Kevin Smith has revealed that the plot of Clerks 3 is in part inspired by the “massive” heart attack which almost killed him last year.

Smith reportedly fell ill whilst filming an episode of his reality television series, Comic Book Men last February. “After the first show this evening, I had a massive heart attack”, he wrote on Twitter at the time.

“The Doctor who saved my life told me I had 100% blockage of my LAD artery (aka the widow-maker). “If I hadn’t canceled show 2 to go to the hospital, I would’ve died tonight. But for now, I’m still above ground!”

Now, in a new interview with The Wrap, Smith says Clerks 3 will revolve around the show’s main character – Randal (Jeff Anderson) – recovering from a heart attack. Following his near-death experience, Randal undergoes a mid-life crisis before teaming up with friend Dante (Brian O’Halloran) to make a film.

Smith said: “Randal has a heart attack, decides that he came so close to death, and his life has meant nothing, there’s nobody to memorialize him, he has no family or anything like that.

“And in the recovery, while under fentanyl, he comes to the conclusion at mid-life, having almost died, having worked in a movie store his whole life and watched other people’s movies, he tells Dante, I think we need to make a movie. So Dante and Randal make Clerks. That’s the story of Clerks 3.”

He added: “I’m going to bring my boys right back to where they brought me. I’m writing it, it writes itself because I fucking lived it 25 years ago. It’s just warm and fucking wonderful.

“They’re figuring it out the same way I figured it out, but I have the benefit of being able to cherry pick all my favorite stories and moments of making Clerks and putting it right back into their hands.” 

Last week (October 4), Smith revealed that he “felt sick” after the sexual misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein broke because the shamed producer had called him only a week before.

The filmmaker worked with Weinstein on films including 1994’s Clerks, the 2006 sequel – Clerks II – and 1999’s Dogma. Smith and Weinstein last worked together on 2008’s Zack And Miri Make A Porno.

A week before the New York Times published an exposé accusing Weinstein of decades’ worth of sexual misconduct (which Weinstein “unequivocally” denies), Smith said the producer called him out of the blue. “I said, ‘Hey, how are you?’ And he goes, ‘You know, we have ‘Dogma,’ I just realised, and we got to get it out there again,’” the director told Business Insider.

“I said, ‘We do! People online are always asking where they can get it.’ And he then goes, ‘You know, that movie had a big cast, we might even be able to do a sequel.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah man, right on. I might think about that.’ And he was like, ‘We’ll talk.’ And a week later The New York Times story breaks. I felt sick to my stomach.”

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