Clerks.: Encyclopedia - Clerks.

Clerks.

Clerks. is a 1994 film written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Brian O'Halloran as Dante Hicks and Jeff Anderson as Randal Graves. It presents a day in the lives of two shop clerks and their acquaintances.

Clerks. - History

Clerks. was Smith's first film, and introduces several characters, notably Jay and Silent Bob, who reappear in his later films. The film is in black-and-white and roughly edited due to a budget of less than $30,000 (mainly consisting of credit cards, the worth of director Smith's extensive comic book collection and insurance money); it became a surprising success after it was taken by Miramax Films and polished with additions to the soundtrack.

The MPAA originally gave Clerks. an NC-17 rating, based purely on the film's explicit dialogue — it contains no real violence, and no clearly depicted nudity. This was a financial death sentence, as very few cinemas in the United States will screen NC-17 movies. Miramax hired civil-liberties lawyer Alan Dershowitz to appeal the decision; the MPAA relented and re-rated the film with the more commercial 'R' rating, without altering any frame or word.

Clerks won the "Award of the Youth" and the "Mercedes-Benz Award" at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, tied with Fresh for the "Filmmakers Trophy" at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards (Best First Feature, Best First Screenplay and Jeff Anderson for Best Debut Performance).

In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted Clerks. the 16th greatest comedy film of all time.

Clerks. - Cast

• Brian O'Halloran - Dante Hicks
• Jeff Anderson - Randal Graves
• Marilyn Ghigliotti - Veronica Loughran
• Lisa Spoonhauer - Caitlin Bree
• Jason Mewes - Jay
• Kevin Smith - Silent Bob
• Scott Mosier - Willam Black/Angry Hockey Playing Customer/Angry Mourner

Clerks. - Related projects

Of all of Smith's films, Clerks is the one with the most spin-off products.

In 1995, a pilot was made for a live action TV show. It was produced by Disney and Buena Vista Entertainment. The pilot only referenced the character names and starred none of the cast from the original film, contained no foul language, did not mention Jay and Silent Bob, and had nothing to do with Kevin Smith, as he was making his second film Mallrats at the time. Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson both auditioned for the role of Dante Hicks (as Anderson's part of Randal from the film had already been filled by former SNL performer Jim Breuer). After seeing the end result, Smith said that it was terrible, and O'Halloran and Anderson said they were both glad they didn't get the part of Dante.

Clerks: The Animated Series was a short-lived six-episode animated television series of the same name, featuring the same characters and actors. Two episodes aired on the ABC network (a subsidiary of the Disney company, which also owns Miramax, the studio which released many of Smith's films, including Clerks. itself) in late May/early June 2000 before vanishing from the lineup altogether. The Comedy Central network eventually broadcast all six episodes of the series for a short time in 2004, as part of its late-night and weekend programming.

A feature animated film was planned, based on the series, though as of September 2005, it appears to be on hold.

Clerks is a series of comics written by Kevin Smith featuring characters form the film.

• The characters of Dante and Randal also appeared in a 2001 short film written and directed by Smith entitled The Flying Car which was produced for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which can be found on the 10th Anniversary Clerks. X DVD.

• Dante and Randal appeared again in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

'Clerks'-related merchandise is also popular among Kevin Smith fans, and ranges from t-shirts to comic books and toys, such as Dante and Randal action figure dolls.

Clerks. - Sequel

Following Clerks., Smith set several more films in the same "world", which he calls the View Askewniverse. Jay and Silent Bob appear in all the films, and a relative of Dante Hicks (or Dante himself in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) appears in every film, each time played by Brian O'Halloran.

Smith has announced that a live-action, feature film sequel to Clerks. will be released in 2006 and is currently titled Clerks II. The working title was The Passion of the Clerks. Although the credits for Dogma stated "Jay and Silent Bob will return in Clerks 2: Hardly Clerkin", that project "evolved" into Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Clerks. - Trivia

• The original ending for the film can be found on both U.S. DVD releases. This ending continues from the original where Randal throws Dante's "I assure you, we're open" sign to him. After Randal leaves, Dante proceeds to lock up the store. He notices that someone else has entered. This person then proceeds to shoot Dante, killing him, and stealing the money from the cash register. The sequence ends with Dante's dead face facing the camera. While said ending tested poorly, it was nevertheless foreshadowed earlier in the film (the opening credits' song includes the lyric "A meaningless end to the story" and Dante himself states at one point that life "is a series of down endings"). Smith said it concluded this way because he "didn't know how to end a film." He took constructive criticisms about the ending to heart and decided to remove it from the film.

• A Quick Stop convenience store in Leonardo, New Jersey that Kevin Smith worked at was the primary setting for the movie. He was only allowed to film in the store at night while it was closed. This is why in the movie "someone jammed gum in the locks" and the steel shutters had to remain closed, otherwise it would seem odd that it was dark outside during all the daytime scenes.

• Kevin Smith's childhood friend Walt Flanagan plays four roles in this movie. The "Woolen Cap Smoker" in the beginning, the famous "Egg Man," the "Offended Customer" (during the "jizz mopper" scene) and the "Cat Admiring Bitter Customer."

• A line of dialogue briefly mentions a girl named "Alyssa Jones." This would later become the name of the main female character in Chasing Amy.

• Mentioned in the Tim Dorsey novel Triggerfish Twist. Serge Storms tells a clerk about the movie - the clerk has never heard of it.

• The cost of obtaining the rights to the soundtrack (approx. US$27,000) outweighed the entire production costs for this film (approx. US$26,800) - a first in motion picture history.

• Dante's beard changes because Kevin Smith asked 'Brian O'Halloran' to shave his goatee before filming started during rehearsals, then, after seeing what it looked like without it, told him to grow it back. The scenes shot earlier in the shoot show a thinner beard while the ones shot last show a thicker goatee as it had longer to grow back.

• Randall and the Happy Scrappy Hero Pup lady are not actually in the room at the same time. Jeff Anderson refused to read the list of porno movies in front of her, and particularly in front of the child (although the reaction shots of the Happy Scrappy Hero Pup lady were obtained by a crew member reading the same list to her).

• The "Clerks" logo is made out of letters cut from various magazines and food items. The C is from Cosmopolitan Magazine, the L is from Life, the E is from Rolling Stone, the R is from Ruffles potato chips, the K is from Clark Bar and the S is from a Goobers box.

• The "RST" in RST Video stands "Rajiv, Sarla, Tarlochen." Those are the first names of the son, mother, and father team who owned (and still own) the video store and the Quick Stop.

• The woman that interrupts Dante & Veronica's conversation about oral sex is purchasing Vaseline and rubber gloves.

• The offended customer in the 'Jizz Mopper' scene is purchasing Windex and paper towels.

• The scene where Dante confronts Caitlin about her marriage to an Asian design major in the video store is done in one shot, which lasts for over five minutes.

• The character Randal Graves was originally supposed to be the part Kevin Smith would play.

• The character Caitlin was named after Caitlin Ryan, a character from the Degrassi series. Kevin Smith was a huge fan of the series, and had a teenage crush on her.

• When Dante is discussing the "Milk Maids" The woman shopper shown is Kevin Smiths mother.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Clerks.", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki