Kevin Smith Does Not Buy Back; New “Clerks” Animated Movie a Possibility

By Jim McLauchlin

The fate of the “Clerks” animated series? In the end, it’s as simple as “ABC.”

Fans of acclaimed filmmaker Kevin Smith rejoiced in 1999 with the news that ABC would air a “Clerks” animated series based on the characters from Smith’s surprise-hit 1994 independent film. But joy turned to disgust with recent news that ABC was slotting the series for a tough summer debut. A much-publicized flap between Smith and ABC led to Smith’s announcement that he was considering buying the series back to turn into a feature-length movie. Those movie plans have now been scrapped.

“The honest answer is the simple answer: We wrote six episodes of a television show, so it’s a television show,” said David Mandel, “Clerks” writer and executive producer. “There was so much stuff that was getting lost as we were trying to turn it into a movie. Even trying an amusing framing device like ‘Tales From the Crypt’ wouldn’t work. There were episodes that had specific TV endings, TV conventions, TV jokes, and it just didn’t translate.”

Mandel was happy with the support received from film company Miramax, ironically owned by the same parent company as ABC. “Miramax was really good about it,” Mandel said. “They were, ‘If this is what you want to do, fine.’ If we want to do a new ‘Clerks’ animated movie down the line, that’s fine too. If people see the show on ABC and respond well, maybe we will. But if we do, it’ll be all new and something that will be planned as a movie form the minute we set out.”

In the meantime, fans can expect six episodes of “Clerks” to begin Wednesday, May 31 at 9:30 PM. “Ultimately, I’m happy it’s going to be on the air,” Mandel concluded. “And hopefully, if ABC does their part and does some promo so that people will actually watch it, I’ll be really happy.”

Our own Todd Doogan just spoke with Vincent Pereira, View Askew’s consultant on the Dogma: Special Edition DVD that’s coming out later this year. He let us in on director Kevin Smith’s plans for the disc, and it should be great. It’s being produced for Columbia TriStar by J.M. Kenny, the talented producer behind the incredibly fun Mallrats: Collector’s Edition DVD, and it looks like it will be just as packed as Mallrats was (if not more so). There will be a commentary track with Vincent, Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes and producer Scott Mosier, which will utilize the same alternate angle feature from Mallrats (you know – where you get to see the boys making comments in a picture box). This time around, there will be even more “cut-to” commentary video than the Mallrats disc had, although it still won’t be throughout the entire film. The film itself with be the same 16×9 transfer as the movie-only disc with the same running time (in other words, it’s the theatrical cut). But most everything that was in the famed longer edit will be here in the form of a 100-minute deleted scenes loop (introduced by Smith himself). The infamous “Fat Albert” scene (i.e. the extended strip bar sequence) will probably be there as well, pending some music clearances that Vincent thinks should work themselves out. You’ll also find a documentary (also produced by Kenny) focusing on the controversy behind the release of the film, a trailer (and possibly some TV spots, but don’t quote anyone on those) and storyboards for the action sequences drawn by Scott Mosier. That’s a load of Askewniverse stuff worth waiting for! Look for the special edition sometime in the fourth quarter of 2000.