- We got an e-mail concerning that “Employees” film we mentioned a while back. It’s the one that bears some striking resemblance to Kevin’s film. Anyway, they sent out another press release. We checked out the site and sure enough, they now have a movie poster which is very similar to that of a certain movie we all know and love. Check it out at Too Many Nicknames Productions and see for yourself! No idea what to make of this one.
- We mentioned this before, but a GREAT site to surf to for Dogma reviews (in addition to the ones we’ve collected over at Dogma RC) is Rotten Tomatoes. A reminder: While News Askew will not be posting any individual fan-written reviews on Dogma Rumor Control, we have now created a new topic over on our News Askew WWWBoard called “Dogma Reviews”. Feel free to post your own reviews of the film and discuss them there.
- IGN is holding a poll for suggested writers for the new “Hannibal” flick (Yes, the one that Jodie Foster just turned down.) Kevin is listed as one of the choices.
- “Tail Lights Fade” is seeing video release in yet another part of the world — The U.K.! The trade magazine “View” has the flick slated for rental video on November the 15th! No word on a stateside release of the flick yet, Malcolm Ingram‘s followup to “Drawing Flies” (Flies is still not on video, stop asking, please!).
- Dogma’s got a German release date and distributor! The industry newspaper “Blickpunkt Film”, a weekly cinema magazine, announces that Dogma is on schedule to open April 20th in Germany. The distributor will be Kinowelt. Now we’ve got Dogma confirmation for North America, the UK, Germany, and Australia (in summer 2000).
- Finally today, these are transcribed from the November issue of Alternative Press (page 80). One is an interview of Jason Lee where he mentions his first audition for Smith and the other is an overview of Dogma:
After switching from professional skateboarder to actor in 1995, Jason Lee went on to star in films like Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Enemy Of The State. He’s currently starring in both Mumford and Dogma, and is also shooting an as-of-yet-untitled Cameron Crowe film.
In Mumford, you play Skip, a skateboard-riding millionaire. That’s what they call perfect casting.
I was told that the character was written with me in mind, which is flattering — especially since it’s a Lawrence Kasdan script.
You were 24 years old when you decided to become and actor. What led to the decision?
Skateboarding had become sort of tiring. Although I made good money and got to travel, I was getting burnt out by it. Then one say I saw Barton Fink and decided that I wanted to do movies. I was just amazed by the cinematography, the music and the oddness of the characters — especially Steve Buscemi’s performance. I met friends that were actors and thought, “What the hell, I’ll give it a try.”
What was the first step?
I appoached a friend — who is now my manager — and said, “I don’t know much about acting, but I want to give it a shot. I don’t want to do commercials or television, just films. Give me three months — if I can land a part, you can represent me.” A few days later she sent me to Universal to meed the casting director for Mallrats. He told her that although I was inexperienced, I “seemed like a good guy,” so he was going to have me come back and read for the director, Kevin Smith. It took three or four days of reading for him, but Kevin eventually gave me the part.
That shuffling sound you just heard was all the late great Hollywood actors rolling in their graves.
[Laughs] I was very naive in my approach to acting. Unlike a lot of other actors, I hadn’t been jaded by ten years of the auditioning process — it was just something that I wanted to do. During my Mallrats audition, the first thing I said the Kevin was, “Look, I have to tell you that I’ve already envisioned myself playing this role.” I think he was impressed by my honesty. Sure, it may have been an unorthodox thing to say, but no one ever told me what the “rules” were.
– Micheal Moses
Also Showing (MINOR SPOILER AHEAD!)…
“Dogma”
Director: Kevin Smith
Stars: Linda Fiorentino, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon.
Plot: Descendant of Christ/lapsed Catholic (Fiorentino) is inexplicably tapped by an angel to save the world from two fallen angels (Affleck, Damon) conspiring to re-enter Heaven.
How Is It?: Good… if you like Kevin Smith. As annoying as his characters can be, Smith has proven himself to be a smart, insightful filmmaker with a knack for spinning wonderful webs of dialouge. This time out, he does for Christianity what his earlier films did for sex and comic books.
Rating: 3 (of 5)
