Mouth Of The Rat

That’s where I am – Boca Raton (which translates to ‘mouth of the rat’ – go figure), Florida, accompanying Jen to her ten year high school reunion. Nice area, this; though very flat. And palm trees galore. Man, I hate palm trees.

Glad all that rumor stuff was squashed. It would seem that Mister Showbiz doesn’t hold much hope for ‘Dogma’s theatrical gross either, based on the tone of their article. Thanks for the support, guys. Much appreciated.

Okay – onto what little news of my own I have to impart…

The release date is now looking like either November 12, or October 22. Hopefully, this will get firmed up this week. I tell you – for a flick with great buzz, great advance critical notices, and a great cast, it’s amazing the amount of shit it’s being put through. Remind me to write a book one day. Good Lord. The things it’s be nice to share with you all…

I’ve seen the trailer, and it’s sweet. It’s kind of like the one Mosier did (that was seen at the Stash Bash and various college and comicon appearances) with a little more stuff in there. ‘O, Fortuna’ is out altogether, which is nice, as it was popping up everywhere lately. It should be in theatres by early September (unless the bad mojo that’s befallen the release of this flick over the course of the last six months strikes yet again). There was a teaser poster that got shitcanned at the last minute, but I’m assured we’ll see a release poster concept on Monday.

Ming’s been building the official ‘Dogma’ website, and it’s pretty cool. There’s a section of all these behind-the-scenes pix that I took during production which I just finished writing revealing text for last week. Aside from that, there’re plans to put the first pages of the ‘Bartleby and Loki’ comic up. When it’s ready to roll, I’ll give you the heads-up.

There’s some good news on the horizon for this week that should make all our Eastern Canadian friends pretty happy…

Though there’ve been nonstop soundtrack stop-and-starts, it looks like the soundtrack issue has been settled. I’m 80% sure there’ll be a soundtrack released this time around (unlike ‘Amy’). Man – the stories I could tell you about that too…

The ‘Clerks – Lost Scene’ book is going to be late, thanks in large part to the Animated Series, but I did just turn in the Jay and Bob intro pages last week, so poor Phil Hester can finally get to work. The rest of the book shouldn’t take much time, as it was written years ago. I just have to break it down, panel by panel – something I’m getting to this week.

I’ve seen the final ‘Daredevil’ issue, which looks and reads great, in my opinion (of course, I’m a little close to it). And in other ‘DD’ news, Affleck just penned a sweet intro to the trade paperback, which’ll be out in a few months. I’ll be doing an afterward (or is it afterword?) for it this week as well. Kudos and a big thanks to Big Ben for the solid.

I don’t think I’ve said anything about this yet, but man – how about that unbelievable gross on Ed and Dan’s ‘Blair Witch’? That, my friends, is THE definition of a phenomenon. We’ll never see it’s like again, I’ll wager. It’s one for the history books (‘Clerks’? Who ever heard of ‘Clerks’?).

The baby’s doing nicely. Today’s her eight week birthday. Seems like ages ago that I watched her sticky entrance into the world, but it’s only been a mere eight weeks. The frustrating thing is that the little slacker has yet to say “Hello, father,” or even walk. I think we got a lemon. A cute lemon, but a lemon nonetheless.

Next weekend, I hope to see all you aforementioned Eastern Canadian Askewketeers at the big Toronto Con. I’ll be there with Walt, Bry, and Jen, and an assload of shirts, including the sweet new ‘Dogma’ tee. Be there, or be American.

I lost twenty pounds for what that’s worth. Save the congrats, because there’s a long way to go.

The New York Film Festival, hunh? Can’t tell you how psyched I was about that. For five years, I’ve wanted to play both Cannes and the NYFF with ‘Dogma’. Dreams do come true sometimes, folks.

I’ve seen the first animatic on the Animated Series. For those not familiar with this process (which included me, up until the other day), the animators take the storyboards that’ve been drawn for the episode, and shoot them in succession, to give you a feel for what the show’s going to look like, and how it’ll play (it’s backed with the stripped-down dialogue track). Man, do I love it. Chris Bailey and Co. have done an amazing job bringing the script to life, and Brian, Jeff, and Jay are in top, top form.We’ve just seen the storyboards for Act I of the third show, and they’re looking mighty fine as well. The show’s becoming more and more real every week, and I can’t wait for you all to see it.

I guess I’ve covered just about everything for now, and brought you upto speed as much as I can. Thanks for hanging in there and being patient with the wait on the flick. The finish line is in sight (which means we have to start making plans for the premiere for you guys), and I – for one – am ecstatic. It’s about friggin’ time. It’ll be a nice way to end the millenium.