Dante Hicks and Randal Graves are back in the trailer for Kevin Smith’s Clerks III. Leave it to a nerd to make his indie classic film into a trilogy (well, he already had a multiverse). In the recently released trailer, we see that, in true Clerks fashion, this latest installment is about Randal making a black and white film version of their story. Yup, they are making the OG Clerks.
According to the synopsis, ”Following a massive heart attack, Randal enlists his friends and fellow clerks Dante, Elias, Jay, and Silent Bob to make a movie immortalizing his life at the convenience store that started it all.”
Clerks first launched Kevin Smith’s career in 1994, with convenience store clerk Dante (Brian O’Halloran) going through his working class and romantic woes as he works on his day off. ”I’m not even supposed to be here today” is an iconic movie quote and absolutely holds up. He and his friend Randal (Jeff Anderson) talk about sex, drugs, films, and just the grind of working retail in New Jersey.
In Clerks II, which takes place ten years after the first film, Dante opens the Quick Stop convenience store to find that it is on fire because Randal left a coffee pot on. This burns down the Quick Stop and the next-door RST Video store that Randal works at. Now, Dante and Randal begin working at a Mooby’s fast food restaurant along with Elias (Trevor Fehrman) and their manager, Becky Scott (Rosario Dawson).
It was less iconic than the original, but still added to the ass-to-mouth discourse, so we enjoy it for that. Becky and Dante get together and end up having a child together.
Clerks III is now going to get fully meta and deliver for us Kevin Smith fans some cameos and goodies. We already see Sarah Michelle Geller, Ben Affleck, Michelle Buteau, and Fred Armisen to name a few, but I’m hoping we will also get Jason Lee, Shannen Doherty, Marilyn Ghigliotti, and Joey Lauren Adams to show up, as well.
Kevin Smith has been a pivotal part of my nerd language, and as a longtime Clerks fan, I’m excited to see where this goes. Lionsgate, in partnership with Fathom Events, will be releasing Clerks III exclusively in theaters for a two-night event on September 13 and 15, 2022, and tickets for both nights are on sale now. Your only other chance to see it comes in the form of The Convenience Tour, which will see Smith taking the movie on the road around the U.S. for screenings in select cities—starting in his hometown of Red Bank, NJ—after which he’ll answer questions from the audience. Here’s the full list of cities and show dates/times, and tickets for individual cities are available from various sources:
Red Bank, NJ Count Basie September 4, 7PM
Portland, ME State Theater September 6, 7PM
Glenside, PA Keswick Theatre September 7, 7PM
Providence, RI Columbus Theatre September 8, 7PM
New York, NY Beacon September 9, 7PM
Washington, D.C. Warner Theatre September 10, 7PM
Richmond, VA The National September 11, 7PM
Vancouver, BC Rio Theatre September 18, 12:30PM
Vancouver, BC Rio Theatre September 18, 4:45PM
Vancouver, BC Rio Theatre September 19, 7PM
Boulder, CO Boulder Theater September 20, 7PM
Denver, CO Paramount Theatre September 22, 7PM
Seattle, WA Neptune Theatre September 25, 7PM
Salem, OR Elsinore Theatre September 27, 7PM
San Francisco, CA Castro Theatre September 30, 7PM
San Diego, CA Balboa Theatre October 2, 7PM
Los Angeles, CA Theatre at Ace Hotel October 4, 7PM
Anaheim, CA City National Grove of Anaheim October 5, 7PM
(featured image: Lionsgate)
