Kevin Smith on Clerks 2

Kevin Smith has been making the interview rounds lately.  That and his third annual VulgarThon film festival was held last week in LA. So with that we bring you the newest on Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks.

One of the films at the festival this year was Clerks star Jeff Anderson’s directorial debut entitled Now You Know. Kevin let it slip that the actor who played Biscuit, Trevor Fehrman, will play a major role in Clerks 2. Rumor is he’ll be a third Clerk, sort of an addition to Randal and Dante.

"We're seeing how long we can get away with it before somebody from Mel Gibson's office drops us a cease-and-desist letter,” Smith told the media. He later claims that he’d be shocked if it’s released with that subtitle.

The Plot: “What happens when an angry young man turns 35. You can't be really angry anymore - well, you can still be angry, but you can't be young,” says Smith. “It's not nearly as cool.”

 Smith says the plan is to get the sequel into the Sundance, the festival that launched his career with the original back in January of '94.  It’s the first movie greenlighted and put into production by the new Weinstein Company and shooting starts first week of June with plans are for an early 2006 theatrical release.

Here's some older news that didn't really get much press when reported by Smith on his website's messageboard, but may be of interest to the fanboys out there :

The Third Draft / Shooting Script is now down to 103 pages, which came down 16 pages after a table reading with the actors.

Did they sell out for the money? "While we're all taking home some cash up front, it's not nearly what they could've commanded to do the sequel to a proven flick," says Smith "So, like Scott and I, they're all taking the risk, and sharing equally in any back-end payday."

Jay and Silent Bob have about as much screen time as they had in Clerks. This is Dante and Randal's flick all the way. No big name cameos.

"This is the funniest thing I've ever written," says Smith. " It's also really poignant."