It is less than a week since we discovered that a third installment of the Clerks franchise was moving forward, and with cameras apparently set to begin rolling very soon, Kevin Smith has revealed that today is the day of the first table read of the script, which will be the first time the whole cast have come together in preparation for the production starting. With Smith having been busy on the promotion trail for Masters of The Universe during the last month, it seems there is no rest for the wicked as he heads straight into work on Clerks III.

While posting the news on Twitter, Kevin Smith took the opportunity to have a little joking swipe at Masters of The Universe fans who have been quick to tear into his continuation of the classic 80s cartoon series, mainly for "killing off" the main character. It was this that Smith was happy to play around with in his post.

Smith wrote, "I turn 51 a week from today, as we start shooting CLERKS III. But at noon, the cast reads the script aloud for the first time! Wait until @BrianCOHalloran finds out we kill off his character in the first act! My storytelling senses tell me audiences universally love that trope..."

It should be pointed out that the original script for Clerks had the character of Dante die at the end, but it should be taken with a pinch of salt that Smith would be giving away the death of their lead character in Clerks III, and is definitely just a little joke at the expense of He-Man fans who have been a little upset by his Master of the Universe: Revelation series.

The new addition to the Clerks series will see the story taking a fact becoming fiction route, as Jeff Anderson's character of Randal will be seen surviving a heart attack at the beginning of the movie, something that happened to Smith a couple of years back. Randal then goes on a mission to make a movie about his life at the convenience store where he and the group worked many years ago. With Brian O'Halloran returning as Dante, and Smith and Jay Mewes also back as Jay and Silent Bob.Clerks II inductee Rosario Dawson will be back in the role of Becky.

"There's a saying from the Tao that goes something like 'To be great is to go on. To go on is to go far. To go far is to return.' Thanks to Lionsgate, we get to return to where it all started with almost the whole cast that started it all," Smith said in a statement. "And for the first time since the first time we ever made a movie in 1993, we're shooting the entire flick on location in New Jersey, as an ode to both the enduring allure of cinema and the resourcefulness and lunacy of its storytellers. Years ago, Dante and Randal made me a filmmaker - so now it's time I return the favor."

With shooting only due to start sometime soon, there is currently no word on when we can expect to see Clerks III arrive in cinemas.