I attended a couple of things today, one being about 90 minutes of justmovie trailers (Dogma was obviously absent), but among the items worthnoting was The Green Mile. I think this is the same story that StephenKing wrote and released in like 5 parts, one per month. It was directedby the same guy that did Shawshank, so it made sense that this would bea Stephen King thing. It starred Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, and forgiveme as a couple names escape me, but also had the dude that played ‘Bear’in Armageddon as a man, apparently wrong imprisoned for a murder, who canheal people miraculously. It looks really good and is due on Christmas.

We (my GF and I) made sure that we were front row for the movie previewssince the Focus on Kevin’s films was the next thing on the list in thatsame room. Things got started about 5 minutes after the movie stuff endedand there was a round of applause as people saw Kevin and Scott come in.Before they hit the stage I saw Kevin head over to the AV dudes and givethem a video tape (*CHEER* we would not be disappointed). Kevin tooka buncha questions. Among the info gathered:

• Kevin said again that he’d probably be back to DD after DavidMack’s un on the book, somewhere around issue 18-20. Right around thetime for the 35th aniv. of DD.
• He wants to keep the animated series with the same art style that’sfound in the Clerks books. He likes Jim Mahfood’s stuff and is hopingthat the series will come as close to that as possible.
• As for the Preacher stuff: Scott and he haven’t done a whole lotof actual work on it. They said that they’ve read the script and if wehad read it then we’d have done as much as them. They’ll try and openwhat ever doors they can to help get things going. Kevin was impressedthat the script was so close to the comic and that the movie wouldpretty much be the first story arc (issues 1-4).
• They are close to getting Miramax to get something going for a Magemovie. This sounded like the same type of thing they are doing the same kindathing for Mage as for Preacher, open the doors that need opening and let’sget a flick on film.
• There are some Star Wars references in Dogma. Matt had a hugemonologue comparing Star Wars in a religious sense. Those who have readthe script have read the whole thing, but when it came to editing timethey cut out all but the first and last part. Matt would start the longdiatribe, the movie cuts to other stuff and when they come back Matt isstill going on while Jay has fall asleep listening to Matt droning on.
• Garofalo’s stuff didn’t get hacked very much at all, but fromthe sounds of it, Carlin’s did. Out of all the people who might havestuff to complain about after editting it was Carlin who apparently gotthe most cut out. Cryin’ shame.
• Most of Kevin and Scotts energy is going to be pumped into theanimated series once Dogma wraps up. So he isn’t looking towards anothermovie or a Clerks 2 or stuff like that. And speaking of wrapping thingsup on Dogma, Kevin stated that they’ve got 2 more weeks of stuff to doon it and it was mostly doing the mixing up at Skywalker Ranch.
• Kevin’s guilty pleasure movie (one that he feels bad about admittingthat he likes) is The Cutting Edge.
• They are still waiting word from Cannes, they should hear in abouta week or so. They haven’t gotten the film shopped off yet. If they getinto Cannes then that’ll be a chance to show it to everyone at once. Ifthey don’t get into Cannes then they’ll shop it around individually. I’veread a bit on the NewsAskew site (I think out of the Toronto paper) thatmade Kevin sound cocky, like he knew they were going to get the film in.It’s a crock’o’shit IMHO. Kevin didn’t sound cocky. He did sound a littleconfident, feeling like he had made a really great flick, but nowhere nearthe raving ego maniac he was made to sound like. As a side note to theCanadian folks who apparenly have it in for Kevin, fear not, you’ll bethe target soon enough, since as to be presented in the Animated Series,Canada’s only been civilized for the last 15 years, before that ya’ll”motherfuckers were hidin’ in caves ‘n shit”.
• The questionwas asked if Jay and Bob would ever get cast as the MAIN charactersin a flick or something. Kevin replied probably not ’cause they reallycan’t support a whole flick unto themselves. Think about it, one ofthem’s a stoner, and the other one doesn’t talk.
• I asked Kevin if there were any plans for a ‘West Coast Vulgarathon”of sorts and the feel was “not really”. Since with everything done rightthere in Jersey, people get to see and visit where the flicks were madeas well as The Stash do they get a little more bang for the buck when theyhold events. So Left Coast Askew folks, sorry…I did ask, and it seems likewe’re gonna hafta get together ourselves for something like that.

The original session was only scheduled for an hour, and towards theend of the hour I saw the main scheduling dude(Ryan) head up and mumblesomething to Kevin. I caught up with Ryan’s GF (Kendra) after and Ryanhad apparently bought Kevin another 20 minutes on top of the scheduled hour. So the session ran longer than planned. At the end of the sessionThe AV guys took over and we were presented with a very rough, first cutat the Dogma Teaser Trailer.

My impressions of the trailer ran from “Fuck me! This is gonna rock” to”I don’t get it”. Which isn’t surprising considering this is the reactionto many a trailer. Jay and Bob looked great, Alan looked crazed, Chrisrock sounded hysterical (great line from Rock: “Knew him [Christ] ?!?Shit, Nigga owes me twelve bucks!”). Scariest sight in the movie:Jay with a machine gun. Best sight in the movie: Salma in pig tails whilestripping. The trailer was a bit choppy and if you didn’t have an ideaof the general plot then you were more on the “I don’t get it” side, butas stated before, it was a very rough first cut. Expect to see the trailerby the end of the summer, and the theaters in October.

After the session Kevin did more signing at the Oni booth, I was lucky enoughto help out w/the line again. The guys at the booth were grateful and gota couple books and a pic w/Kevin for the help. He signed right up untilthe ‘con closed at 6pm.

All in all a great ‘Con. There are a lot of great books out there waitingto be read written by the “struggling” artist types, as well as some stuffby folks a little closer to mainstream but who don’t have the visibilitylike things like Daredevil and Preacher have. I strongly urge folks whogo to these ‘cons just to see Kevin to check out some of the smallerpublishers, drop a couple bucks, pick up a book or two and give it a goodread with an open mind. As for myself, I picked up a couple of the non-Kevin Oni stuff which turned out to be great reads. A couple otherthings that turned out f’in great was a book called ‘The Adventures ofBarry Ween – Boy Genius’, and I finally was able to read some Mage stufffor the first time. buy what you like ’cause money does the talkingwhen it comes to what gets published and what doesn’t.

PIX IN THE CANNES

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) – With “Entrapment” firmed for a prominent slot either as the opener or in a special screening and the Oscar Wilde adaptation “An Ideal Husband” a good possibility for closing night, the lineup for the Cannes Film Festival is approaching final shape.

Nonetheless, many decisions for the May 12-23 event were still being made over the weekend. Any number of producers and directors were hoping to receive word from festival chief Gilles Jacob by Friday, but were being kept on tenterhooks as he sorted out choices and scheduling priorities in preparation for Thursday’s announcement of the full slates for the Competition and Un Certain Regard sections.

Although quite a few of the titles have been known for some time, Jacob and his staffers seemingly have come closer to the wire than ever in making final selections this year, partly to keep their options open but also because some expected films weren’t ready or were found to fall short of expectations.

As of Friday, U.S. representation in the Competition division looked to comprise Tim Robbins’ “The Cradle Will Rock,” a look at Orson Welles’ theater days; Jim Jarmusch’s ”Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai,” a tale of a hitman starring Isaach de Bankole and Forest Whitaker; David Lynch’s ”The Straight Story Di; and possibly John Sayles’ “Limbo.”

Also said to be in are Atom Egoyan’s “Felicia’s Journey” from Canada; Raul Ruiz’s “Time Regained Di; Chen Kaige’s “The Assassin,” with Gong Li, which has been considerably recut since its lackluster showings in Japan and China late last year; Nikita Mikhalkov’s “The Barber of Siberia” with Julia Ormond and Richard Harris; Aleksandr Sokurov’s “Moloch,” about Hitler and Eva Braun; Italian veteran Marco Bellocchio’s “The Nanny,” starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi; Pedro Almodovar’s “All About My Mother,” which opened Friday in Spain; Bruno Dumont’s ”Humanity” and Leos Carax’s “Pola X,” starring Catherine Deneuve, both from France; and Takeshi Kitano’s “Kikujiru” from Japan.

Also firm are Mexican veteran Arturo Ripstein’s “Nobody Write to the Colonel,” a new film from Egyptian auteur Youssef Chahine, and a portmanteau Iranian feature with three directors, one of whom is Moshen Makhmalbaf.

Seemingly poised for inclusion but unconfirmed as of Friday were two films from English directors, Peter Greenaway’s “8-1/2 Women,” a story about a brother with eight women and a midget starring Toni Collette, Amanda Plummer and Polly Walker, and Michael Winterbottom’s “Wonderland,” which weaves together several tales of South London.

As for special screenings, including midnight shows, in the Official Selection category, Jon Amiel’s “Entrapment,” starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Oliver Parker’s “Ideal Husband,” starring Cate Blanchett, Gabriel Byrne, Minnie Driver and Rupert Everett, will definitely be on the Croisette. The latter opened in the U.K. Friday, while the former bows stateside April 30.

Also set are Ron Howard’s domestic flop “EDtv Di; Steven Soderbergh’s “The Limey,” with Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda; and Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez’s Sundance horror sleeper ”The Blair Witch Project.” Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” remains a possibility for a special slot.

Among the previously bruited films that will not be turning up on the Riviera for various reasons are Alan Parker’s ”Angela’s Ashes,” Ang Lee’s “Ride With the Devil,” Anthony Minghella’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” Roman Polanski’s “The Ninth Gate,” Mike Leigh’s “Topsy Turvy,” Patricia Rozema’s ”Mansfield Park,” Giuseppe Tornatore’s “The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean,” Istvan Szabo’s “The Taste of Sunshine,” Lasse Halstrom’s “The Cider House Rules,” Scott Hicks’ “Snow Falling on Cedars,” Jane Campion’s “Holy Smoke” and two films recently made by Chinese helmer Zhang Yimou.

Invited to the Un Certain Regard sidebar are David Mamet’s ”The Winslow Boy,” which world premieres this week at the San Francisco Film Festival; “Harem Suare,” from Ferzan Ozpetek, the Turkish helmer of “Steam: The Turkish Bath Di; Aussie filmmaker Christopher Doyle’s “Away with Words Di; Shane Meadows’ ”A Room for Romeo Brass,” Damian O’Donnell’s “East Is East,” Jasmin Dizdar’s “Beautiful People” and Lynne Ramsay’s ”Ratcatcher,” all from the U.K.; Wang Xiaoshuai’s “Vietnam Girl,” from China; Chen Kuofu’s “The Personals,” from Taiwan; and a new film from Portuguese helmer Cesar Monteiro.

The Directors Fortnight won’t be making its lineup announcement until a week after the Official Selection category is made public, and is therefore keeping many of its options open. Two U.S. titles looking likely are Alex Winter’s “Fever” and Frank Whaley’s Sundance entry “Joe the King.”

The lone title known for the Critics Week is Aussie actor John Polson’s debut feature, “Siam Sunset,” starring Linus Roach.

“Cartoon Clerks: An animated version of the 7-Eleven-slacker flick iscoming to ABC. Only hitch: drawing the pork rinds just right.”