Kevin Smith’s final film will be … ‘Clerks III’?

Is Kevin Smith stopping by the convenience store one last time before calling it quits on making movies?

Apparently so, to the surprise of pretty much everyone. Because as of last week, Smith's alleged last adventure in feature filmmaking was going to be the long-in-development hockey drama, "Hit Somebody."

It seems that Smith has now thrown in the towel on that idea. He announced today that "Hit Somebody" will be heading for the small screen.

"HIT SOMEBODY is now gonna be a mini-series," Smith announced via Twitter this morning. "It's now 6 hour-long episodes."

This shift in format means another project will have the honor of being Smith's final feature film. And that project will apparently close the books (or the register, rather) on the previously ne'er-do-well minimum-wage slackers and pop culture philosophers, Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson).

"So with the HIT SOMEBODY shift, the minute Jeff Anderson signs on, my last cinematic effort as a writer/director will be CLERKS III. #TaDA," he tweeted.

This is very exciting news. If Kevin Smith is going to quit making movies to concentrate on producing podcasts and touring as a public speaker and whatever else he wants to do, then it feels right he should come full circle with the "Clerks" gang. There's still a story to tell with these characters (remember, when we last saw Dante and Randal, they were the brand-new owners of the Quick Stop) -- and, more importantly, a story to <i>end</i>.

Anyway, take this with a grain of salt for now, because Kevin likes to, you know, talk. For now, the prospect of seeing a 40-something Jay and Silent Bob is way more worthy of a geek-out than any "Guardians of the Galaxy" scoop.