KG: Would you ever return to writing Daredevil again?

KS: The problem is monthly runs kind of conflict with my day job, so I have to pick them carefully. I’ve been offered a bunch of different things to write, like ‘The Authority’ (which I’ve yet to read, even though I’m a Millar fan), ‘The X-Men’ (which was too daunting to jump onto, due to all that continuity), and even ‘Daredevil’ (which I had zero interest in, if Quesada wasn’t drawing). But while a monthly ‘DD’ is out of the question, a one-shot or a hardcover story of some sort is not. Joe and I have talked about doing something along those lines.

“We’ve been trying to keep things as secret as possible,” says Scott Mosier, producer of “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,” a follow-up of sorts to Kevin Smith’s “Clerks,” “Chasing Amy” and “Mallrats.” So what’s it about? “It’s sort of like ‘The Muppet Movie.’ Only without the Muppets. And rated R.”

You’re hearing it here first…

Dimension chief Bob Weinstein called to say he’s moving ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’ off the August 10th release date. Our new release date is August 24th, two weeks later.

The reason for the move has more to do with the ‘Rush Hour 2′ juggernaut than the ‘American Pie 2′ juggernaut. ‘RH2′ opens August 3rd, and it’s going to be huge. If it opened to, say, forty million that weekend, even if it dropped by 50% percent the following weekend, that’s a potential 20 mill we’d be competing for (and losing, no doubt). Add to that the fact that ‘AP2′ opens the 10th, along with ‘Osmosis Jones’ (and to a lesser degree, the new Woody Allen flick), and Bob surmised it’s just plain stupid to jump in the pool that soon, when by waiting two weeks, we stand a better chance of doing some strong business.

Disappointing? Hardly. I trust Bob. This is the guy who did the then-unthinkable and put ‘Scream’ out on Christmas day. This is the guy who moved the ‘Scarey Movie’ release at least twice before it opened last year. The man knows what he’s doing.

All it means for you guys is you’ll have an additional two week wait for the flick. What it means for us is a slightly looser post schedule, which we can really use at this point. The test screening was scheduled for May 17th, but now we can do it two weeks later instead. And in a world where we jumped from thirty digital effects shots to over two hundred during the course of production, this’ll give the multiple effects houses doing the shots a bit more time to nail them all in time for the test screening, as well as give our composer, Jim Venable (the genius behind the score of ‘The Powerpuff Girls’ score, as well as the ‘Clerks’ Cartoon) some more time to lock in most of his original score for said test screening, so we’re not forced to use a temp score.

All in all, this is a good thing. The only aspect of it that bugs me is that we were on that date before any of the other flicks got scheduled in there. And when push came to shove, WE wound up moving.

But, hey – if it means some folks won’t have to choose between ‘J&SB’ and four other flicks on opening day, I’m kosher with the move.

In other news, I’ve checked out half of the aforementioned effects shots. All I can say is… Wow. Kudos to Joe Grossberg and the many artisans crafting these images that look like they don’t belong anywhere near a View Askew Production.

But then, come August 24th, the audience’s perception of what a View Askew Production looks like is going to be blown out of the water.

I just remembered, I’m going to be away next week from Tuesday until the weekend, so I won’t be posting the info re: the A BETTER PLACE film cells until after I get back and get the heads-up from Don at Synapse. Sorry. So, look for THAT info next weekend, not mid-week as I originally said.

That being said, since I goofed I’ll give the street date on the DVD and VHS now- June 19th. Barring any major catastrophies (like the DVD pressing plant spontaneously combusting), this date is definite. The DVD will be chock full of extras, and we’ll put a few of them (such as one of the Kevin and Scott intros) on the VHS as well. The VHS will also likely be sell-through and released by Ventura, the same company that put THE LAST BROADCAST out on VHS.

A BETTER PLACE will also be airing on the Independent Film Channel starting in either September or October. It’s actually going to be listed in the June issue of their viewing guide as premiering on June 4th, but I asked them to move it to the fall due to the film’s schooltime setting and also to give some distance between the June 19th DVD/VHS release and the pay-cable airing on IFC. However, the June issue of their magazine had already gone to print so it’s still listed in there, but it won’t be airing until the fall.