Very quickly…

Last minute fixes for some press screenings we’re having next week, soundtrack/song placement discussions, getting ready to shoot not one, but two music videos back in Jersey on Monday and Tuesday, pulling together a project for the NY Times… all of these nuisances monopolized our time this week, preventing us from getting the trailer up. I apologize.

But we’re out of the woods (for the moment), so I’m making a final pass on the trailer the moment I sign off, in an effort to get it up tomorrow night.

So look for the ‘Jay and Silent Boh Strike Back’ Internet Trailer 2 to go up Thursday the 21st, at 9pm L.A. time/Midnight East Coast time.

I hope you’ll feel it was worth the wait.

VIEW ASKEW TO SPONSOR NEW WORLD FAMOUS COMICS COMMUNITY WEBSITE

World Famous Comics < www.wfcomics.com >, the ultimate comic book and entertainment Website, is proud to announce the spin-off of one of their most popular features, their message boards. This new Website, The World Famous Comics Community < www.comicscommunity.com > is being sponsored by Kevin Smith’s View Askew Productions < www.viewaskew.com >.

The World Famous Comics Community Website, which features no banner ads, is
an online destination for fans to interact with some of the industry’s best known comic book creators:

Brian Michael Bendis – Powers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil, Jinx, Torso, and Elektra
David Mack – Kabuki, Daredevil, Scarab
Jeff Smith – Bone, Rose, Stupid Stupid Rat Tails
Tony Isabella – Tony’s Tips, Star Wars, Star Trek, Black Lightning and many of the best known Marvel and DC titles.
Mike Allred – Madman, The Atomics, X-Force
James Hudnall – Harsh Realm, ESPers, Age of Heroes, Shut Up and Die
Alvin Schwartz – Golden Age Captain Marvel, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Superman and Wonder Woman
Insight Studios – Liberty Meadows, Hammer of the Gods, Doctor Cyborg, The Body, Tug & Buster, Gregory and Frank Cho, Illustrator

Each message board is hosted by the creator and allows fans to discuss past, present and future project’s with them, as well as each other.

As this diverse and expanding community continues to grow, more forums will be added as new creators join. In addition to the new creator-hosted forums, visitor will soon be able to interact with each other using Web based real-time polls, surveys and reviews.

“It has been a wonderful experience and incredible honor to have such talented creators hosting forums for us at the World Famous Comics Website. It is an equal honor to have Kevin Smith and View Askew Productions sponsor this next step in the evolution of the World Famous Comics community”, says Justin, founder of World Famous Comics.

“Justin’s been very generous in his efforts to help comic book creators interact with the folks who read their books. I just wanted to help him make it easier to do so. View Askew is proud to lend a financial hand to such a visionary and sweet guy,” replies Kevin Smith.

ABOUT WORLD FAMOUS COMICS

Online since 1995, World Famous Comics’ mission is to bring the best of comics and entertainment to the world using the medium of the new information age, the Web. By providing exclusive daily content and interactive features, World Famous Comics is the destination of choice in this new era for comic book and entertainment fans. Their outstanding content has made them the recipient of the Ask Jeeves Silver Platter, Magellan 3-Star, Windows Magazine Web HotSpot, Webratings.net 4-Star and NetGuide Gold Award. The site has also received recognitions from the TV Guide Entertainment Network and Universal Press Syndicate’s Mr. Media. World Famous Comics is available on the Internet at www.wfcomics.com.

ABOUT VIEW ASKEW PRODUCTIONS

Founded in 1993, View Askew is Kevin Smith’s production company, responsible for such films as ‘Clerks’, ‘Mallrats’, ‘Chasing Amy’, ‘Dogma’, and the upcoming ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back’. They also host an insanely popular website at www.viewaskew.com.

1) My wife and I and our pals had front row seats, and took several pix. Hopefully, we’ll get these developed ASAP, and if you’re interested, I will try my best to get these scanned and sent your way.

2) As you may know, the festival folks screened “Chasing Amy, ” which was received rather well. It was hard to say if, as I suspected, the majority of the audience had already seen the “flick” (as Kevin would put it.) Maybe it was just me, but the crowd seemed to laugh “extra loud” during Jason Lee’s bits (not that there’s anything wrong with that.)

3) It was a typical nasty, rainy, Florida summer evening, but despite this and an insane mob of people hoping to pick up “standby” tickets, the atmosphere was overall subdued and pleasant.

4) Jason appeared immediately after the film ended, and fielded nearly an hour’s worth of questions, with some feeble help of a “moderator,” whose microphone conked out half the time. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from “an Evening with” Jason, but it was your standard Q&A, with your standard variety of questions: a few overzealous females, some “in-the-know” hardcore fans, and more than a few skater-related queries.

5) Jason initially appeared a bit like a deer in the headlights, and even asked the crowd if they wanted “serious” answers from him, or, as he seemed to expect, his patented wisecracking. Luckily, he settled into a steady flow of both. He took great pride in pointing out his wife, Carmen, in the crowd, her role in “Amy,” as well as their production company they are starting up. I guess the big “revelation” of the night was he hopes to direct a project next year, and indicated that Carmen was the screenwriter (though he didn’t make this entirely clear.)

6) Other tidbits: He’ll do “Fletch Lives” if Kevin Smith does it, and if whatever studio will fund it. Also, his role(s) in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” seem little more than cameos. “Mallrats” is still his favorite of his own films. And, interestingly, someone asked if he was upset that he wasn’t offered (or couldn’t accept) the role of Loki in “Dogma,” and he ultimately answered that it was nice to not be “the friend” or “the sidekick” for once. (He also took certain “big budget” filmmakers to task for casting his fellow, “independent film” peers, in order to “try to look cool.”)

Like a lot of these events, it ended too quickly, and you wish the audience (or yourself) had asked such and such question, but ah well. I was hoping that, at such an intimate venue, Jason could have stuck around, taken a few photos, signed a few things, etc., but this was not to be (although some of the Festival workers didn’t miss an opportunity to rub it in the faces of “the rest of us” how they were going to meet with Jason in “the green room” afterwards. Didn’t know a quaint but ultimately crappy campus facility had a “green room,” but…

As was reported, the event had been moved from the Festival’s headquarters, the Enzian Theater, to Rollins College in Winter Park. I suppose demand for more tickets equals more bucks, but I think I would have preferred if the event had stayed at the Enzian, despite it having the worst film projection system in the universe. The smaller venue might have led to a more relaxed, informal “happening,” though it was fairly loose as it was.

All in all, great to see Jason in the flesh, and, as promised, I hope to send some photos lickety-split.

“Kevin seems to allow you the opportunity to improv, which he’s been know not to do.”

Oh really? I didn’t know that.

Do you discuss certain lines and bits you’d like to try beforehand, or do you just surprise him when the cameras roll?”

Um… yes and no. Yeah, we’ve had both kinds of situations. Usually if I have an idea I’ll be like, “hey, what if we changed it up this way?” And he’s be like, “Oh, ok. Let’s try that.” And then sometimes I’ll just do it on my own and to be frank, he’s not very happy with it. He’ll banish me for an hour and a half. He’ll put me in a time out. I’ll have to sit in this special solitary confinement box on the set…

“Oh yeah! I’ve seen that box!”

Yeah, yeah… It’s a BIG box. You don’t want to be there at all. It’s very hot in there. They pump in the heat. So I try to pick and choose my spots.

“Would it be fair to say that you and Kevin share the same sense of humor?”

Absolutely. We pretty much see eye to eye in this character. Also, he told me he wrote it with me in mind in terms of my delivery and that sort of thing. It’s material that’s right up my alley, so yeah, we totally share the same sense of humor.