Kevin Smith exclusively explains how the Clerks 3 production team recreated scenes from Smith's 1994 original movie and feature debut. The latest installment in Smith's View Askewniverse will revolve around Randal Graves as he survives a heart attack and uses his new lease on life to make a movie with his friend Dante Hicks about their lives working in the Quick Stop convenience store and RST video shop. Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson return to lead the cast of Clerks III as Dante and Randal alongside franchise vets Rosario Dawson, Trevor Fehrman, Marilyn Ghigliotti, and Jason Mewes and Smith as Jay and Silent Bob.

Smith has been developing Clerks III since the press tour of Clerks II in which he briefly kicked around ideas before starting to begin work in 2012 as a Broadway play and later a film the following year. After failing to get funding from The Weinstein Company and Smith cutting ties with the company following the string of accusations against Harvey Weinstein and focusing on a Mallrats sequel for a few years, Smith would pen a new draft pulling from his own heart attack survival in 2019 and begin shopping it around town. Clerks III would be acquired by Lionsgate earlier this year and production would be fast-tracked by the studio, beginning in August and concluding a few weeks later.

Related: Kevin Smith’s View Askewniverse Movie Timeline Explained

While chatting exclusively with Screen Rant for the upcoming documentary Clerk., Smith looked back on the recently wrapped production of Clerks 3. In discussing how his team recreated the original Clerks scenes, the filmmaker recalled how HBO Max recently added his debut feature to their library and that they would put the film on a smartphone near a monitor to compare the shots to get as close as possible to the first film. See what Smith said below:

"It looks an awful lot like a movie we're all familiar with, right down to the black and white. HBO Max had Clerks on that month, so we had it on the phone and anytime we replicated a moment, we pulled up the shot and hung it right next to the monitor and then composed that way. We're like, 'Jeff, move in just a little bit more. Okay, turn your head this way. Alright, Bryan, now you're going to slide in and stop right there. Don't forget to put the Yoohoo down here,' stuff like that. Replicating these moments that years ago we took for granted of because we're like, 'We'll never do this again,' you just do it once."

Clerks 3 Set Photo

Smith has discussed the possibility of a new Clerks project focusing on Dante and Randal making a movie about their lives as clerks as an animated film continuing the short-lived series. However, due to the non-amicable split between the Weinsteins and Miramax/Disney, the latter of whom owned the rights to the show, these plans were ultimately scrapped and repurposed for the film threequel. During production of the movie, Smith has shared Clerks III set photos teasing the recreation of the original film's scenes, namely Randal and Dante's in-depth conversations while situated at the front of the store.

Throughout his career, Smith has proven to be a crafty filmmaker throughout his various levels of indie production and Clerks III is sure to serve as a moving love letter to his filmography and View Askewniverse fans. Between the return of original Clerks cast, the recreation of scenes from the original film and the return of a hockey sequence, anticipation is sure to be high amongst those who have followed Smith over the years. The wait for the threequel won't be much longer as Smith has teased that the first Clerks III trailer could arrive in the next few months followed by a wide release in mid-2022.

More: Why Clerks III Should Copy Jay & Silent Bob Reboot's Genius Release