- Quite a few of you caught the prime time mention of Chasing Amy last night on Dateline NBC: Unfortunately, it was in a segment on “Film Flubs”, which showcased continutity errors and other mishaps that can be seen by the watchful eye in many of today’s Blockbusters. The scene in question from Amy was the famous diner piece where Holden is talking to Jay and Silent Bob. Cigarette ashes disappear and then reappear on Holden’s Leg. Pretty nitpicky if you ask us, but cool to see the flick getting the attention, and amongst other Oscar films such as Saving Private Ryan, Titanic, and Shakespeare In Love! One scooper noted, “…it was great to see Chasing Amy on primetime, and it was worth it just to hear Jay say ‘It’s like Cube sez, life ain’t nothin’ but bitches and money.’ on network T.V.”
Archive for March, 1999
Commentary…
- Listening to Howard Stern looking back on those great Channel 9 episodes they did for TV years back, we couldn’t help but be pissed that we weren’t smart enough to tape any of them for ourselves when we first watched them! Anyone out there a Stern fan and have these gems on tape? Drop us a line, maybe we can work something out. Okay, now that we’ve got the totally non Askew stuff out of the way…
View Askew NewsBites™
- Kevin’s almost weekly mention in Entertainment Weekly continues… This from the TV section listing for Saturday, March 27th, 10-11 p.m. (EST):
Superheroes (TLC, TV-G)
Despite intelligent commentary from comic-book figures such as Batman Beyond cocreator Paul Dini, Clerks film director Kevin Smith, and comics historian Trian Robbins, this hour about the history of the medium succumbs to the usual: campy narration (by TV Batman Adam West) and actors reading dialogue while we look at static comic-book panels. For every stab atmuch-needed analysis, there are minutes wasted on corny Zap! Pow! silliness. D+
Despite intelligent commentary from comic-book figures such as Batman Beyond cocreator Paul Dini, Clerks film director Kevin Smith, and comics historian Trian Robbins, this hour about the history of the medium succumbs to the usual: campy narration (by TV Batman Adam West) and actors reading dialogue while we look at static comic-book panels. For every stab atmuch-needed analysis, there are minutes wasted on corny Zap! Pow! silliness. D+
Don’t worry, though, we’re sure that Kev’s segment gets an A+.
- Richard Hymns, who won an Oscar for sound editing last night, is on board for Dogma! This is a good sign that, as Kevin’s been telling us, this is a GREAT sounding flick.
- Last week’s Comics Buyer’s Guide had the nominations for the 1999 Harvey Awards. Kevin is one of five nominees up for Best New Talent. The Harvey Awards are voted on exclusively by comic-book creators. Winners will be announced at a ceremony on April 16, in conjuction with the the WonderCon in Oakland. Aha…So THAT’S why he’s showing up!
- Affleck’s still got it. Forces of Nature was # 1 at the box office. It brought in $13.9 million for the Friday-Sunday total.
- And finally today, from the “Things That Won’t Die” column:
Steve Austin Powers Ahead
The bionic man could soon be hitting the big screen. The New York Post reports Universal Pictures are interested in a film of ‘The Six Million Dollar Man’. based on the popular 70s television series about a bionic agent named Steve Austin (‘A man barely alive…’). Cult director Kevin Smith, responsible for ‘Clerks’ and ‘Chasing Amy’, has written a script – so has ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ writer Joss Whedon, and it is not known which of these is favoured. One star of the original series, Richard Anderson, is slated to work as producer. Lee Majors, who played the original Austin, will not be involved. Neither will Sandra Bullock, who played the Bionic Girl in TV movie early on in her career. [www.popcorn.co.uk]
Commentary/Oscars…
- Hey folks…Okay, after a light weekend we’re back today. We’d actually planned to get online before the Oscars, but some technical difficulties with our home internet connection kept us from doing ANYTHING. As of now, everything should be back and in total working order. We’ve got some newsbites for ya, and a nifty new poll, from a suggestion by Kilgore. As many of you know, Shakespeare In Love did quite well in the running lastnight, taking home 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, so we congratulate Ben, Miramax, and Gwyneth, who also took home the Best Actress award for the flick. Now we can say we’ve shaken the hands of 3 Academy Awards winners…Not too shabby for a couple of schlubs from Central PA! With the Miramax press machine in full gear behind Dogma next year, and the amazing flick that it is, ya never know, next year that number might move up to 4. Anyway, we all KNOW about the Oscar winners…Let’s get on to some stuff you may NOT have heard yet today:
View Askew NewsBites™
- On today’s ISA awards broadcast, Randy Quaid and Vicki Lewis did a bit claiming that “IFP/West is going broke and will introduce a new series of Independent Ice Cream flavors”. One was “Chasing Amy Crunch”. “It starts out one flavor, then in the middle switches then at the bottom switches flavor back to what it was before.” Gave us a chuckle, anyway!
- Claire Forlani was named “Movie Babe of the Day” over at The Den today.
- Finally today, just a reminder that Issue 1 of Judd Winick’s excellent comic “The Adventures of Barry Ween” is now available everywhere…A View Askew fan should certainly enjoy it, we think it’s great, and hey, Judd’s a good guy. So go out and check out this book. You won’t be disappointed. If you don’t see it at your local shop, ASK!
That about does it for today…Be seein’ ya!
Affleck’s Dogma Set Pics…
- Ben Affleck, who does some amateur photography in his spare time, posted the first of his pics from the Dogma set today. There’s some really cool stuff here, including the first pic we’ve seen of Chris Rock on set, and Ben with a couple, shall we say, close friends. That one’s sort-of a spoiler, but it’s a great pic, so we blurred it but posted it full size and uncensored. Click the thumbnails to blow them up. Thanks to Ben & the fine folks over at affleck.com for the pics.
Commentary…
- A really slow go ’round these parts today, but we did manage to revamp NewsCam with a new, easier to load page, and some other nice features as well. So, give that a looksee. Also, Affleck’s posting some Dogma set pics on his site that we’ve got here for ya, as well as just a few NewsBites.
Important Appearance Update!
- UPDATE: We’ve got some fairly important news to break in with here, because we screwed up and we gotta make a correction or two. It turns out that two appearances that we announced on this site have never actually been scheduled, we’re sorry to say. The first, the April Golden Apple Comics appearance that we read about HERE does not exist, so it must be a misprint on the website. Second, Kevin’s Sonoma gig also does not exist, and must have been sent it to us by someone either who was unsure or just yanking our chain. We didn’t verify that one, we just sorta took it as gospel, so, we apologize. Kevin himself contacted us with the info on the non-existance of these events, so you can pretty much take that as official word. Again, our apologies for the mistake.
View Askew NewsBites™
- We’ve received confirmation from several sources on the reschedules of Kevin’s appearances, so consider these dates totally official now: Kansas State University will happen May the 7th, and University of Central Florida (UCF) is taking place on April the 9th (Thanks, Jen!). Mark your calendars!
- Lots of folks are wondering what’s up with the next issue of DareDevil – All we can tell you is this: The local comic shop did not get DD #6 in this week, or a preview copy in (meaning the book will street NEXT week). This doesn’t mean that we won’t see it next week, in fact, we’re fairly sure it’s ready, but the guys may be holding off a bit just to decrease the wait time between 6 and 7, since we’re SURE that 7’s gonna be way late. That’s all we know at this time.
- Film 411 is going strong on the Askew front! Today, a brand new interview was posted with Vincent Pereira, with a Brian O’Halloran interview AND a Jay Mewes piece on the way really soon. Check it all out HERE.
- Is the Six Million Dollar Man project written by Kev still alive? Cinescape thinks it’s possible:
$6Million Man’ Movie Still Alive The Battlestar: Galactica movie isn’t the only science fiction series from the ‘70s in development as a big screen feature. As has been rumored for ages, The Six Million Dollar Man movie is still going through a slow development at Universal Pictures. According to the New York Post, Richard Anderson, who played Oscar Goldman on the original series, will produce the eventual film. A Universal spokesperson is quoted as saying, “We have a script and we’re trying to decide what we’re going to do with it.” No word was given on whether or not the script mentioned is one of the oft-mentioned treatments by Kevin Smith (Dogma) or Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer).
Honestly, we pretty much doubt this one, but hell, we thought we’d let ya know, anyway.
- Getting bored with your Windows desktop? Spice it up with the latest addition to Files Askew: A spiffy Mallrats wallpaper! Download it directly right HERE or visit Files Askew.
- We came across another nice piece on the new Stash that you can read about right HERE. There’s also plenty of nifty photos in a mock-comic strip they put together…We think we did the play by play on this one a while back, but now we’ve got the actual pics for ya.
- And finally today, Oni put out a press release on their staff changes, and the affirmation that business will go on as usual, and that all is well:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — March 21, 1999
Schreck goes to DC; Oni Press soldiers on
Schreck goes to DC; Oni Press soldiers on
Last week, DC Comics announced that Oni Press co-publisher and founding member Bob Schreck had been hired by the company as a senior editor. It is with a mixture of sadness for its loss and optimism for the future of both camps that Oni Press confirms this news and announces its intention to continue publishing under a new structure. Joe Nozemack, Oni’s co-publisherand co-founder, will be taking on the full publishing duties, while editor Jamie S. Rich will become the editor in chief.
“In truth, none of us wants to see Bob leave Oni,” Nozemack said. “His personality and tastes were a large part of defining what Oni Press is. This opportunity was too good for him to pass up, though, and we probably would have been more upset with him had he not taken it. We wish him only the best, and we hope we can maintain the standard he was so instrumental in setting.”
“This will be a hard good-bye,” Rich added, “but ultimately, it will just mean that readers will get even more good comics than before. Throughout the years, Bob has had a hand in putting together some truly remarkable books, and I have no doubt he will do the same at DC. If nothing else, it ups the ante for Joe and I to make our books even better.”
“Despite rumors to the contrary,” Nozemack continued, “there will be no great shake-up at Oni Press. Bob won’t be taking any of our books with him, nor will he be controlling us from New York like some great puppet master. This is a friendly split, and Oni Press will continue to move forward as it has been for the last two years. With people like Kevin Smith, Scott Morse, Andi Watson, Greg Rucka, Matt Wagner, Jim Mahfood, Mike Mignola, Troy Nixey, Mike Allred, Chynna Clugston-Major, Paul Dini, and all the other wonderful creators we have and are working with, we have created a small, but diverse and quality-rich line of comics that is very recognizable as being Oni Press. This entity will continue and, hopefully, only growstronger in the years to come.”
Hope you all didn’t mind the NewsBite only format today, but we’ve been busy hurrying this update together! Before we go, we’d like to give shout-outs to Ed Strada and Clive Young for the tapes they sent us…We really appreciate it! ‘Til next time…
Our News Policy…
- Just a quick word on our policy here, especially for those of you that haven’t seen us mention it before…From time to time, personal events happen relating to various folks in the View Askew crew that really don’t have anything to do with the entertainment side of things and, frankly, shouldn’t be any of our business. It’s unfortunate that when someone’s in the limelight that the press has to run out and publicize the hell out of their personal business, but that’s just the way it is for the most part. We believe that this stuff should remain private, and, while things still seem to leak out from time to time, you won’t find anything like that here at this site. If you feel it’s us being incomplete in our reporting, so be it, but we’re out to prove that there’s still a lot of journalism that’s just out there for the common good.
Alright, now that we’re off the soapbox, let’s get down to the business at hand: