In February 2017 we got word that Kevin Smith was planning to bring back Jay and Silent Bob for another cinematic adventure. After the world shouted a collective “Snootchie bootchie!” it all came down to when we would see the long-awaited return of the duo. We got some news here and there regarding start times in the last year and a half, but nothing has started yet. But things might be getting started here soon, as star Jason Mewes revealed in a recent interview that the stars are just about lined up, and they’re getting ready to shoot at the start of 2019.
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Mewes was speaking with Laughspin to promote his headlining gig at the New York Comedy Festival when the conversation naturally turned to JAY AND SILENT BOB GET A REBOOT, the new movie Smith has planned. Mewes said that should everything go smoothly the movie will start shooting in New Orleans in February 2019, mentioning that they had intended to shoot CLERKS 3 first before, unfortunately, it fell through.
We were supposed to shoot Clerks 3. We literally were where we are now [on Reboot] where we had the money. We were looking at a place. If all goes as planned, we’re supposed to start pre-production January, start shooting in February in New Orleans. We’re actually looking at places to stay right now. My wife is not only business partners with Kevin on SModCo, but she also produced his last two movies Tusk and Yoga Hosiers. She’ll be producing this movie.
The actor elaborated further on CLERKS 3, saying that they were all ready to go but actor Jeff Anderson (who played Randall in the first two movies) didn’t want to be part of it. They still don’t know why he doesn’t want to do the movie, but Anderson seemed firm on his stance, so they moved on – but not to JAY AND SILENT BOB. After CLERKS 3 they tried to get MALLRATS 2 going, but rights issues with Universal made that impossible.
Then we were going to do Mallrats 2. Kevin wrote [a sequel to] Mallrats. We started making plans. We got people going, “Hey, we got the money.” But then Universal owns the rights, and Universal’s like, “We’ve never given a title back to anybody. We don’t’ want to make the movie.” That’s what Universal said. So we went, “Okay, you don’t have to make it. Can we make it? We have the money. We have all the resources we need.” And they were like, “No. We’ve never given a title we own back to somebody.” So they wouldn’t let us make it. So we had to pass on that.
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Now we’re at JAY AND SILENT BOB GET A REBOOT, which seems to be going smoother in terms of getting everything together, and Mewes is confident they’ll get to start in 2019. Shooting couldn’t come any sooner, as Mewes is excited to get started on another outing before “we get super old and too old to hang out with apes and swing from grappling hooks and all that good stuff.”
Last we heard about the movie was Smith saying he had to tinker with the script after losing a ton of weight, a result of his new lifestyle after suffering a near-fatal heart attack earlier this year. We’ve heard talk of this movie starting production as far back as last year, to the point where I’ll only believe it’s really happening when Smith sends out a picture from the set on social media. I very much want to see that pic, so I hope everything goes to plan and they can get started come the new year.