There was a little tension in the air on Wednesday night at the “The Blair Witch Project” party where Artisan execs played it cool about acquisitions while receiving congratulations after the screening. At the same time there was talk over whether to pass on Jim Jarmusch’s “Ghost Dog” and whether to pick up Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” from Miramax before someone else does. They are, of course, not the only company vying for the new film from the director of “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy” which screens to the public in a late night 12:15 am screening slot tonight. While a top exec at one studio flew to New York for last week’s screening (see indieWIRE May 17), and other distribs, including another LA-based studio, have also shown interest in the Ben Affleck, Matt Damon-starrer, claimed one Cannes source. The press will get a chance to see if the “comic fantasia” lives up to all the hype in a special industry screening this morning (Friday) at 11 a.m.

Cannes Screens Lynch, Smith Films

By JOCELYN NOVECK Associated Press Writer

CANNES, France (AP) – Director David Lynch is well known for his strange, dark, often violent films. Yet at Cannes, he’s come up with a heartwarming movie where nobody dies, nobody is hurt and nobody is even mean.

Kevin Smith is known for small, quirky films that deal with mundane issues like the lives of store clerks. At Cannes, he’s presenting a film about nothing less than good, evil and the Catholic Church.

Both films, presented Friday, are among the most talked-about at this year’s festival.

…

Smith’s film could not be more different. In “Dogma,” showing out of competition, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon play angels who try to return to heaven after they are banished. The film also stars Linda Fiorentino as a reluctant descendant of Jesus Christ, Chris Rock as a trash-talking 13th apostle, Alan Rickman as an angel who is the voice of God, and singer Alanis Morisette as God.

The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS – news), the parent company of Miramax Films, apparently felt it would be inappropriate to release the film under any of the company’s movie labels, including Miramax. So Miramax co-chairmen Bob and Harvey Weinstein formed a separate company to purchase and find a distributor for the film.

Smith, who previously directed “Clerks,” “Mallrats” and “Chasing Amy,” says he knew he was going to ruffle some feathers. But he told a news conference he hoped people would “see the movie for what it is.”

To that end, the film begins with an amusing disclaimer, in which the filmmakers note that God, too, has a sense of humor – witness the platypus.

Then it apologizes to the platypus community.

But the film may be offensive even to those who accept the religious satire. There is plenty of blood and guts, and it is a bit jarring to see charming Matt Damon blowing people away.

By 2:30 a.m. Friday, Kevin Smith’s comic fantasy about religion and faith, “Dogma,” is expected to have already sold to a U.S. distributor. The film screened three times yesterday (Friday): an 11:00 am invitation only press screening which was mobbed with journalists and young people, an additional press screening in the afternoon, and the midnight public showing in the Grand Palais, where Harvey Weinstein will be waiting to make a deal with the many distribs scheduled to attend.

After the morning press screening, Miramax Co-Chairman Weinstein made a public appearance outside of the Olympia theater, which turned into an impromptu press conference. Reporters from Newsweek and Time, critics like Janet Maslin and Harlan Jacobson, and the young fans of the film, were all in a tight circle around the Miramax giant. In between schmoozing the kids, Weinstein fielded a few questions from the journalists, among them the query on everybody’s lips: who will buy the film from the mini-studio that financed the film? “This movie is not a small movie,” Harvey said. “It’s not an art house movie.”

He went on to hype the potential of the film: “It’s going to be the size of ‘Pulp Fiction,’ if they [whatever distributor they sell to] do it right.” The Miramax chief told indieWIRE that he’d like to see the film in theaters by Labor Day, but “it’s not up to me now.” When asked if any major distributors had seen the film yet, Weinstein denied the claim, directly contradicting an indieWIRE report that there was a distributor screening in New York last week.

On Monday, indieWIRE reported on the screening that was held May 12th in downtown Manhattan. An insider who attended the screening clearly labeled the showing a “distributor screening” in a conversation with indieWIRE last week, while another branded it a “research screening without the research.” indieWIRE has confirmed the attendance of acquisitions executives, as well as the head of a major Hollywood studio at the NYC showing. Harvey and Bob Weinstein, Kevin Smith, and producer Scott Mosier were also in attendance, along with a handful of Miramax executives. Reviews from the screening have been published on Internet sites including Harry Knowles’ “Ain’t it Cool News” and the “NewsAskew” site.

As for when the film sells, Harvey said he hoped to make a deal in the early hours of the night, after the film gets out in the wee hours of the morning. Weinstein also went on record regarding their parent company, Disney, whom the executives bought “Dogma” back from when rumors of religious controversy began to stir. “I’ve had a good relationship with [Disney],” he said. “I made some great movies with them, but there’s a trade off.” Regarding the alleged irreverent religious reputation, Harvey promised the small crowd that Catholics wouldn’t have a problem with the film, “it’s only the fanatics that will.”

At a press conference later that day, director Smith was present with his own comic take on the supposed controversies. “The Vatican contacted me and asked me to make a recruitment film for the Catholic Church and I was like, I could do one of those if you don’t mind the naughty parts,” he joked. More seriously, he said, “It came from the time in my life when I felt a little disenfranchised from the church and found my way back — and saw my way clear to where I stand on faith and my faith in particular”.I think a lot of people go through crises of faith so I wanted to get on my soapbox and talk about that.”

Written around the same time as “Clerks,” the film is a sort of sophisticated theological debate crossed with Smith’s adolescent Jersey comic-book humor. Starring Ben Affleck as Bartleby (an outcast angel of repentance) and Matt Damon as Loki (the angel of death), the story traces their efforts to get back into the Kingdom of Heaven no matter what the cost to human existence and the unruly righteous band who try to stop them. This group includes Linda Fiorentino, Salma Hayek, Alan Rickman and Chris Rock, as well as Jason Mewes and Smith appearing as two unlikely prophets: Jay and Silent Bob.

At the morning screening, the youth audience was taken by the film, laughing steadily throughout the film, while the critics preferred Smith’s smart screenplay to his mild direction. At the press conference, Smith himself admitted, “Visually I don’t think I have much going on. But I think I can write, and I think that’s my strength.” Describing the process of writing and editing of his script, Smith told the packed room of journalists, “I write like I shit, which is quite a lot.” Continuing, he explained, “We didn’t have to lose any complete scenes, so I just cut out some of the more ‘Kevin-being-impressed with himself’ dialogue.”

Smith also addressed the question of the religious controversy which supposedly abated when Disney sold the film back to the Weinstein brothers. “Our relationship with Disney is still pretty strong. The next flick we’re working on is Disney’s ‘Martin Luther,'” he joked. “I’m not so worried about the controversy, because I’ve always felt that I wasn’t stupid into going to it; I knew that there’s the potential the moment you start talking about religion to offend some people and I didn’t want to offend anybody.”

Rather Smith hoped “to kind of inspire people to think about their spirituality or God; so often we get lost in the politics of religion and forget why we’re in church in the first place. I took great cautions to try not to offend as much as I possibly could. For me, I always thought how can anyone really be offended by it — it’s got a rubber poop monster.”

When asked about the film’s tenuous U.S. distributor status, producer Scott Mosier told indieWIRE, “We just wanted to concentrate on coming here [Cannes]. There’s been so much discussion about the film, the film in general, and the distribution, we’re really just concerned aboutÅ showing it to people and getting a reaction to it.” Contradicting Harvey’s hope to close a deal today, Mosier said, “As far as the distribution, we’ll start getting into that a lot, once we get back from Cannes.” Smith added, “We’re kind of anxious. It’s nice that Harvey and Bob are still involved with the movie, eventually it’ll find a home, hopefully, you know, if there’s people out there. I guess it’s good enough; it’s got those ‘Good Will Hunting’ guys so maybe we’ll make a dime off it.”

Smith also said that for future projects he hoped to make lower budgeted films. Quoting the film’s budget at $10 million (incidentally, Weinstein claimed to have paid $14 million for it), Smith said, “I’m usually very budget conscious. I like to make smaller stuff, ’cause I’m not very comfortable as a director”. After this, I don’t think I want to keep doing movies at that level, or build up. I know a lot of my contemporaries seem to jump in their budgets and I think the next one will be way cheaper than that.”

Last year I bent your ear with some news concerning Kevin Smith working on MAGE, a comic book movie. Well, I’ve got an update.

My minions have scoured the Microverse, and Antron returned to my throne room with useful information. Here’s the story:

MAGE is a comic book that was created by MATT WAGNER, who also created GRENDEL, which some of you might have heard of. MAGE was originally published by COMICO during the mid to late 1980s. It was a finite series, 15 issues long, and is clearly one of the best comic books of that period, sitting quite nicely amongst other great comics of the 1980s like WATCHMEN and RETURN OF THE DARK KNIGHT. Top-notch stuff.

Wagner is currently publishing a sequel, MAGE: THE HERO DEFINED, through Image Comics. And has action figures on the toy racks right now.

Well, Kevin Smith has been a big fan for a long time. Apparently, some producers optioned the material, and Kevin contacted them, interested at first in just writing, and now in directing the piece as well.

Negotiations have been going on for a long time now, and the deal’s done. After several studios entered the ring for it, the deal got done at Miramax.

Everyone’s talking about DOGMA. Well, Dogma’s done, and Kevin re-wrote a Jerry Bruckheimer script called COYOTE UGLY in February. Next on the plate is MAGE. Word has it that Kevin got married at Skywalker Ranch a few weeks ago, has had a baby, and will get down to writing MAGE this summer.

Ready for the curve ball? This ain’t CHASING AMY. Apparently, last year in WIZARD MAGAZINE, Kevin described this project as his STAR WARS. I know the comic book features a spell-casting mage, a green glowing baseball bat, otherworldly creatures called GRACKLEFLINTS, and lots of action.

REPORTER: WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO COME TO AN EVENT LIKE THIS?

LINDA FIORENTINO: BECAUSE THE FOOD IS FREE.

REPORTER: WHAT ELSE?

LINDA FIORENTINO : TO SUPPORT MY DIRECTOR.

BEN AFFLECK: YOU KNOW THIS IS SORT OF A LOT LIKE PARTIES AND PREMIERES IN THE STATES EXCEPT THE PHOTOGRAPHERS HAVE A DIFFERENT ACCENT “‘ALLO BEN PLEASE OVER HERE” I DON’T KNOW I KIND OF LIKE IT, IT’S A CHANGE OF PACE, DIFFERENT ACCENT.

REPORTER: DO YOU THINK IT’S IMPORTANT, I MEAN CANNES IS SUCH A KIND OF CELEBRITY GLITZY THING, TO DO SOMETHING WHERE IT’S ALL GOING TO A GOOD CAUSE?

KEVIN SMITH: YEAH ABSOLUTELY, YOU MIGHT AS WELL, EVERYONE’S HERE, IF YOU CAN RAISE A FEW BUCKS OFF IT SO BE IT.

REPORTER: DO YOU MIND IF I ASK YOU HOW MUCH YOU PAID FOR YOUR TICKET?

KEVIN SMITH: I DIDN’T. I WAS GIVEN MY TICKET, IN FACT I HAVE A FEW FOR SALE IF ANY OF YOU LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WOULD LIKE TO GO IN.

CANNES, France — David (“Blue Velvet”) Lynch floored audiences at the Cannes International Film Festival on Friday with an eloquently simple, deeply emotional G-rated movie, “The Straight Story,” whose unassuming 79-year-old star gives the best leading performance to be seen here. And that was only the second-biggest surprise of the day.

The first involved Harvey Weinstein of Miramax, who is usually happily orchestrating Cannes brouhaha but has stayed uncharacteristically far from the spotlight this year. After Kevin Smith’s potentially controversial “Dogma” was unveiled Friday morning, Weinstein found himself in an alley outside the theater, doing something that is unheard of here: taking part in an impromptu news conference without benefit of spin.

The reason: Not even Weinstein knows what “Dogma” is up against. All that seems certain about what press notes call Smith’s “comic fantasia” is that it won’t be getting any closer than the word “fantasia” to Miramax’s corporate parent.

When Walt Disney Co. discreetly indicated that it did not want to be fielding anti-“Dogma” pickets at theme parks, Weinstein and his brother Bob dropped “Dogma” from Miramax’s roster, and then agreed to buy the $14 million film back personally and make other distribution plans.

Where does it go from here?

Into calmer waters, let us hope. Because Smith’s “Dogma” is as smart and articulate as it is wildly irreverent, with characters who try to make sense of faith just as his “Chasing Amy” characters tried to sort out love and sexual identity.

And Smith’s fusion of off-the-wall humor with serious debate never leaves the strength of his religious conviction in question. “Dogma” has an outlook best summed up by a character in Smith’s sharp-edged screenplay: “I have issues with anyone who treats God like a burden instead of a blessing.” Even if this is a film that enlists a silent Alanis Morissette to play God.

If “Dogma” winds up offending those who haven’t seen it, it isn’t likely to have that effect at closer range. Actually, it’s the rare pop entertainment with a lot on its mind, even if a meandering second half and a few gratuitous gross-outs dilute its effect. (Smith, whose cast includes Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Chris Rock and George Carlin, is a much better director of hilariously stubborn arguments than of action scenes.)

Calling “Dogma” anti-Catholic, Smith said Friday afternoon, “is like calling me anti-New Jersey.” And he is so fond of his home state that in “Dogma” he shows two travelers who are unable to buy bus tickets to New Jersey because of high demand.

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