• We’ve gotten quite a few requests for information on the new Ben Affleck movie “Phantoms” recently. So, here’s a quick plot summary and the full-length trailer for you to look at:

Yesterday Snowfield, Colorado, was a charming little town basking in the golden afternoon sun. Today it is a place of nightmare.

An ancient, awesome force has spirited away almost the entire population of the town and left the bodies of those remaining bizarrely disfigured.

What hope can there be for the few still left alive … ?

Unfortunately, this looks like a sub-par TV-like creature feature movie, which, we suppose, if done properly, could be fun, at least. But frankly, we’re a bit worried…Time will tell.

• A guy who calls himself KingPoopie (why, we don’t want to know) sent us this tidbit today. Apparently, the Film Threat e-newsletter did a little article on the death of independent film, and it included this little slam on Kevin:

Wow, slamming Kev for this Fletch thing seems to be a popular thing to do these days. We suppose that, on the surface, the whole notion sounds a bit strange, but hearing him say things regarding how much he’s enjoyed the Fletch books and how they inspired him to write the good dialogue that he does in his films, it all starts to make sense. Kevin’s a big fan of the Fletch novels, and we think he’ll do a fine job with the script. Not to mention, it allows him the chance to give back and contribute to an area that’s been instrumetnal in making him the writer and filmmaker that he is today. But that’s just OUR opinion.

• Remember that you read it here first…Kevin and crew proudly announced at VulgarThon that the film following Dogma will be CLERKS 2!!! Kevin is hoping to get ALL the key players back (including Jeff Anderson as Randall) as well as include every single character that EVER appeared in the Askewniverse. This will, for the time being anyway, be the “ultimate Jersey flick”.

After we heard this exciting news, we were lucky enough to chat with Brian O’Halloran for a few minutes (a real nice guy by the way) about the flick. He’s very excited about the project and hopes very much that Anderson will return. He also gave us some inside possibilities in plot information, but we wouldn’t want to spoil that for you, would we? 🙂

• We’re back! And what a trip it was…Most of the details of our experiences will be saved for the VulgarThon ’98 Page, currently under construction. We’re going to take a day or two to load this sucker up with info and YOUR photos (Which we thought you’d enjoy more than ours). If you got a good photo scanned, send it in! We’ll also have an exclusive gallery from Scott Benner and lots of inside information and anecdotes brought to you in our typical, News Askew conversational style. We hope you like what you see when it’s finished.

• On a final note, TONS of you have been sending in information on the Joey appearance on Conan. Anyway, thank you all, the names are just too numerous to mention (Are we the ONLY ones who MISSED this thing?). Anyway, we wish Miss Adams the best of luck with her Golden Globe nomination. If you see Joey or any other Askewniverse folks coming up on a talk show, let us know ASAP so we don’t miss the scoop again! See ya next time…

• Another in the fantastic series of Interviews Askew has gone online over at View Askew. In this one, Mike McCarthy sits down to chat with VA favorite Ethan Suplee. Read all about it HERE.

• Hey folks. It’s 10:00 and we’re gonna hit the trail and start the trek into Red Bank. We should hit town around 1:00 or so if all goes well…Probably make a stop at the Stash before hitting the Courtyard Marriott where we hope to hook up with some of you (We hear quite a few folks have arrived already!).

Be sure to look for us and come up and say hi. Check our pic at the top of the Rutgers page if you wanna see our ugly mugs…We look pretty much the same except for the pathetic goatee I (Brad) am attempting to grow.

Anyway, of course there will be no updates until Tuesday, upon which time we’ll have a TON of work do catching up with the news AND creating the VulgarThon Wrap-Up page. Until then, look forward to seeing you there!

• Just a few quick thoughts before we end the news for today…Tomorrow we’ll be leaving for Red Bank and VulgarThon. Kevin says, “Everything’s in place for Monday. Got some great guests coming.” Wonder who they’ll be? It’ll be cool to be surprised, we suppose. Also, we were lucky enough to catch a screening of “Good Will Hunting” tonight…Good flick. We got there a little late and the place was PACKED, which always makes it tough to get comfy and enjoy a movie, but the screenplay was definitely well-written, with good performances all around, and the audience certainly seemed to have a good time.

That’s all for today. We’ll say a few words before we depart for the ‘thon tomorrow, so check the site before you leave!

• This kind of stuff usually never pans out, but we thought we’d mention this anyway, just in case it does (so we don’t look bad). Thanks to Joe Meli for the blurb: