New Poster For Kevin Smith’s Tusk

Kevin Smith mentioned a possible retirement from filmmaking a while back, but he's since hit an unexpected creative streak, knocking out no fewer than five screenplays in the last year. It began with Clerks III, and led to Tusk, for which shooting is now complete and an autumn release is planned. Marking that occasion, Smith has revealed a new Tusk poster, ahead of the trailer reveal at this month's Comic-Con.

Smith has, however, revealed a bump in the road to the third Clerks instalment. His usual Clerks patron Harvey Weinstein has declined to provide the film's $6m budget. The Weinsteins will, however, happily distribute the film when it eventually materialises, leaving Smith to raise the funds from other sources.

"They passed," he told Screen Daily{ =nofollow}. "I went in with a $6m budget and they were like, 'Oh no, Kevin, this is too high'. Bob offered us distribution but they weren't going to finance it." Far from a falling out, however, Smith has since clarified that their relationship remains amicable.

And those other projects? Tusk, we know, is a creepy psychological horror film based around a man with a walrus obsession and the journalist who has a very unusual time when he approaches him for a story. Michael Parks is the Walrus Man, with Justin Long as the hack.

Smith has also now written a spin-off to that film, in the oddly titled crime comedy Yoga Hosers. "There are two characters in a convenience store in Tusk that you see for five minutes, very much Rosencrantz and Guildenstern," he says. "I’ve built a whole movie around them and I have brought one of the other characters from Tusk back."

Then there's the Christmas-themed horror "**Anti-Klaus **(formerly Comes The Krampus) and a sitcom pilot that's now seeing some action... and now I'm in the middle of Moose Jaws..."

Plenty to come then, although which comes first after Tusk remains to be seen. Will we be back at the Quick Stop with Dante and Randal sooner rather than later? Or will Smith's new-found horror kick keep him in business for the forseeable? Expect a few more answers at Comic-Con in a couple of weeks.