grant: If I remember right, when he got together with everyone and got all the "extras" and such for the 10th anniversary DVD of Clearks release, at that time he asked many of the people involved if they thought he should go ahead with clearks 2 or if he should leave it alone so he does not take "away" from the original - and I think everyone really liked the idea of the next movie so Smith jumped abord. It was not that he did not want to do a clearks 2, but he did not want to mess up the "cult" standing of such a classic movie of the original clearks..... or something like that if I remember correctly.