Kevin Smith and John Romita Jr. tell a story about the effect 9/11 had on families who were nowhere near Ground Zero. The people at home watching the horror on television and following it on the Internet.

“It’s something of a personal triumph for me, as it doesn’t contain a hint of dialogue,” explained Smith, whose trademark is his liberal use of dialogue in his films and comics.

Smith said he didn’t need to be talked into tackling a silent story, and he ultimately didn’t find it very difficult.

“I’d assumed I’d lapse into dialogue somehow over the course of the story,” said the writer. “Turns out I never had to, and the piece is the stronger for it.”

Keitel, Quinn, Adams answer ‘Beeper’ call

Harvey Keitel, Joey Lauren Adams and Ed Quinn have signed on to star in “Beeper,” being produced and financed by Ushakiron Movies Intl. (the production arm of Ramoji Film City) with L.A.-based indie production outfit Shoreline Entertainment.

Pic starts shooting this month at the Ramoji Film City studios in Hyderabad, India, the facility headed by chairman Ramoji Rao and P. Ramesh of Ushakiron Movies.

The English-lingo thriller is being directed by Jack Sholder (”The Hidden”), and produced by Shoreline’s Morris Ruskin and Vicky Pike, who also are handling worldwide sales on it.

“Beeper” revolves around a California doctor (Quinn), whose young son is kidnapped during a medical conference in India. The doctor receives a beeper from the kidnappers with instructions that lead him to a drug dealer (Keitel). Adams plays a police officer who helps track the kidnappers.

“India is the natural location for this film, which is a fast-paced action thriller,” Pike and Ruskin said in a statement. “We are very happy to be working with Ushakiron Movies Intl. and at Ramoji Film City, where the facilities provide everything that we would have in Hollywood.”

One of India’s leading media barons/industrialists, Rao said in June that he expected to invest up to $100 million in joint ventures and co-productions with U.S. film and TV companies. “Beeper,” is one of the first projects to result from these discussions.

#98 – Clerks
#56 – Chasing Amy
#27 – Dogma
#16 – Mallrats

IMDb Movie of the Day

Kevin Smith loathes pretension–he would rather his movies suffer than put on film school airs. Critics vilify his point-and-shoot directorial style and his studiously unsophisticated characters, but he will not compromise. He will not take himself seriously, and to those who do, he shows no mercy. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is an act of defiance, a distillation of everything Smith’s circle of fans love and those outside the circle hate. Allegedly the final movie set in the “View Askewniverse,” it moves Jay and Silent Bob, the convenience-store-dwelling Greek chorus in Smith’s previous movies, to the center of the action. Gone are any suggestion of real drama (a la Ben Affleck’s speech in Chasing Amy), any attempt to aim for a mainstream audience, and any tact. Homosexual advocacy groups have criticized the protagonists’ crude homophobia, but they’re missing the point. Smith realizes, as so few Hollywood liberals do, that the best way to fight bigotry is not to make self-important speeches (or movies), but simply to make it seem ridiculous. In this wildly uneven series of hilarious set-pieces, Smith sticks pins in many balloons—Miramax, the Utah police, internet movie sites (hey, wait a minute!)—but as always, to his credit, he pops his own right along with them.

DC Comics will be collecting Kevin Smith’s first Green Arrow story arc in Green Arrow: Quiver, a 232-page hardcover, on March 13.

The book features art by Phil Hester and Ande Parks and a new cover painting by Matt Wagner.

Here’s how DC describes the story:

“Oliver Queen’s mysterious reappearance in the DC Universe will have fans constantly guessing about how Queen survived seeming death aboard an exploding airplane. What really happened on that fateful day? In Quiver, readers get a chance to uncover the truth for themselves, as they follow Green Arrow along his quest for the media-dubbed ‘Star City Slayer.’

“Quiver features several guest-stars who have questions that demand answers, including Queen’s ex-teammates in the JLA, his ex-lover Black Canary, his ex-partner Arsenal, and the son he hardly knew, Connor Hawke – who adopted the mantle of Green Arrow after Queen’s ‘death.’ A certain Dark Knight from Gotham City has some questions of his own, but he won’t like the answers…

“Displaying Smith’s masterly characterization, brilliantly engaging dialogue and eye for action, Quiver follows Oliver Queen through man’s most uncharted realms – life, death, and back to life.”

The book will cost $24.95, and DC said it will not offer a trade paperback version earlier than September.

On Friday, Variety reported that “The Six Million Dollar Man” was coming to the big screen from an adaptation of Martin Caidin’s “Cyborg” at Universal Pictures. The news included word that writer/director Kevin Smith (”Dogma”) turned in a script in 1995 and may still be involved. Now Moviehole tells us the opposite….

I had the chance to talk to Kevin Smith today. Contrary to internet speculation, Smith will not be involved in the new version of THE 6 MILLION DOLLAR MAN, reported by Variety yesterday. Smith’s got no idea of the new project so looks like it’s unrelated to the draft he did a few years back.

Six Million Dollar Man being rebuilt

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) – Steve Austin is back. Not the wrestler, but the fictional hero of the 1970s TV series “The Six Million Dollar Man.”

The 1972 Martin Caidin novel on which the series was based, ”Cyborg,” is being developed as a feature by Dimension Films and Universal Pictures.

Universal first began developing the feature in 1995, with writer/director Kevin Smith (”Dogma”) turning in a script. While it’s possible Smith could be involved with the newest take on the project, there are no writers’ deals in place.

In the original TV series starring Lee Majors, Steve Austin was a NASA test pilot badly injured in an accident. The government saved his life by replacing his legs, arm and eye with atomic-powered bionic devices. The half-man, half-cyborg was then sent on dangerous missions for the Office of Scientific Information, battling various international crooks and mad scientists.

The Universal-Dimension pact also includes rights to the three other novels in Caidin’s “Cyborg” series: “Operation Nuke,” “High Crystal” and “Cyborg IV.”

.“’Six Million Dollar Man’ is a franchisable film that we have been wanting to make for a long time now,” Dimension co-chairman Bob Weinstein told Daily Variety. “We’re elated to have worked out a partnership with Universal.”

As for directors, Kevin Smith, who wrote a previous script for the project, may still be up for helming the pic, though no deals are in place.

If you haven’t checked out the latest “Spider-Man” trailer, please go do so now. It’s beyond-belief amazing.

Is it May yet? Please say it’s May tomorrow.

“Tonight Show” shoot went really well yesterday. We got some really funny stuff. It should be airing second week in January.

And as for “The Six Million Dollar Man”…

Like the man said…

“We can re-build him…”