Back in 1994, the centre of the world for Clerks’ Dante and Randall was RST Video – the rental store next door to the Quick Stop, which played prominent roles in Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse films right through to 2006’s Clerks II. But in Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, the Strike Back sequel that Smith is currently shooting, the titular stoners won’t be dealing their wares outside RST anymore – because it’s been replaced by a RedBox rental kiosk. In his latest update on the film, Smith shared a photo showing Jay and Silent Bob leaning up against the DVD vending machine, with a lengthy caption explaining that there’s “a surprising amount of introspection” in the duo’s latest adventure.
"As with all the good things in my life, this movie starts at Quick Stop,” Smith explains. “And as in the real world, video stores (like Jay and Silent Bob themselves) are a thing of the past. So to help tell our story of how time marches on and how the past gives way (reluctantly) to the inevitable future, having the modern version of a video store Clerk make a wordless cameo at the top of the flick really sets the tone.”
The filmmaker also wrote that he’s already cut together the opening and closing scenes of the film following one week of shooting – and that the start is “easily one of the funniest sequences [he’s] ever shot”, while the ending is “heartbreakingly beautiful”. The film, returning to Smith’s inter-connected New Jersey universe for the first time since Clerks II, is a sequel-reboot which sees Jay and Silent Bob go on a second cross-country trek to Hollywood when they discover that the Bluntman and Chronic movie is being rebooted.
Smith marked the start of shooting with a photo confirming that Jason Lee will return as comic book shop owner Brodie, a character who originated in Mallrats and later appeared in Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back. The Reboot release date isn’t set yet, but expect something it to arrive either in late 2019, or 2020. Smith has also been busy in recent months shooting horror anthology Killroy Was Here, and was recently announced as a co-writer on Hulu’s animated Howard The Duck series.
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