• Will Ferrell has been making the talk show rounds this week: On Friday’s Today Show, he spoke mostly about SNL, but he did mention he’s appearing in “the new Kevin Smith movie, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, opening August 24th”. Looks likeIn a recent Charlie Rose appearance, he talked about J&SBSB as well, especially the origin of his character name. He even sang the “Land of the Lost” theme.
• Maxim gives a good little plug to Jay & Bob, though some of the people listed below aren’t exactly “cameos”, still, it’s a positive mention:

• AICN reports that Jeff Anderson (Randal of Clerks fame in case ya didn’t know) will direct his script “NOW YOU KNOW”, starring Rashida Jones (”Boston Public”). The story revolves around a woman who calls off her wedding to her childhood sweetheart for unknown reasons.

• Finally today, an assortment of sound and video for ya. First, an impression of Silent Bob done as part of a mock newscast at a fan’s college. Fans of View Askew have also put together a commercial-style video using CLERKS:THE ANIMATED SERIES, and a funny tune from THE RISE GUYS, Check that out HERE. And finally, the shot above a cool original sketch of Bluntman & Chronic, done by fan Scott Wilson (whose art appeared in Jay & Silent Bob #3). Later on.

• As promised, our weekly edition of 3 new pictures to brighten up your Monday morning. That first pic…well…Kinda speaks for itself. What more is there to say? Next, we’ve got an artsy little shot of Jay & Bob called “Green Room”. If you’ll look carefully on the right, you’ll notice that hilarious poster with the monkey that we mentioned in the on set report. Hopefully that will show up onscreen. The monitor at the lower right with the scene framed is also a nice touch. And finally, another from the Mosier collection, a slightly different pose of the girls outside the van (no, it’s not the same as posted before, we had a few of them). Thanks again to Jamie Anderson, Kevin Smith, and Scott Mosier for providing us with these exclusive photos.

Don’t forget that Kevin promised some updates at Moviepoopshoot.com today, so be on the lookout for that. We’ll be in touch with the latest on that as well. Catch ya later today.

• Here ya go, folks. It won’t be long now! The DVD jacket has been finalized for the A Better Place Special Edition, and here it is! Click the thumbnail to get a look at it in all its glory. It’s going to be a great, packed disc, so if you didn’t get that preorder in, do it now. You don’t wanna miss out. Thanks to Vincent for sending it our way.

• E! Online’s website has a short realvideo clip not featuring Kevin or the trailer clip, but mentioning it along with the Movie Poop Shoot website. They say, “Director Kevin Smith is waging an Internet war, but you’ll be surprised to find out who he’s battling.” You can view the clip online HERE.
• There have been some new changes and a new design at fan site www.silentbob.co.uk. Surf over and check it out if you so desire.
• There’s a new Yahoo club that’s been created dedicated to View Askew director turned Hollywood writer Brian Lynch, located HERE. Stop by if you’d like to know what he’s up to as well as chat with fellow fans.
• This afternoon, a caller to the Don & Mike show (syndicated nationally) asked Don if he had seen the internet trailer to J&SBSB. Don said no, but that he really enjoyed all of Kevins’ films, and DOGMA in particular. The caller then got the plug in for Don and all the listeners to go to viewaskew.com and watch the trailer. The guys both agreed that Kevs’ films were, “Funny as hell!”.
• Finally today, here’s a cool new cartoon of Jay & Silent Bob found over at celebritoons.com. Enjoy the weekend.

• Just a quick word about that news that’s appearing on TheForce.Net today (and has resulted in no less than 50 e-mails at least in the inbox today) regarding the Star Wars Episode 1.1: The Phantom Edit (story originally appeared on Editorsnet by author Erin Lauten. Apparently, a mysterious video cassette containing a re-edited version of George Lucas’ “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” has started circulating around Hollywood. Why is this relevant here, do you ask? Well, folks are theorizing that the tape itself may have been a project of Kevin Smith’s.

We contacted Kevin about this immediately, who assures us that while he’s had nothing to do with the project, he HAS seen a copy and can confirm that is does exist. Interesting. So, who’s got a copy they wanna pass along? Drop us a line! There ya have it, folks.

• How about that Bluntman & Chronic photo, huh? Nice stuff there! Rumor has it that it’ll be running in a Wizard book next week so we wanted to get it out there first, so the fans of the site once again got to see it before the rest of the world. The sight of Kevin and Jay as Bluntman & Chronic has sparked quite a bit of speculation around its role in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Want to discuss your theories? Visit the spoilers board over at the News Askew forums!

We actually meant to get that pic up earlier for ya yesterday, but a few things kept that from happening. First of all, our server is STILL acting up under heavy trailer downloads, believe it or not. We’re moving to a bigger better box next week, so that’s good news, but until then, you’ll see problems with Talkbacks, the forums, and yes, you will see double news posts from us on the front page. What happens is that a news story gets submitted through the news database, the database lags and takes 20 minutes or so to update, and we’re not sure that it’s made it through. Second, I (Brad) stupidly sprained my ankle pretty bad last night while landscaping a steep hill out back. The pic was on my PC, so Chris wasn’t able to post it until I sent it on after I crutched back in from the ER. Anyway all that aside, our new server will be shared with View Askew, and we plan to keep trailer downloads localized to another server if things get busy again.

The pic itself is doing quite well, with plugs over at Dark Horizons, Coming Attractions, and Total Film already showing up to name just a few. As for other news, today brings us more minor stuff as we empty out the News Askew mailboxes:

• Kevin will be the featured guest live on this Sunday night’s Ground Zero radio show with host Clyde Lewis. They say “You can call in toll free 1-866-797-8360 (1-866-SYSTEM-0) from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM Pacific time to ask Kevin Smith your GREEN ARROW questions.” You can also listen on-line at the GROUND ZERO website: www.clydelewis.com. We’re not sure if they’ll take questions about the new flick or anything, as it might become a free-for-all, but ya never know. Kevin’s not usually one to pass on any questions posed to him. Tune in and check it out (you can always tape those Sopranos and X-Files season finales).

• Here’s three more pages straight from the notebook of Mike Oeming to your computer screen. The first look at 3 more pieces of artwork and panels from the upcoming Blutman & Chronic Graphic Novel this summer. Enjoy, and we’ll see ya back here with more shots next Thursday.

• Inside DVD issue #6 has a featurette on the Dogma Special Edition DVD, which sounds like the same one that was featured on the Total Movie DVD from a while back. It shows some of the menus, some clips from the film, deleted scenes and a snippet of an interview.
• Canoe reports:

• Finally today, ever played that fun game where you can see what your Jedi/Star Wars name would be? A little list of Jedi names and alter egos was compiled by theforce.net. Included in the list were: Kevin Smith, Jason Lee, Jason Mewes, Jason Biggs, and Chris Rock. Go see what yours is!

Another list, for Sith names, including Mark Hamill, Jason Lee, Shannon Doherty and Alan Rickman can be found HERE.

• As if the traffic on the trailer wasn’t ALREADY bringing this site to a standstill, here’s another bandwidth-buster for ya, the first photo revealing Jay & Silent Bob AS Bluntman & Chronic! We’re going to pass this graphic around to the other web agencies as well, so it should be popping up all over the place. Click the thumbnail for a better look, and remember, you saw it here first. Enjoy, folks.