On Wednesday, Kevin Smith dropped the trailer to his third Clerks movie, and as he'd promised, it reflects the filmmaker's real life in more ways than one.
The writer-director and podcaster maxed out his credit cards and shot the original 1994 indie film himself. Set primarily at the New Jersey convenience store where he worked, the movie launched his career.
The new threequel has Jeff Anderson's Randall back behind the counter with his buddy Dante, played again by Brian O'Halloran, but a brush with death -- in the form of a massive heart attack -- leads movie fan Randall to make the most out of life by shooting his own film...set in the convenience store where he works.
In 2018, Smith himself suffered a near-fatal heart attack, and the subsequent soul-searching led him back to where it all began.
Oh, and admitted post-coronary guilt trip calls to his now-famous old friends, like Ben Affleck, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Rosario Dawson, ensured they would play roles.
The meta script has Smith reprising his role as Silent Bob, the R2-D2 to the C-3PO of Jason Mewes' fellow stoner Jay. Randall decides the pair have to be in his movie, too.
Comparing the pair to the Star Wars characters, Randall says, "They've been here since the first movie, which was the last time they were cool, but they've been with the franchise so long they still...put them on the lunchboxes."
The trailer is replete with references to the first comedy, including a wisely deleted scene in which Dante's character was shot by a robber. "What if there's a sequel?!" he protests. "A sequel? What am I, a hack?" Randall replies.
Clerks III hits theaters this fall.