Having delayed Clerks III in order to focus on completing his upcoming film Tusk and shooting the Christmas anthology horror Anti-Klaus, indie filmmaker Kevin Smith has now revealed that the comedy threequel has hit a roadblock, with The Weinstein Company passing on the opportunity to finance the film.
“[The Weinsteins] passed,” Smith tells Screen Daily (via The Playlist). “I went in with a $6m budget and they were, like, ‘Oh no Kevin, this is too high’. Bob offered us distribution but they weren’t going to finance it.”
So, it looks as though Smith will have to seek alternative funding methods if we’re to see another outing for Dante (Brian O’Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson). But, in the meantime, Smith has several potential projects in the pipeline at present (not bad for a guy who planned to retire a couple of years back), and he’s revealed some details about another, Yoga-Hosers, which would serve as a spin-off from Tusk:
“There are two characters in a convenience store in Tusk that you see for five minutes, very much Ronsencrantz and Guildenstern. I’ve built a whole movie around them and I have brought one of the other characters from Tusk back.”
Are you disappointed that The Weinsteins have passed on funding Clerks III, or should Smith stick to new material?
Originally published July 7, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
