• Hey, thanks for stopping by today. We’ve got a variety of stories today, ranging from stories on actors from the new flick, advanced copies of the Clerks cartoon DVD floating around, comic news, and more. Shooting on the film continues to go quite well. It’s amazing to think that it’s over halfway finished already, isn’t it? A lot of you are asking us when the crew is coming back to New Jersey to finish filming (rumor has it they’ll have one week of filming to do back in the homeland to wrap things up). We figure this will happen sometime in March, but have no specific dates on this yet or any information regarding opportunities to be an extra, if they even exist.

Also, we’re happy to announce that we’ll be heading out to the west coast at the end of this month for a few days of reporting from the set. Expect some up-to-the-minute news from the soundstage itself as well as some other exclusive stuff that we can only bring ya right here at News Askew. We’re being given some all-access passes which includes the opporuntity to take some photos of the cast, crew and the set, so expect some good stuff and a HUGE report in a couple of weeks.

Alright then, that being said, let’s see what’s in the news today:

• A couple of advanced reviews came into us on the Clerks: Uncensored DVD, as two lucky readers from the UK got their discs a full week early, since companies tend to ship stuff overseas very early to make sure it arrives on time. Anyway, here’s some information that we heard about the disc from these reports:

• The commentary track is quite good, and includes quite a bit of Kevin discussing the cancellation of the show.
• The commentary re-affirms that the Clerks cartoon animated feature will happen.
• Kevin tells about some of the episodes that were never made due to the cancellation. Our scooper says, “My fave one was they were gonna have an episode where Randall bought Kitt from Knight Rider and Kitt becomes so jealous of his relationship with Dante that he kills him, then lays some of Dante’s clothes on the hood and nobody notices.”
• Each episode comes with a multi-angle option. Angle 1 is the actual cartoon, and angle 2 is every single storyboard used to create the episode along with the commentary. How cool is that?
• All the original character development and early pics of their appearances are included on the disc and rumored to be quite good as well.

Both our reviewers were amazed that the series didn’t do better when it aired and wish that it wasn’t pulled. Too bad more US audiences didn’t feel the same way! We’ll of course have a full review of this thing when we get copies. Sadly, we couldn’t get review copies sent out to the site so we had to order our copies just like the rest of ya. We’ll be watching it the same time as you! Our review will probably focus on the extra features more since we’ve seen the toons themselves on several occasions.

• A new interview with Vincent Pereira appears at the Drama Monkey website, where he discusses “A Better Place”, the new soundtrack (available from Gig Records) and lots more.
• Jay Mewes is in an AICN poll the Best ActorPerformance award for his role in “Scream 3”. Against such candidates as Russel Crowe, Ellen Burnstyn and Tom Hanks, Mewes has some tough competition, but hey, it’ll be fun to see how many votes the guy gets.
• An article on Will Ferrell appeared at MSNBC yesterday which contained some audio clips. In one of them, titled “On His New Movie”, he discusses his role in J&SBSB. Check it out.

• Fandom‘s got the cover for Green Arrow #4 posted, which you can check out above. It looks like we might get to see a Kev-scripted Justice League!
• Speaking of Fandom, Marvel honcho Joe Quesada reveals what his role in J&SBSB involves. He’ll actually speak and appear in an action sequence.

• Finally today, a fan made pic that you Pokemon fans may find some amusement in. Catch ya next time!

• Empire Online broke a BIG scoop today with a surprise casting in “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back”. That’s right folks, Mark Hamill, Luke Skyalker himself, will appear in the film. Gary Jensen, the film’s stunt coordinator, broke some big info on the film, and, while we think some of it may be spoiler-ish, it IS just cameo-type stuff. So, as always, swoop the text below and read it at your own risk. Here’s the excerpt from the article that breaks the scoop, which explains the nature of Hamill’s role (which is the part you’ll need to swipe to read):

This flick’s getting better and better all the time!

• As promised, here’s those shots that appeared in Mysterio’s AICN piece this week. Again, these are very spoiler-free, it shouldn’t ruin any of the plot or surprises to look at these things. These shots have been remastered and retouched by our other scooper above, as the originals were given a washed-out look to appear on AICN. The pics come to us courtesy of producer Scott Mosier and his skillful eye. These behind the scenes shots feature a couple shots of Jay & Silent Bob in and out of character, Jeff Anderson, Adam Corolla’s cameo, and, if you look closely on the back of Kev’ director’s chair, you’ll see the working logo they’re using for the film (that also appeared on the Graphitti Designs/View Askew Christmas Card this year). Enjoy!

• As mentioned last update, we’ve got that artwork that appears in the new WIZARD magazine featuring the new look for Bluntman & Chronic. This should be the way the duo appears in their new comic, coming this summer as a tie-in to Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Also, a scooper has discovered a B&C page on the Image Comics website! So far it only features one page of text (which basically tells us what we already know) headed by a slightly modified version of the Bluntman & Chronic logo and the first bit of official Michael Avon Oeming Bluntman & Chronic art to hit the web. You can check out the page and that article HERE.

This page also again mentions the upcoming Bartleby & Loki one-shot and confirms that Scott Morse is still on board to paint the book. Way cool.

• Today’s most popular submission: George Carlin has revealed that his character in Jay & Silent Bob Strikes Back will be that of a HITCHHIKER. Thanks to the great Dark Horizons for breaking the scoop.
• A DOGMA clip aired on Larry King Live last night, as Chris Rock was the show’s guest. Nice exposure for the flick, as King’s show airs worldwide on CNN.
• A preview for Jason Lee‘s next flick, which stars Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sigourney Weaver, now called “Heartbreakers”, has been airing before most copies of “Hannibal” in theaters nationwide. If you were among the millions that caught that flick last weekend, you probably saw it.

• Mysterio is back this week at AICN with a much shorter report and some exclusive pics from the set that we hope to have up for you here later and at Scooping The Monkey. Those involve Adam Corolla’s cameo, the first shot of Jeff Anderson in Randal garb once again, and a few more Jay & Bob shots (naturally)! He also reveals that in the film, “for the first time, you’ll get to see all of Silent Bob’s pent up aggression and rage explode on screen”. Wow. Also, this little tidbit might interest you:

• Kevin’s back with another of his week-end reports. This week, Kevin shot mostly stuff with the actresses of the flick, including a great debut performance from his wife, Jennifer. Sounds like he’s incredibly pleased with the film, which builds the anticipation even more. Anyway, here’s Kevin with that report:

• Mysterio is back with another HUGE report from the set of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. The guy’s got all access to everything around, and, while he’s still doing his best to keep the spoilers down (as are we), you can get a feel for at least what’s happening and who’s appearing in certain scenes in his latest report. Remember, you can read these things in their entirety at Scooping The Monkey or at Aint It Cool News, their original home.

• It’s confirmed that Ethan Suplee is unable to do his cameo because he (like Duchovny) is still tied up shooting ‘Evolution’ for Ivan Reitman.
• Joey Lauren Adams, as Alyssa Jones, will just appear in a cameo, like a lot of the other Askew characters, outside of the theater where The Bluntman & Chronic feature film starring Biggs & Van Der Beek is being shown.
• Kev asked Joey to play Serendipity in Dogma when her role as Bethany fell through due to Miramax’s desire for a different actress.
• Joey hopes to come back and work with Kevin again in larger roles in future films.
• Other folks listed as just doing “cameos”: O’Halloran, Anderson, Ewell, Humphries, Johnson, Flanagan. We’re not sure if this was their only scene or if these actors will show up elsewhere. Our bet is that most characters from the previous films will show up in just this one scene (referenced above as a spoiler).
• Jason Lee will be on set for other scenes, so his role or roles are obviously not just a single cameo.

As always, TONS more to be read on this stuff in the full-blown articles. They’re longer than ever though, so have at least a half hour or so to spare. Thanks to Mysterio and AICN!