Kevin: Kevin, Scott, and Susan Arosteguy (the producer at Criterion) put together the ‘Amy’ materials for the laserdisc, that you may wind up seeing on DVD. It was an excellent disc, imho, and it’ll be followed by the equally (if not moreso) excellent ‘Mallrats’ DVD, which is coming in the spring. For that, you have the tireless efforts of Vincent Pereira to thank. Vinnie didn’t just pick up the ball and run with it; he reinvented the ball, rocketed forward with it at Mach 5 speeds, and spiked it through the center of the earth. And while it took them three years to see it our way, I guess MCA Home Video deserves a nod as well.

I’m told the ‘Clerks’ DVD (which’ll basically be the laser edition with all the cut stuff and commentary) is bound for shelves in early May.


Bigdevman: Have you considered doing a period piece…All of the askew flix to date have been set in the present – Have you considered doing a film set in the 50s/60/70s?

Kevin: It’s funny you should mention that…And that’s all I’ll say for now.


Chiusano: I once heard a rumor that when Mallrats tested well, you believed it would be a sizeable hit (to the tune of $30 mil) and began formulating sequel ideas. The one you supposedly liked best was a “Die Hard In A Mall” scenario with Brodie in John McClane mode (Brodie Bruce Willis?). Is there any truth to this and, if so, any chance of resurrecting the idea?

Kevin: Theatrically, there are no plans at this time to sequalize our bastard step-child of a second film. However, I am going to do the ‘Die Hard in a Mall’ sequel this year in comics, for good ol’ Oni Press. We were looking for an artist, and boy did we find one in spades! I just saw his stuff today, and it’s perfect. I’m truly inspired anew. Look for artist announcement in the near future.


Radius: First, the Mallrats DVD: The date was set for April 19th and then switched to May 18th. Is this date final or set in stone?

Vincent: There were some production delays on the disc- the last I heard there was no set in stone date- it was just vaguely “summer”. This disc is going to have some features on it that haven’t been utilized before and they are having some trouble figuring out exactly how to impliment said features.

Radius: Second, the Amy and Clerks DVDs: In a post lower on this board, Kevin mentions the possibility of Clerks being released sometime in May and he responds to someone about Chasing Amy. Now I haven’t seen any release dates for either of the discs anywhere, so Are they coming? And, if so, will they be Miramax SEs or Criterion discs?

Vincent: Again, whatever info has been posted here thus far (which hasn’t been much to be sure) is what we know- nothing has been said other wise beecause these are still somewhat up in the air (although CLERKS seems to be progressing). We want these titles to be released (and LOADED with extras) to be sure- it’s Miramax/Buena Vista that’s be holding them up. As for A BETTER PLACE, again, we’re looking at “summer” but no definite date yet. It looks like the digital widescreen (1.66:1) film-to-tape transfer (supervised by yours truly) and commentary track will be done in April. As for other info, the company still can’t be disclosed officially (although some of you have figured it out heh heh), but the disc will include (for those who have seen the film) two brief new scenes cut back into the main feature, and one rather long scene is being cut out. There will be four deleted scenes in the supplement (including the aforementioned scene I’m cutting from the main feature- for those who plan to see the film in New York or East Lansing, or who saw the film at any Flixtour or festival date AFTER Point Park in Pittsburgh in early April of last year, the scene was already removed from the print), and a commentary track for the deleted scenes. There are some other features I’m kicking around in my head, but they will depend on how much space we have on the DVD since it’ll be single-layer and I don’t want to compress the film too much.

Let’s summarize, shall we? DVD Askew: Clerks will arrive this May, complete with ALL the goodies from the laserdisc transfer. This is outstanding news, since it’s the first peep we’ve heard about the film hitting DVD in any format at all. And the extras are worth the price of admission alone. Mallrats: We’ve all been hearing about it, Vincent did a fantastic job with it, and it now looks on track for a Summer release. The latest unconfirmed date we’ve heard is May 18th. Finally, Amy. We figure Criterion WILL eventually release the Amy disc as part of their new DVD collection. The problem? Criterion’s yet to adopt the 16:9 format on its DVD releases, which would be PERFECT for the 1:85 ratio of Amy. Let’s hope they change their tune before a release. So: Clerks In May, Rats This Summer, and Amy unannounced (but we bet you’ll see it before 1999 is over). Vincent’s PACKED “A Better Place” DVD will probably street this summer, but he’s not gonna hurry; he wants the sucker to be done PERFECT!