Kevin Smith has confirmed that the much anticipated third installment of Clerks will be going ahead. It's all thanks his last release Tusk – even though the horror-comedy film totally bombed at the box office.

"Tusk was the absolute bridge to Clerks 3," Smith said on his Hollywood Babble-On podcast. "Because of Tusk I got my financing for Clerks 3. And honestly, that wouldn't have happened without Tusk."

"A year ago I was desperately trying to get Clerks 3 made for the 20th anniversary and that desperation – I must have reeked of it because I couldn't fucking find money and shit. But it was Tusk, it was people going 'Holy fuck, what else do you have?' I was like 'Clerks 3' and they're like 'done'."

Reviews for Tusk were not exactly favourable; one film reviewer wrote that it was "the most disgusting and pointless movie I’ve seen. Emphasis on pointless".  But Smith said that investors were impressed with the movie and were keen to hand over the funding for Clerks 3.  

"So everybody that's like 'he failed, he failed', I'm like 'Thank you, I failed into doing Clerks 3'," Smith said. "So never trust anybody when they tell you how your story goes, man. You know your story. You write your own story."

Clerks 3 doesn't have a release date yet, but there's no doubt that there's a ready-made audience thrilled at the prospect of seeing what slapstick misfortune is gonna go down at the Quick Stop for a third time.