Cameos galore. Carrie Fisher and Shannon Doherty have both filmed scenes for the film. Probably the most obscure appearance in the film happened totally by accident. Kevin Smith reported on his website that while filming at The Quick Stop which made him famous, Thomas, the roofer who discussed labor issues aboard The Death Star in Clerks, just happened to be buying milk. Smith had him to reprise his role in a “subtle but full-circle cameo.”

Two hours and fifteen minutes.

That’s the running time of the first cut of ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’.

That’s what’s kept me from the board for the last few weeks – swimming through all the footage to arrive at…

Two hours and fifteen minutes.

Not bad. The first cut of ‘Dogma’ was over three hours.

We’ll spend the next few weeks getting the running time down to about 105 minutes so we can start testing the beast (most likely out here in the L.A. area).

I’ve gotta say, though – running time aside, it’s a really fucking funny flick.

Back to the salt mines.

JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK

STARRING Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Shannon Elizabeth, Jason Lee, Ben Affleck

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL? The Director of Clerks closes up shop.

A scourge to catholics (DOGMA), Smith may soon irk yet another group with his fifth flick: his fans. With Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the indie auteur is retiring the cast of slackers and mallrats who have populated his films since 1994’s Clerks. “I’m going to be 31 in August,” Smith says. ” I’d like to afford myself a shred of dignity before my kid’s old enough to notice her old man’s a walking, non-talking cartoon.” Mewes is bummed to see it end: “I wanted to be doing Jay until I was 40.” At least he’ll go out with a semi-bang. “I’ve kissed on screen before,” he says of his encounter with American Pie’s Shannon Elizabeth, “but never any tongue action.”

This Dimension comedy has the dubious duo trying to sabatoge a Miramax movie inspired by a comic book based on them. Backed by a $20 million dollar budget, Smith is promising slick visuals from Small Soldiers’ cinematographer Jamie Anderson and 220 digital effects. Jokes Smith, who has perhaps moved his camera total of two feet in four films: “You can’t mock hollywood with a static two-shot.” (Aug 10)

SPECIAL EDITION DVD JUNE 26, 2001

TWO-DISC DVD RE-RELEASE WILL INCLUDE EXCEPTIONAL ADDED VALUE ELEMENTS INCLUDING AUDIO COMMENTARIES AND DELETED SCENES

Culver City, CA (4/19/01) — On June 26, 2001 Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment will release DOGMA SPECIAL EDITION DVD. From director Kevin Smith (Clerks and Chasing Amy), DOGMA features an all-star cast which includes Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, Linda Fiorentino and Alan Rickman.

* All-Star Cast: Matt Damon (”The Legend of Bagger Vance”), Ben Affleck (”Reindeer Games”), Chris Rock (”Lethal Weapon 4”), Linda Fiorentino(”Men in Black”), Salma Hayek (”Time Code”), Alan Rickman (”Galaxy Quest”), Jason Lee (”Almost Famous”) and Jason Mewes (”Scream 3”)
* Written and Directed by Kevin Smith (”Chasing Amy”)
* 1999 Theatrical Release
* Original Essay by Kevin Smith

DVD ADDED VALUE ELEMENTS

* Cast and Crew Audio Commentary by Director Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Producer Scott Mosier and Vincent Pereira
* Technical Audio Commentary by Director Kevin Smith, Producer Scott Mosier and View Askew Historian Vincent Pereira
* Complete Set of Storyboards from Three Major Scenes
* 100 Minutes of Deleted Scenes with View Askew Crew Intros
* Weblink to the Official View Askew Site
* Hilarious Cast and Crew Outtakes
* Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash Spot
* Saints and Sinners Talent Files
* Bonus! Follow the Buddy Christ for More Hijinks with Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes and More!
* Talent Files (Kevin Smith, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Linda Fiorentino, Chris Rock, Alan Rickman, Jason Lee, Salma Hayek and Jason Mewes)

SYNOPSIS

One of the most talked about movies of the year is also one of the funniest! In this hilarious comic fantasy from writer/director Kevin Smith, two banished angels (Damon and Affleck) find a loophole that would get them back into heaven. The only snag? They’ll be destroying existence in the process. In an effort to stop them, the overworked voice of God (Rickman) taps cynical mortal Bethany (Fiorentino) to save the world by preventing the angels from reaching their unholy destination, New Jersey. Throw in two unlikely prophets (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith), the quick-witted, yet little-known thirteenth apostle (Rock) and a sexy, former muse with a case of writer’s block (Hayek) and you’ve got an hysterical and thrilling race against time.

Rated R
128 Minutes
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround
Format: Widescreen
Languages: English, French and Spanish
Subtitles: English, French and Spanish
Trailers: “Dogma”
SLP: $29.95
DVD #05614
UPC #0-43396-05614-5
TRADE INFORMATION
Order Date: May 29, 2000

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment is a Sony Pictures Entertainment company. Sony Pictures’ global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution, television programming and syndication, home video acquisition and distribution, operation of studio facilities, development of new entertainment technologies and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries worldwide. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.spe.sony.com

Dear EXPRESS.COM Customer,

Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately, at this time we are not able to receive new product into stock. However, I am not sure if we will receive this title at a later date, or if we will receive this title at all. Therefore, I cannot give you a definitive answer at this time to your inquiry.

His work on “SNL” was also noticed by cult-film director Kevin Smith, who cast him for an unusual role in his upcoming release, “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.” “That was fun. We just finished shooting that three weeks ago,” Morgan said. “I play a drug dealer that’s in a [labor] union. It’s really funny.”

“Salon’s about-average review of the apparently-fascinating new book about Tim McVeigh, American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & The Oklahoma City Bombing,” siva writes, “contains one particularly jaw-dropping passage, wherein McVeigh justifies the “collateral damage” of the bombing by comparison to the technicians and functionaries of the Empire killed by Luke Skywalker when he blew up the Death Star. An astonishing mix of megalomania, childhood fantasy, and Joseph Campbell-ian aspirations. Or Maybe he just saw Clerks?”

…

From the latter link, a college essay on Kevin Smith: “When the characters in Smith’s films are not discussing sex they are likely discussing pop culture, specifically Star Wars movies and comic books. They talk not just about liking a movie or that comic book, but the sociopolitical implications of pop culture that are rarely examined. Randal and Dante spend an entire scene discussing the ramifications of Luke’s destruction of the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi. Since it was still under construction at the time of its explosion, it was likely still being built, and since the Empire simply did not have the manpower to complete a job of such magnitude alone, there must have been independent contractors working on the Death Star. Randal feels these contractors were innocents unfairly caught up in someone else’s politics.”

”It would free up a bunch of very talented writers,” says Joe Quesada, editor in chief of Marvel Comics. ”One would hope that if there were a strike, any Hollywood writers who have roots in comic books might think it would be fun.”

Quesada has talked to filmmaker John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood), and has a wish list that includes The Sixth Sense’s M. Night Shyamalan and Steven Spielberg (whom Quesada calls ”the grand poobah”).

They would join Hollywood writers already dabbling in comics:

* Kevin Smith, writer/director of such films as Clerks and Dogma, has written Daredevil comics for Marvel. He is now doing a series of 12 comic books on the superhero Green Arrow for DC Comics….

But Smith, who once tried to persuade Quentin Tarantino to write some comic books, says any Hollywood-comics crossover would be limited.

”The widely held stigma is that comic books are a children’s medium,” he says.

But the biggest problem, he says, is money. ”Comics don’t pay enough for many big Hollywood types. You’re talking about $300 to $400 a page for top writers. A book is 22 pages. You do the math.”

Was driving home from work today listening to Don and Mike, a nationally syndicated radio program that deals with various bits of pop culture as well as topics in the news and entertainment industry (an excellent show in my opinion).

Through the third quarter of their opening segment, a fan of Kevin’s called in and asked Don Geronimo (the host in case you couldn’t put two and two together) if he had seen the movie MALLRATS.

In response, Don basically stopped the show to announce that he had not seen MALLRATS however he felt that “Kevin Smith is a genius…he is what Spielberg should be…Dogma is one of my favorite movies…he’s thinner than Jim Belushi…about the same size as John Belushi, but less sloppy…” They also mentioned JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK and how much they are looking forward to the film. Went through the rest of Kev’s catalogue and gave favorable reviews to each (except for CHASING AMY, which Don has not seen) Sorry for the quotes being as muddled as they are but I was driving through horrible afternoon traffic while listening to this segment.

It appears that these guys are fans, and their show is national so Kev got some major positive publicity today.

…And we turn a corner and there’s Kevin Smith. Geez! How about that for a sign from above? Someone I actually felt I’ve been mean to on occasion … and there he is!

Kevin and I have sat together. He knows who I am. I could see as our eyes meet that he didn’t want to say, “Hi.” My fault. And so, in the name of karma (not dogma), a big “Hey ho howdy” to Kevin and his gorgeous wife. And a promise to keep telling the truth, but to try not to be mean in the future.

Kevin Smith Summer

The Kevin Smith Summer continues as July concludes, with the first Image printing of Clerks. This black-and-white trade paperback features the art of Jim Mahfood and the team of Phil Hester and Ande Parks, who have risen to popular acclaim with their work on Green Arrow. This book has an all-new Jay and Silent Bob photo cover — sure to grab the attention of pop-culture savvy readers, especially with imminent release of Smith’s new film.

The Summer of Smith fully ignites in August with the release of Bluntman and Chronic. These stone-free superheroes are known to Smith’s fans as the alter-egos of his signature creations, Jay and Silent Bob, and have been featured prominently in Smith’s films. Written by Kevin Smith and drawn and colored (respectively) by the Powers team of Michael Avon Oeming and Pat Garrahy, this graphic novel is timed to tie in with the nationwide release of Smith’s new film, “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back!” The movie will be the subject of pieces appearing in mainstream television, print, and web venues, so expect this graphic novel and the line of merchandise coming from Graphitti Designs to bring new customers to store windows. Tune in, turn on, and watch out as new readers who wander in come back clamoring for more.

Now, I haven’t seen the movie – which I heard was REALLY disappointing – but the movie that comes out of these pages would have been EXCELLENT. A lot of the screenplay revolves around the classic Liz Phair song “Polyester Bride”, which becomes the song that propels the lead character Violet into stardom. Apart from several references to Monmouth and other references, there is a PURELY VIEWASKEW reference. There is a scene where Violent has a heart to heart with her father about when her mother died. Her mother was laid out at Posten’s Funeral Home.

We’ve gotten word from a retailer that Columbia TriStar’s long-awaited Dogma: Special Edition has finally been rescheduled for June 26th (we’ve confirmed this as accurate with the studio). Note that the disc will NOT include the controversial documentary, the content of which caused Buena Vista (the licensee of the film) to halt Columbia’s initial release. But we’re hearing through the grapevine that Kevin Smith himself now has possession of the documentary, and has plans to make it available elsewhere, possibly online.