Kevin Smith has nailed down financing and will start filming "Clerks III" next year.

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Kevin Smith gives an update on "Clerks III"

The filmmaker says it should go into production in June 2015

His original "Clerks" is a cult classic

CNN  — 

The news about “Clerks III” just keeps getting better.

Writer and director Kevin Smith recently gave an update on the project while speaking with “Clerks” star Jeff Anderson (aka “Randal”) on his podcast, saying that if all goes well, “Clerks III” will have a June start for production.

Smith wrapped up the script for “Clerks III” last May, but struggled with finding support. After confirming that he nailed down financing earlier this year, Smith said during his podcast that “there’s plans in motion,” and that Jay (Jason Mewes) and his own Silent Bob will be in the third installment of his 1994 cult classic.

“I don’t have the reservations (for ‘Clerks III’ that ) I had for ‘Clerks II,’” Anderson chimed in. “Only because the big thing was ‘Clerks,’ it was the protective nature of that. We’ve moved past that and fans have moved past that. What ‘Clerks II’ did was just follow these guys and it was fun to catch up with them. ‘Clerks III,’ where are they, what are they doing? … I don’t think we have to worry about tainting anything.”

Anderson has also read the script, and added that the third “Clerks” is a mix of the previous two.

“I like the script; it’s being introduced to these characters that are friends. … (It’s) a very different movie and that’s what I like about it,” Anderson said. “‘Clerks’ to me was a gritty movie. ‘Clerks II’ became this brighter movie. ‘Clerks III’ to me feels somewhere between I and II. It feels a little gritty and we go back to the beginning stages, but we do see the progression.”

Smith likes to describe it “as kind of the ‘Empire Strikes Back’ of ‘Clerks’ movies,” the filmmaker said. “I can’t wait to be on set … (and) see these dudes for one more time.”