Not much, actually. Rehearsals continued yesterday, with another full reading, and then individual work as well. Today, I just met with Linda, Chris, and Mewes.

How’d everyone enjoy Chris and Linda last night? They weren’t all that wild about doing it after awhile (kind of like Matt, but very unlike Affleck -who can answer posts for hours at a clip).

I don’t know how soon they’ll be back, but they both said they dug some of the queries.

I’m off to LA in the morning for a pop-in at the Spirit Awards, then back on the plane that evening, for a Sunday return in the a.m. (let’s hope I’m bringing an award back with me). I’ll catch you cats on Sunday night.

Oh, and we want to say thanks to whomever sent us the original Star Ledger article that mentioned our site. Much appreciated! Didn’t see a name anywhere on the envelope, but we certainly appreciate it!

Big Demand for Chris Rock – HOLLYWOOD (Variety) – While Warner Bros.haggles with Kevin Spacey over how much he should be paid to star opposite Nicolas Cage in Tim Burton’s “Superman Reborn,” Variety’s “Dish” column says the studio wants Chris Rock to play cub reporter Jimmy Olson. The offer came after Warner saw his work in the fourth installment of “Lethal Weapon,” which is still shooting, in which Rock plays the cop son-in-law of Danny Glover. Rock might be between a rock and a hard place as far as scheduling goes. He’s already splitting time between “Lethal Weapon 4” and a starring role in “Dogma”, and he’s due to return to his HBO show soon.

Despite Oscar, Ben still not BMOC

Good Will Hunting’s Affleck in hoop star Patrick Ewing’s shadow at old high school

By BOB THOMPSON
Toronto Sun

HOLLYWOOD — So far, Ben Affleck is keeping Oscarmania in perspective.

Sometimes it is hard to be humble. High school buddies Affleck and Matt Damon are being touted as the new young turks around this Academy Award-crazed town. “Whoa,” says the 25-year-old Good Will Hunting co-writer and actor. “We’re not even the most famous guys from our Cambridge high school,” reports Affleck laughing. “I think Patrick Ewing will permanently hold on to that title.”

The New York Knicks centre can have the Cambridge Rindge Latin Collegiate crown for a little longer, but his collegiate fame rating might have to be adjusted after the Oscars. Damon — also nominated as best actor — and Affleck are strong favorites to pick up the original screenplay award thanks to their emotional yarn of a genius street tough (Damon) trying to find himself.

Affleck barely has time to review the Oscar impact this weekend. Even he admits “things” have distracted him over the last few months. Like dating Gwyneth Paltrow, and working on a Shakespeare In Love project with her.

He also signed to co-star in Kevin Smith’s Dogma with Damon, even as Damon and Affleck work on their Good Will Hunting follow-up dealing with mentally handicapped patients called Half Way House.

In the great tradition of movie industry irony, Affleck just completed the megabudget sci-fi disaster picture Armageddon, which he jokingly calls “the anti-Good Will Hunting.”

“My space suit in Armageddon cost almost as much as Good Will Hunting cost,” he says. “I was told, ‘Don’t break the space suit, because it will cost you $10 million’.” He couldn’t afford to pay it — just yet. He can afford a few more “items of pleasure.” Not so six years ago as a struggling 19-year-old wisecracking actor on the set of Richard Linklater’s Dazed And Confused. “It was a good job,” says Affleck, who subsequently made a name for himself in Mallrats and Chasing Amy. “But I started to resent the film after a while. Everybody wanted the jock tough guy. “People would always say, ‘Like, weren’t you the 6-foot-2 bully who pushed around that kid in the weird ’70s movie’.”

Not that he’s complaining now. The typecasting was one of the reasons Affleck persuaded Damon to expand on his Good Will Hunting movie treatment he had written as a college assignment. Other than that, Affleck recalls that it was an easy Dazed And Confused acting assignment, playing high school partyers. “The truth is we were a bunch of 19-year-old kids getting drunk in Austin every night.”

So you were a bit of a high school rebel compared to Damon. “Let’s put it this way,” says Affleck, grinning. “I was into challenging everything and everybody, and going to McDonald’s between periods. “Matt was always disciplined and brought a lot of apples to the teachers.”

Interesting sidenote: it also stated that they are also starting to accept extra info for Superman, which is slated to begin shooting in the ‘Burgh in July.

There ya have it, folks…Shooting starts MARCH 27th!!! The original plan was for about 6 weeks of it, so we’ll see how close it comes to that. We hope to have fairly regular updates on RC once shooting starts, if we can get a good pipeline going. Stay tuned.

I’m glad folks enjoyed the Affleck/Damon session last night. They had a really good time doing it. I’m sure one or both of them will be back in the near future (please don’t ask me for dates here, folks – it’s a catch-as-catch-can affair around these parts.

We had a full cast rehearsal tonight (well, almost full – Carlin’s not here yet). It was mind-bendingly good all around, with particular props going to Alan ‘the Ricker’ Rickman, who really knows how to intone “…wrath of God.”

I’ve noticed two schools of performances going on – the vets, and the newbies. Lee, Ben, Mewes rep the former, all else rep the latter. And neither is better than the other – it’s just different.

Linda has been doing powerful things with a relatively thankless and un-showy role. The third smartest move I’ve ever made was casting her.

Lee is going to delight and surprise the fans, with what is perhaps his finest hour to date.

Affleck’s in his zone now, with a 98% fleshed out Bartleby.Along with Lee (and of course, Mewes) he remains the actor I’d work with in every film if I could.

Matty’s bringing subtle touches to a role that has never allowed for many on the page. He’s NOT doing the obvious, which is admirable. And with his career leaning toward serious, dramatic turns in weighty pictures, his Loki is going to represent a welcome comedic perf in what’s sure to become a lengthy run.

Alan is schooling bitches in flat-out performance clinics. It’s an old story, but the man could read the phonebook aloud and you’d be riveted.

Rock’s braving a terrain in which he’s not allowed to be funny all the time, marking this as not just another former ‘SNL’-er performance. He’s actually acting. People are going to be surprised.

Salma is just about the most adorable breathing thing on the planet, whose Serendipity is more tom-boyish than sexy. And she’s playful as hell with her delivery, which adds a nice counterbalance to Linda’s rock-steady role.

But the movie belongs to Mewes, folks. I’m gonna say it right here – this flick will breed work for him in its wake. He’s doing me not only proud, but also making my jaw-drop, he’s so good.

And that’s about that. We’re running it again tomorrow, from nine in the a.m. to six at night. If I could, I’d shoot this thing tonight, they’re so ready.

I think we may have a killer flick on our hands, come the fall.

Hopefully, I’ll be bringing a friend along on the morrow, so tune in.

Also – I think that USA Today article runs tomorrow. If you’ve got some pocket change, pick it up.

We’ll have that USA Today article for you ASAP (as soon as we find it or someone transcribes it).As for the cast, sounds like the makings of a great flick…We can’t wait to hear more.

The Top 10 Movies Sold from Reel.Com (Online movie store)

1. In The Realm of the Senses
2. Better Off Dead
3. A Clockwork Orange
4. Blade Runner (director’s cut)
5. Clerks
6. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
7. The Manchurian Candidate
8. Poison Ivy II: Lily
9. Pink Flamingos
10. Brazil

DRAWING FLIES ** (two Stars) Starring Jason Lee, Renée Humphrey, Jason Mewes and Carmen Lee. Directed and Written by Matt Gissing and Malcom Ingram. A View Askew production. No Distributer set. Drama/comedy. Not Yet Rated. Running time: 69min.

The 1990s, unlike the ’60s, has no counterculture. Lacking the anti-war, free love, civil rights and expanded consciousness movements, young people-here, five Canadians making pretence as a lost generation trying to find meaning in British Columbia-must make do with faux-hip cultural commentary. (“what are you going to do about rent?” “Get a job.” “No, Seriously.”) Only within such self-pleased, verging on brain-dead context could the storyline of “Drawing Files” work-four youths find themselves fallowing into the wilds a fifth who believes he’s on a mystic quest for bigfoot-but within that severe delimitation it does.

The microbudget production, shot in black and white with (in and out) ambiant sound, has an appropriately grungy feel and a tendency toward fine long takes, and the presence of Jason Lee (“Mallrats”) on the marquee might help make up for an overbearing and one-note performance he gives onscreen as Donner, whose heading-to-ward-catastrophe this party is. Renee Humphrey, Jason Mewes, Martin Brooks and Carmen Lee provide moderately interesting turns despite a thin script. But the real “name” involved is Kevin Smith (writer/director of “Clerks”, “Mallrats”, “Chasing Amy”), who executive produces along with partner Scott Mosier. -Kim Williamson

Gissing & Ingram’s next project is “Tail Lights Fade” (See story above).

WHEN you see the name “Affleck” in the credits for MGM’s coming feature “The Mod Squad”, you’ll be identifying Ben’s brother, Casey, set to play opposite Claire Danes … Speaking of Ben, his “Good Will Hunting” has become the biggest hit movie that Miramax has ever had, garnering $110 million to date … Four of the major movie males touted for the best-actor Oscar this year are over or approaching 60: Jack Nicholson, Robert Duvall, Dustin Hoffman and Peter Fonda. But Matt Damon is the exception; he’s only 27 … Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, up for best original screenplay, are already working on another movie. Damon has a 150-page original he is now editing with Ben. The latter will star in this yet-unnamed project and Matt will play a supporting role …