And the Mooby dolls are done as well. They look cool. Look for them in the mail within the next few weeks.
The other item Graphiti mastermind Bob Chapman shared with me today was the Buddy Christ miniature statue. The detail is amazing. Wait’ll you see them.
Hawking shit aside, yesterday was ABC’s mid-season press tour. Dave, Jay, Brian, Scott and myself held a press conference at the Ritz Carlton in Pasadena, and then I spent the day doing one-on-one interviews with E!, ET, Access Hollywood, CNN – stuff like that. Look for it in the next few weeks if you’re so inclined, but there’s not much new info there you guys aren’t already up on.
And that’d be about it for the time being. Thanks, as always, for the interest.
Want more details on that press conference? First of all Canada’s Canoe website ran a piece from the Toronto Sun on the event today, which you can read HERE. In it, Kev talks about Degrassi,the Clerks series, Regis & Kathy Lee…Ya know, the usual stuff.
Also, Zentertainment had this to say:
“ABC first approached us about doing a game show,” Smith joked, before explaining that his natural love of comics has always made him interested in doing an animated show.
The series is centered around characters introduced in the 1994 film, and is set in the same locale: the Quick Stop in Leonardo, New Jersey. Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith lend their voices to the series, which follows slacker Dante Hicks (O’Halloran) and his friend Randal (Anderson) as they work at their respective stores. Mewes and Smith voice Jay and Silent Bob, characters Smith has carried through his films “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy” and last year’s “Dogma.”
The original film’s dirty humor was a major stumbling block, Smith admitted, explaining they are, “trying to be funny without being crude.”
When asked about the show’s similar theme to the twentysomething animated show “Mission Hill,” which briefly appeared on The WB earlier this season, Smith admitted a link.
“We wanted to model ourselves after the least successful animated show,” he joked. “‘Mission Hill’ was a no-brainer.”
Smith managed to get in a few digs at his own network, at one point pretending to read a statement by the net describing the show. “It’s a family show,” he read, “…featuring a lot of ethnic diversity.”
He also discussed the advantage of working with animated characters instead of live actors, explaining it was easier to direct them and get usable takes.
“We’re trying to get to a place where you don’t need actors at all… Like ‘The Practice.’”
The show is expected to launch in March, and if successful, may return next December. Smith is optimistic about the future, even thinking about a possible follow-up if “Clerks” is a hit.
“If this takes off, believe me — there will be a ‘Mallrats’ half-hour.”
Man, that joke about “The Practice” is classic! Where does he come up with this stuff?
Tonight marks the debut (finally) of the second season of The Sopranos on HBO. We’ve been tuning in since the first episode, and now that the show has become the darling of critics everywhere, it seems that even those of you without HBO have been getting hit with press on the show from all over the place. At any rate, believe the critics, it’s THAT good, and with the strong following the show’s come to enjoy, we can only imagine how good this season’s gonna be. We’ll be glued to our sets every Sunday night at 9 for the next few months, you can count on that. And we’ll be TAPING the X-Files.
We’ve also got a few things to say about the milestone we hit this weekend, so read on…
Writter-Director of Dogma
“The opening 10 minutes of ‘Tarzan’ during which time you see the simultaneous joy and subsequent loss of both Tarzan’s parents and his soon-to-be adoptive gorilla family. They accomplished more emotional depth in those few animated minutes than some movies accomplished in their entirety.”
See ya next time!
OK, folks, if you want an instant collector’s item, rush on over to DVD Express and pre-order your copy of View Askew’s A BETTER PLACE right now. If you pre-order our DVD through their site and you are one of the first 1000 people to do so, you will receive an autographed copy with a limited edition film cell. Both Producer Kevin Smith and Director Vincent Pereira will sign the first 1000 copies sold through DVD Express. Run on over to DVD Express now and pre-order today.
Order yours before they’re gone! You’ll get a great movie, a LOADED DVD, and a nice price to boot. We can’t wait to own this one ourselves.
Been here over a week, and not so much as a tremor. Damn.
Some news: I’ve learned that Criterion will be releasing the ‘Amy’ DVD in April. It’s basically a copy of the superior Laser Disc they put out (which very few probably saw). That should settle that unresolved issue.
Which leaves the ‘Dogma’ DVD, which I’m now told will be released (with the VHS) on May 2. It’s going to be the fully loaded edition (we’re recording commentary in early Feb.), so you won’t be burdened with having to buy two versions of the flick. Mark those calendars.
Speaking of calendars, ‘Clerks: The Cartoon’ starts airing in early-to-mid March (not Feb. as oft mentioned). We’ll be showing a two minute trailer Mosier and I put together at Sundance next week. It should be available to download from the official website (the one for the cartoon that Ming is building) shortly thereafter.
We’ve now seen the first two episodes. The show is really funny and looks pretty tremendous. I think you’ll all be as pleased as I am when it airs. Kudos to all involved, including Chris Bailey and Dave Mandel (not to mention me and Scott). I’m pretty proud of them and the show itself.
And if you haven’t seen ‘Titus’, please do. It’s probably (for my money) the best film of the year. The worst film?
Well let’s just say Vincent and I are on the same page…
Man, that is fantastic news. So we’ll basically see Kevin’s remaining 2 flicks released on DVD within a MONTH of one another, both loaded with special edition content, PLUS Vincent Pereira’s “A Better Place” DVD as well. Man, it’s gonna be a GREAT Spring. Hopefully we’ll get a few rainy days early on to spend some time with those suckers.
As for Amy, the Criterion laser IS wonderful, so those of you that missed it will definitely enjoy the commentary and all of the deleted scenes that were restored (there’s a ton of them). We fear this means Criterion may be foregoing a new 16:9 transfer for the film, though. We’re going to try and contact them about that (unless someone from Criterion is reading, if so, PLEASE drop us a line). If not, it may be time to start another of our famous e-mail campaigns…
As for the Dogma DVD, we’re sure it will contain another in the series of the BEST commentaries on home video (Kevin & crew ALWAYS put on a show that everyone loves in their commentary tracks) along with a TON of deleted stuff (we saw it a couple of years ago, and man, those of you that loved the flick are REALLY gonna like it now). We can’t wait.
As for the Clerks series, it goes without saying that we’re stoked about it. They’re keeping it well under wraps right now, we’ve yet to see a frame ourselves, but we’re sure the official site will have tons and we’ll also do our best to try and squeeze some stills out of somebody as soon as possible.
Happy New Year and all that good stuff! Been a very long time since I posted. (my bad) But it was just this past Halloween that I spent some cartoon money for a computer. So now I can post stuff again.
A lot of people asking what I think of Clerks TAS. Simply put Fantastic! The most fun I had last year. I hope to have even more this year! Thanks goes out to Kevin, Scott, Dave Mandel, Billy Campbell, John Bush, all cast members and all at View Askew, and Miramax TV, Disney, ABC. (This reads like an awards speech)
Anyway can’t wait to see it!
Hope to post more,
Brian O’Halloran
