Archive for August, 1998

Forlani Into Mystery…

August 22nd @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Justin McGill

Claire Forlani and Brad Pitt in a scene from 'Meet Joe Black'Forlani into ‘Mystery’
By Andrew Hindes

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) – Claire Forlani has joined a large ensemble cast in “Mystery Men”, a picture about an unlikely group of superheroes.

She plays Monica, a diner waitress who falls in love with Mr. Furious, one of the superheroes who has not yet been cast. Hank Azaria, William H. Macy, Janeane Garofalo, Paul Reubens, Geoffrey Rush and Lena Olin also star in the Universal film.

In November, Forlani will be onscreen opposite Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins in Universal‘s “Meet Joe Black”. Her other credits include the indie feature “The Last Time I Committed Suicide”, “Basquiat” and “The Rock”.

Reuters/Variety

Commentary

August 19th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • Hey folks…Thanks for dropping by. This update catches us up on all the latest, of course…But I must warn you, expect little or no updating to take place over the next couple of days…I know I’ve got a full schedule between work and outside plans and, frankly, I may not even be back in front of the PC until Saturday. Hopefully, I’ll sneak an update in there somewhere, but Chris is out for a few so it’s all up to me this week…I’ll do my best, but, don’t fret, if we seem to disappear it’s just because we’re out trying to squander up a few of those remaining days of summer. Thanksfor stopping by, as always! Just a few bites today, but be sure to visit our own San Diego Con Page for some exclusive photos and stories…Just added tonight! And now, the newsbites…

View Askew NewsBites™

August 19th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Aug, Sherman, & Katie Riches

  • The latest TNT Roughcut has some mentions of Askew-related stuff you may want to check out:
“Here are some other choices that fit this criteria: Chasing Amy (my personal pick for the best film of 1997 — a smart and original twist on a romantic comedy, an even better piece of writing than a script that has [Kevin Smith’s] imprint all over it — Good Will Hunting)…
David C. wrote: “How can you possibly forget to include Clerks??? Kevin Smith wrote what was easily the funniest movie of the year with that one, and being under Miramax, it definitely counts as an indie film. Don’t argue… you included Scream! Silent Bob and Jay are much more memorable than Tori Spelling learning how to act!”
  • In case you haven’t heard the announcements, Armageddon has become Disney’s top grossing live action flick of all time, at $180 million and running, besting Pretty Woman (which ended up with $178 mil).
  • We neglected to mention mention Claire Forlani’s role in “Meet Joe Black” in our writeup of the Entertainment Weekly Fall movie edition. There’s a beautifulpicture of the lovely Claire on page 58.
  • Finally today, our pal Changa, who so graciously donated the custom VA sculpture to our raffle about a month ago,is attempting to put together a View Askew/Event Comics fanzine, and trying to raise a bit of capital to get the ballrolling…We thought we’d help him out and pass along the info to you for what he’s offering:
Ever wanted to own original art? Now is your chance..in a little over amonth watch because an original cover is being raffled off by JoeQuesada. How much you ask? $3, and it all goes toward an independentFanzine project inspired by Joe. The official site of this will be upsoon, and you see what it’s all about. More announcements as they rollin.

E-Mail Changa with your questions or if you’d like to help out.

Dogma Book Weirdness…

August 18th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Hammer

  • It’s very odd…Not only does Amazon.Com list Kevin Smith’s Dogma novel (which isn’t CLOSE to complete yet) as available for order, but folks are actually writing REVIEWS of the thing and placing them online! Check out the strangeness HERE. Looks as if most folks are reviewing the script that’s been floating around and treating it like the book.

Clerks Comic In Asia…

August 18th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Ryan

  • Our scooper reports that the Clerks comic is mentioned in the Asian Culture ‘zine “Giant Robot”:
“We set up shop at the Alternative Press Expo in San Jose, CA. We got some great comics out of it. Here are some of them.

CLERKS (THE COMIC BOOK) [Comic, 32p.] Written by comic book freaks for comic book freaks Clerks offers plenty of otaku humor and slacker dialogue. Sporting a cover by Gilbert Hernandez, the debut issue of Clerks gives us the lowdown on the shadowy world of Star Wars collectibles and the sickness that revolves around them. The story climaxes when Snootchie-Bootchie puts Ewoks over ganja. Otaku sarcasm and hipsters aren’t my bag, but it’s still worth 2.95 [Oni Press] mm”

Cool stuff…By the way, our scooper also reports that Kevin said at the con the comic book after the Clerks Christmas Special will be a Mallrats book. We’ll do our best to get more info on this!

Dogma: October vs. December

August 18th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • Just to clarify, since it seems our December 1999 release date announcement has started to make its way around the net, the date came only from the statement made that Dogma may see a “Christmas 1999 release”. Sources now point to the fact that Kevin has been speculating October 1999 as the actual date, which makes more sense, considering Miramax did the same thing with “Pulp Fiction” after it hit Cannes and took the prize. It’s a long wait, we realize, but there’s always plenty of other Askew happenings to keep us occupied and, before we know it, we’ll be sitting at the local cineplex taking in all of Dogma’s splendor. Of course, we’ll stay on top of the story and report any info we have on possible release dates, with the latest always at Dogma: Rumor Control!

Commentary

August 18th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • How about that Bill Clinton, huh? We’re celebrating the big speech tonight by putting up an early update for tomorrow, since obviously we’ll be too overcome with emotion to work on the page afterwards…Don’t forget to tune in those sets at 10 PM EST tonight! Our only regret is that now we’ll hafta tape Oz (one of the best shows on TV right now) and watch it later…

SPECIAL MID-DAY UPDATE: RUMORS ABOUND!

August 18th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • We must warn you though, there is a possible SPOILER in the following, so read on only if you’reworried that these rumors might be true (and thus spoil the ending of Dogma for you!). Skip to the next story if youdon’t wanna risk it…

Earlier today, our favorite movie rumors site, Dark Horizons, posted the following reader scoop:

Dogma (Possible Major Ending Spoilers): Kevin Smith’s Dogma script that’s been available on the Internet from Drew’sScript O Rama has been altered slightly so I’m told. The ending may be changed so that Jay’s character is killed off. I’m in Red Bank and occasionally hang out with ‘Actor 1’ and ‘Actor 2’ (Names withheld for privacy). ‘Actor 1’ who has a cameo in the film, says that he recently talked to Kevin who said he wanted to make “Dogma” a sort of seperate piece from the trilogy. He wanted to go in a new direction and kill Jay’s character.

Bussing – Clerks 2: Kevin’s also supposedly been saying that there will be a follow up to CLERKS which will possibly bethe fifth in the whole series. The entry will be called “Bussing”. It’s about Public Transportation in Red Bank and thelives of seven characters who get off the bus. We follow them back to their houses and let their lives unfold, then we jump back to the bus where another character get off and the whole story begins again, ‘Actor 2’ said that Kevin said.

Before we comment, first of all, keep in mind, while the site is widely read and almost always correct in their info, like us, the info’s only as good as the source. In our opinion, this time around, the source is either mistaken or misinformed. First of all, Dogma’s ending: We’ve yet to read the script, nor do we want to, so it’s tough to have a base to compare this to.

So, what’s this with Jay’s death at the end of Dogma? To argue for the scooper’s benefit, the film IS a religious comedy and thus, if handled in a comical way (and seperate from the rest of the Askew-niverse), Jay’s death COULD fit into the film…Our opinion? No way. The film ties directly into the other flicks and, we believe, is not intended as a seperate entity. That’s the beauty of Kevin’s flicks. Loyal fans catch the references and get a laugh while others remain befuddled. Plus, remember that “Sage-like advice” Kevin got from Pierson on cutting the downbeat Clerks ending. We say no….But if there’s any truth to this one, we doubt Kev would even fess up. He’d leave it for a surprise. Seriously though, how could he do that? Everyone loves the guy. If he went out, though, you know it’d be good, probably heroically!

Second, the Busing stuff. Where the hell did THIS come from? Here’s a tidbit we grabbed from the Summaries:

what’s busing?
Originally, Kevin wrote this because the studios said “Write Clerks in a restaurant!” (and paid him, of course).The film was never made. However, Kevin intended to do it himself some point after Dogma, but he has since scrapped the project. He has, however, taken some of the better scenes from the script and is re-working them to fit in to Clerks 2.

Therefore, our opinion: Busing, a flick which was meant to take place in a RESTARAUNT (NOT a bus), will never be made, but naturally, there’s some good dialogue there that Kevin wants to use. Can’t blame the guy. Therefore, it WILL be used SOMEWHERE in Clerks 2, which is most likely where that tie-in came from. If Kevin makes a Clerks sequel, you can be sure he won’t do it without Dante, Randal, and the rest of the gang…This flick described on DH, as one of today’s e-mails read, sounds more like a sequel to Linklater’s Slacker.

As with all rumors, time will tell. This one reached a lot of eyes today, so there’s bound to be speculation everywhere. You’ve heard what we think. Kevin will most likely clear these up on the WWWBoard for the world to see, but if we hear otherwise, you’ll read about it at NA. Have a pleasant evening.

Thanks to all these fine folks who wrote to mention the story to us: Aug,Twlight Man, Josh Vichness,Big Baby Jesus, The Minstrel,Alan Hardy, & ALLRoy.

Fall Previews…

August 17th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by J Fields

  • With Dogma not on the horizon THIS fall but NEXT fall, it’s nice to see some projects withother Askew-tied actors/tresses are coming up…All of the following info was taken from the Fall Previews from Premiere and Entertainment Weekly:
Premeire Magazine’s Fall Preview
—————————————————————-
American History X – No mention of actor Ethan Suplee.
Enemy of the State – No mention of Jason Lee.
Meet Joe Black – Mentions co-star Clair Forlani.
Rounders – Full article about Matt Damon.

Entertainment Weekly’s Fall Preview
—————————————————————-
American History X – No mention of actor Ethan Suplee.
Enemy of the State – Lists actor Jason Lee as being in it, and gives a description of his character – “He’s a muckraking radical journalist”.
Knock Off – No mention of actress Carmen Lee.
Shakespeare in Love – Mentions actor Ben Affleck.

Some final TV details, as well: New episodes of the Chris Rock Show start on HBO this Friday,and the Brendan Fraser flick “School Ties” hits USA on the 27th, though the TV Guide listsMatt & Ben as the stars!

Daredevil vs. Comics Code…

August 17th @ 12:00 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Ryan

  • Here’s a nice piece of info regarding Kevin’s take on Daredevil, coutesy of Mania.com:
“We’re all fans of the Frank Miller DD,” Palmiotti adds, “but this isn’t a Frank Miller take on Daredevil. It’s a Kevin Smith take to Daredevil. It’s very intense. It deals more with Matt Murdock than it deals with Daredevil.”

THE Kevin Smith? Yep, the creator of Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy will be writing DD up to issue seven. For those who find it hard to picture Jay and Silent Bob’s so-profane-it’s-Memorex dialogue coming out from under DD’s mask, relax: Kevin Smith can write more than one style of story.

“We took his first script and ran it through the Comics Code, and not one problem,” Palmiotti gloated. “He made the Code.”

“The first issue, like all the issues after that, concern themselves with the subject of faith. Since DD is one of the few superheroes who’s open about his faith, we shake that up a bit. He’s given a task, and he has to either carry it out or not.”

Palmiotti confided that Daredevil does not, indeed, complete his task, and that choice will start DD down his new road. But what that task was will have to wait till the presses roll in six short weeks.

He DID say this, though: “Costumed villains are not what it’s about. There ARE villains, and there’s a lot of action, but there are a lot of forces that are playing on Matt’s head.”

After Smith, there should be plenty of interesting threads for the next writer to follow up on.”