TUSK Helped Kevin Smith Get Funding For CLERKS III

Kevin Simth’s latest film Tusk may have rolled out to theaters last weekend to middling reviews and poor box office, but he doesn’t claim to have any regrets as just the act of getting the film made paved the way for the financing to finally getting his passion project Clerks III in front of cameras.

As Smith stated on a recent installment of his Hollywood Babble-On podcast (via comicbook.com) –

Everything in my life would suck right now if I hadn’t made that movie [Tusk]. I’m back in movies now. I’ve got three lined up, and this is the ****ing grand news. Tusk was the absolute bridge to Clerks III. Because of Tusk, I got my financing for Clerks III.

And honestly, that would not have happened. A year and change ago I was trying to ****ing desperately get Clerks III made for the 20th anniversary. And that desperation, I must have reeked of it, because I couldn’t ****ing find money and s***. But it was Tusk, it was people going ‘Holy F***! What else do you have?’ And I was like, ‘Clerks III’, done. So everybody that’s like, ‘He failed, he failed,’ thank you I failed into Clerks III. So, never trust anybody when they tell you how your story goes, man. You know your story. You write your own story.

There’s no timetable yet as to when he’ll get Clerks III in front of the cameras. Currently, Smith is shooting Yoga Hosers, the second film in his trilogy about Canada. (Tusk was the first.) It is not known if he will take a break between the second and third film in order to do Clerks III or if it has to wait in line behind whatever that third Canadian film turns out to be.