



Kevin Smith could soon stage some '90s nostalgia: The indie filmmaker has plans to follow up his movies "Clerks" and "Clerks II" with a third installment -- on Broadway.

The director said he hoped to stage the play at the end of 2014 to mark the 20th anniversary of the first "Clerks," which follows a pair of convenience store workers under the influence.

There's just one catch, Smith says: Jeff Anderson, who played the slacker video store employee in the cult hit, must commit to the project.

"If I can't convince him, there's no point in doing it," Smith told fans during a recent book signing. "He's the key to 'Clerks' for me. If he says yeah, then that's what we'll do -– we'll do it as a Broadway play, which I think will be so fun for all of us."

Smith has tweeted his devotion to "The Book of Mormon," the musical created by "South Park's" Trey Parker and Matt Stone, also known for their sometimes-slacker fare. But Smith said seeing "Seminar” on Broadway, about a writing group headed by a famed novelist, reminded him of rehearsing "Clerks" at the Quick Stop market where he worked and then shot the film.

"When people saw that movie, they said it was like a play; that's how we'd rehearsed it,” Smith said. He added (in between a series of unpublishable terms) that "I'd never made a movie before, but I'd been in high school plays ... so to come back for 'Clerks 3,' to do a play would make sense ... that would make me excited to do a live show."

Smith's other film credits include "Jersey Girl," "Dogma," "Mallrats" and "Hit Somebody," his next and perhaps final film. "Clerks: The Animated Series" aired on ABC in 2000 and was canceled after two episodes.

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-- Jamie Wetherbe

Photo: Kevin Smith, right, with Bruce Willis on the set of "Cop Out." Credit: Warner Bros.

