• Howdy, folks. How are ya? We’ve been getting some curious e-mails asking what we were up to this weekend. Welp, Chris got stuck working today, until 10 PM, so I’m starting the update right now (It’s about 12 noon, 12 hours to go until 2000!). After I finish this, I’m heading out and won’t return until sometime tomorrow, when I hafta head into work and update my company’s web page with the Y2K statuses (which SHOULD be just fine). Hopefully the hangover won’t be too bad and I’ll still be able to type and look at a screen without my head exploding. At any rate, this update should reach you JUST before the Y2K changeover, but chances are many of you won’t catch it until at least the 1st.

Looking back on this past year, it’s been quite a phenomenal one. News Askew continued to grow, and with Dogma’s release, our daily visitors count has never been higher. We became an official View Askew website this year. We saw Dogma’s premiere and watched as the flick took in strong numbers, by far the highest grossing View Askew film ever. We’re happy to still be alive and kicking and, as promised, will have some nice surprises for ya early in the year. At any rate, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for visiting the site this year, as always, it’s YOU that continues to make the difference. Thank you all.

And now, the final Newsbites of the 20th century (how anti-climactic, huh?):

• A source in Moscow confirms that Dogma is set to open in RUSSIA this APRIL! Here’s the kicker: The theater our scooper works for is a brand new multiplex in Moscow, holding the world’s LARGEST THX screen and 1500 seats! Way cool.
• Hollywood.com‘s MovieTunes web site has listed their Top 20 Soundtracks for 1999. And guess who made the list?

• Film Four has placed an exclusive streaming video with Kevin on their website, regarding Dogma and more. Check it out HERE.
• Dogma’s starting to hit the budget theater circuit (Those places that get flicks after they’ve been out for a while), so now’s a great time to catch it again for just a buck or two.
• And finally today, happy birthday today to View Askew’s Kim Loughran, who redefined the phrase “spit take” with Dogma in 1999. Here’s to many more.

That does it for us! Have a great evening; you won’t see another New Year like it in your lifetime. Happy New Year, everyone!! We’ll see ya back here in 2000.

• Garth Franklin, who runs the fantastic Dark Horizons website, dropped us a line with some great news for those of you who live in Australia:

We’d last heard a June release was on tap for the flick, but this is MUCH better, isn’t it?

• As many of you know, Ben has officially come forth on his site to deny all the rumblings going around about him being Batman, and the more ridiculous one about his demanding that Gwyneth Paltrow play Catwoman before he take the role:

That’s what we thought.

• Dark Horizons reports today that the latest director on the lips of those inside the Daredevil feature film project is Stephen Norrington (“Blade”), but also surprisingly says that Marvel is considering bringing Kevin in to sit in the chair as well. Hmmm. We’re not sure if Kev would want to take it on, but we’d be there. Still, if they can at least get the guy to write the film, and it’s even HALF as good as the Marvel Knights series, we smell money:

• Here’s the weekend figures from the UK Box Office. As you can see, Dogma did QUITE well given the number of screens that it was on. Congrats to View Askew and Film Four on a very respectable and profitable opening for the flick.

Notice that Dogma was on the LEAST amount of screens of any of the top 10 flicks, and still managed to pull third. Nice.

• The Big List of Movie Mistakes has found 6 of ‘em in Dogma! Minor at best, but it’s always fun to find these things. Wanna know what they are? Surf over and see.
• And finally today, a big THUMBS DOWN to the Washington Post for listing Dogma as the second WORST movie of the year. Sheesh! It’s alright not to like the film, guys, but you can’t seriously call Dogma the second worst of the entire year. Shame on you! You can do better than that. Then again, it’s a free country…

We’ll try and get one more quick update in tomorrow if there’s anything to talk about, then that’ll likely be it until 2000!!!! See ya.

• Well, if the doomsday-types are right, we’ve probably only got about 2 or 3 News Askew updates left before the world ends. We have a feeling that they’re wrong, though. But still, hey, if we’re gonna go out, let’s go out fighting. Things have still been very quiet, with most folks taking an extended vacation until after the new year. We’ll be around off and on, but with the millennium weekend coming up, updates may be a bit on the lighter side. Again, though, with not much to report, you’re not missing anything.

We’d hoped to have some major surprise for ya come the 2000 switchover, but it’s just not going to happen. We’ll more than make up for that in another few weeks though, so stick around. You won’t wanna miss it.

Today, Affleck’s back in the headlines yet again for that pesky ‘ol Batman rumor, plus we’ve got a few more Dogma tidbits from here and abroad…

• Yep, the rumor’s back…AGAIN. We’re still not sure what to believe…Some of the details of this piece seem to really sound like something Affleck said that just got blown WAY out of proportion, but hey, this rumor’s been going around for over a year now, so we’re not too shocked. Anyway, sources are now reporting ‘ol Ben is close to collecting a $15 million paycheck to becoem the caped crusader for the next flick, but only if they’ll hire Gwyneth Paltrow to play the Catwoman role. The stories go on to say that Paltrow herself is unsure of taking on the role, since she’s pretty much got her pick of the litter in Hollywood these days. At any rate, we think both would do a fine job in the roles, and they certainly couldn’t make for any worse of a film as the last one. As always, we’ll follow this story, but please, take it with a grain of salt. Just because 15 web sites are reporting it doesn’t mean it’s true. We’ll be the first to admit how things can sometimes get blown out of proportion in this medium. Thanks to Dark Horizons and Cinescape for the summaries.

Oh, and while we’re at it, Dark Horizons ALSO posted a few stills from Damon’s current project, “The Legend of Baggar Vance”, in their update today, if you’re interested.

• We’re not sure if this was something just meant to be seen by eyes within View Askew Productions and their cohorts, but we just couldn’t resist sharing when we received this wonderful piece of work in our mailboxes. Click the scans for larger versions of the front, inside, and back of this year’s offical View Askew Productions Christmas Card! It’s a gem.