In 1994, director Kevin Smith came onto the scene with his first film Clerks, about a day in the lives of two convenience store employees, Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson). Based on his own life and experiences working at that very same store, Clerks set the stage for Smith by introducing audiences to the director's brand of humor and characters that would appear later in his works.

And soon his career will come full circle, as Clerks 3 is scheduled to begin shooting this summer in Philadelphia. It's been a long road to get here, including a major setback when The Weinstein Company passed on the threequel. But now with funding secured thanks to Smith's latest film Tusk, fans can expect to see Dante and Randal, and Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith), back on their screens very soon.

In the meantime however, Smith has released the first trailer for Shooting Clerks, a biopic that tells the story of how a young Smith and his group of New Jersey friends created the breakthrough indie movie that catapulted him into stardom. Smith will provide narration for the film and play a small part as a newspaper reporter.

Set to premiere in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, Shooting Clerks features everyone you would want and expect to see in a biopic about Smith. That is, Jason Mewes, Brian O’Halloran, Marilyn Ghigliotti, Scott Mosier, Walter Flanagan, Ming Chen, Mike Zapcic, Scott Schiaffo and Ernest O’Donnell will all appear in the film written and directed by Christopher Downie.

Clerks 2

Noticeably missing from the cast list though is Jeff Anderson, who played the lead character of Randal Graves. In this biopic, which is about to get very meta, the actor will instead be played by another actor, Tom Sullivan. And co-stars Brian O'Halloran will be played by Kit Alexander, Jason Mewes will be played by Chris Bain and Kevin Smith will be played by Mark Frost. So while a lot of the original actors will make appearances in the film, it won't be as themselves.

Rather than simply being a documentary about Smith's life, Shooting Clerks is actually a tongue-in-cheek retelling of what it takes to make a low-budget classic. But for fans who actually want to watch a realistic look at the making of Clerks, there's Snowball Effect: The Story of Clerks, a full-length documentary available on the 10th anniversary DVD.

What do you think, Screen Rant readers? Are you excited for Clerks 3? Would you want to watch this biopic, featuring cast members from Clerks? Let us know in the comments.