Kevin Smith is anything if not determined. The filmmaker who really loves to talk about himself and pat himself on the back for all of his cinematic accomplishments has had a really difficult time getting people to give him money to make Clerks III, which would finally answer the question, what are… um… what are Dante and Randall up to or whatever? Originally, Smith told his fans that he’d release Clerks III as a book, but then he changed his mind and decided that it should and would be a feature film. And once his first draft was complete, it was off to the Weinstein Company’s money printing press, but Smith was really upset to hear the Weinsteins actually say no to him.
That rejection led Smith to work on his newest franchise devoted to making Canada jokes that were barely funny 15 years ago, the first of the trilogy being Tusk, which stars Justin Long as a guy who is drugged and surgically turned into a walrus by a crazy old guy, because Human Centipede never ever happened. While the numbers haven’t looked very good for Tusk at the box office, Smith has played the film off as a success – even though the reviews are “Meh” and it has only earned $1.4 million – so much that he’s now claiming that people are throwing money at him for Clerks III because of it.
“A year and change ago I was desperately trying to get ‘Clerks III’ made for the 20th anniversary and that desperation — I must have reeked of it because I couldn’t f–king find money and sh*t,” Smith said during the podcast at the Hollywood Improv. “But it was ‘Tusk,’ people going ‘Holy f–k, what else do you have?’ and I was like ‘Clerks III’ and they’re like ‘done’. So, everybody that’s like, ‘He failed, he failed,’ I’m like ‘Thank you, I failed into doing ‘Clerks III.’” (Via The Wrap)
That’s an interesting idea – Kevin Smith is the Lane Kiffin of filmmakers. I can get on board with that.
There was probably another three hours or so of material based around that quote, so great work by The Wrap for digging it out and not losing anyone in the avalanche of Smith’s self-satisfaction. As always, I know that we here at FilmDrunk seem to really pile on Smith any time that there’s the slightest bit of news about him or his films, but unlike my colleague Chareth, I once liked Smith’s work and thought that Clerks was a great movie a long, long time ago. So, if you know anyone in need of Kevin Smith fan rehabilitation and recovery, I’m available for group support sessions.