerks.
Now that the long and uncertain future of the unlikely film franchise will come to an end with its latest sequel, the future seems open. What will Smith pursue next? Will he stick to comedy? Back to horror? Or will he do something completely different? It’s hard to say for sure, but we may have a better idea of what’s in store for Smith thanks to the filmmaker’s social media, which revealed he’s finished his latest script, though he’s been left very vague. about what this scenario might entail.
As Smith posted on Twitter over the past weekend, he wrote a totally new screenplay, which he claims “could direct” one day. Granted, while Smith is an established brand in his own right, he wrote several scripts that ultimately didn’t make it past the page, including earlier versions of Clerk III. The director therefore does not want to assume that this new film will come true. But if so, Smith notes that “some complete strangers are going to love it,” while “some complete strangers are going to hate it.” From there, the screenwriter concluded this rather coy address by saying that, if this film were to be made, it would serve as a “template for what” its “possible future might look like.” And with that, Smith let his followers know that “the journey begins again…”, while giving us a brief look at what he’s written with that first draft.
Although the title has been cut, we see from the first page that this scenario opens on the morning of May 24, 1986, in a “small seaside district in central New Jersey”, which is not “crowded enough to be considered a city. The radio blasts as we’re shown a modest “bungalow model home”, where an unseen caller calls a rotary wall phone and twists the wire connected to the receiver just enough so that his fingertip turns purple. What happens from this point on remains a mystery, though one can certainly see how this opening scene is very reminiscent of Smith’s upbringing in Highlands, New Jersey.
The writer-director was quick to talk about his humble upbringing and working-class family life. Although it’s far too early to speculate, this storyline could be linked to Smith’s teenage years, or it’s possible that this 80s setting, while linked to his own past, is just a stepping stone for a another even more ambitious project. Especially since stranger things and THIS made this period a popular time to explore. This is all speculative, of course, but it would be interesting if Smith’s “master plan” for his new journey and future was another opportunity for him to look back on his past and explore his humble roots.
Certainly, as the trailer shows, Clerk III should be Smith’s most meta movie to date, especially when it comes to Randal Graves suffering a near-fatal heart attack, as Smith recently did, and using it as an opportunity to make a movie about his days at the convenience store, as Smith did once before. It’s a common tactic for Smith to channel the events of his much-discussed life into his art, and while he’s about to do something different, maybe this new project is about to follow. a similar line of thought.
Ultimately, we’ll have to wait and see. But one thing is for sure: if this mysterious new movie is about to be, we’ll definitely hear about it from the man himself. As noted here, Smith isn’t shy about discussing his work, though he can be cryptic in revealing details. But we hope to find out more sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, check out Smith’s tweet below:
Also check out the trailer for Smith’s latest project, Clerks III, below:
