Sunday, May 12 at 8:00 p.m. and 12:00 a.m. (Mother’s Day)
Monday, May 13 at 11:00 p.m.
Friday, May 17 at 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 19 at 10:00 a.m.
Monday, May 20 at 5:00 p.m.
Thursday, May 23 at 12:00 a.m.

(EW)(NY-SCI-FI-CHANNEL)(USAI) Filmmaker Kevin Smith Hosts `The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards’ On SCI FI Channel; George Lucas to Present Special Honor

NEW YORK–(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)–April 23, 2002–SCI FI Channel will present the first-ever Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards, in recognition of the best short films made by Star Wars enthusiasts. Hosted by Kevin Smith, the one-hour special, presented in association with Lucasfilm Ltd. and AtomFilms, will premiere Sunday, May 12 @ 8pm ET/PT, exclusively on SCI FI Channel.

Kevin Smith, filmmaker (Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Dogma) and self-proclaimed Star Wars fanatic, will introduce the nominees and present the winning Star Wars-themed spoofs, documentaries and other film tributes. Star Wars creator George Lucas will make a special guest appearance to announce the film worthy of the night’s highest honor – the “George Lucas Selects” award – Lucas’ personal fan film favorite.

Other award categories include:

– The Young Jedi Award – bestowed upon the best film made by a director under the age of 18
– The Audience Award – the best film as voted upon by online viewers at www.starwars.atomfilms.com.
– Best Animation
– Best Documentary or Mockumentary

The special will also feature a segment on “Pioneering Fan Films,” an entertaining montage of clips from high profile fan films including George Lucas In Love, Hardware Wars and Geek Wars. In addition, sneak previews of the new feature Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, will be shown in anticipation of the film’s premiere Thursday, May 16.

The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards was born out of the Star Wars Fan Film Network. The Web site, co-created by Lucasfilm with AtomFilms in November 2000, provides a showcase for fans to display their cinematic odes to Star Wars. After December 2001, when the two companies issued a call for film entries, more than 200 were submitted. Forty-four were accepted as finalists and posted online for evaluation by millions of viewers. The winning nominees will be officially announced Friday, May 3 at Star Wars Celebration II, the official Star Wars fan convention held in Indianapolis, Indiana May 3-5. Footage from this year’s Celebration will air as part of the SCI FI special.

“As a courtesy to those who have questions/expressed puzzlement/are already complaining about the news of JMS and me going exclusive with Marvel, I’ve fashioned a sort of FAQ out of the big queries from the talk-back thread following the story,” wrote Smith. “I can’t provide all the answers, but hopefully, this will shed a bit of light on the why’s and how’s of the deals that might not have been clear.”

Q: Wouldn’t it make more sense to put Smith on a new Spider-man book and keep JMS on AMZ?

Had I gone into Quesada’s office and said “Let me write ‘AMZ’,” yes – it would’ve made more sense. However, when Joe approached me about going exclusive with Marvel, JMS leaving AMZ was already a done deal. Joe had informed me that JMS was being given his own Spider-Man book, so that maintaining the monthly schedule that ‘AMZ’ demands would no longer be a problem. I asked who was going to take over ‘AMZ’, and Joe told me they hadn’t lined up that writer yet. I suggested getting a woman to write it – because how great would that be? Marvel’s flagship title being written by a woman? As there aren’t enough women writing comics, I thought that’d be a great message to send to the mainstream media – “At Marvel, You Don’t Have to Be Under-Sexed to Write Comics.” However, Joe declined, confessing that he’s afraid of girls, because they’re “Icky.” At this point, I suggested what I considered to be the closest thing to a woman writing the book: ME writing the book (as I’m hung like a woman, and have boobs about as big as a few of them). Joe scoffed at the idea, because I’ve got this reputation for being late with books. I told him that wouldn’t be the case here, and that they should take yet another page out of DC’s Playbook and wait until they had a bunch of scripts out of me before they even solicited any of my issues. Joe said that, like every idea Marvel has stolen from DC over the course of the last year or two, this was another good one, and he’d be implementing it and insisting that he and Bill Jemas invented it. Then they’d throw pies at one another or something. At this point, he started talking to himself excitedly, and I quietly left the room.

Q: I guess Spidey’s readers can look forward to Peter performing oral sex on Mary Jane, a homosexual Aunt May preying on a homeless prostitute, and a soul-less Spider-Man argueing with himself in Heaven as readers are forced to struggle through yet another convoluted resurrection tale.

Oh, thanks. Way to spoil my first issue of “Amazing.” Now I’ve gotta come up with something else entirely. Curse your brilliance, sir! Curse it!

Q: It also sucks that he welched on his word to DC and the fans to do Brave and the Bold. If you say you are going to do something do it.

I plan to. Just not right now. After fifteen issues of ‘Green Arrow’, I’m a little burned-out on writing within the DCU right now. After a few years of Marvel stuff, I’ll be ready to use my brain again, at which point I’ll do ‘Brave and Bold’.

Q: Anyone know if Scott Morse is still slated to do that Bartlby & Loki book?

When that book happens, it’ll, indeed, be drawn by Scott Morse.

“I worked on the set of Daredevil today (4/16-downtown LA, I was an extra). The costume is disappointing. It’s basically a dark red leather motorcycle jacket with matching red leather riding pants (attaches by cleverly concealed velcro and zipper). It looks like something a pro racer would wear. The DD logo appears on the upper left breast of the coat, and the boots (same color) are obnoxious biker boots with lots of straps and buckles. I didn’t see the gloves, but the mask is pretty cool. It has the horns and pretty much looks just like in the comic. It has a sculpted brow and looks like a Bowen bust.”

“The scene I was witness to was in a bar. It centered on Bullseye, who is going to be AWESOME…His costume is altered somewhat. It’s more ‘Matrix-esque.’ It’s black leather with some white trimming. When he reveals his face to the camera, there is a Bullseye symbol on his forehead.

The scene has Bullseye throwing darts at a board and hitting the mark every time, even though he isn’t looking…He then becomes involved in an altercation over a motorcycle. That’s when Bullseye really gets to show off his prowess.”

Ben Affleck is sporting red, having reported for duty as the blind, crimson-clad title character in Daredevil. Production for the film, due in theaters January 2003, just began in L.A. “[It’s] the comic I loved growing up,” says Affleck, chatting about the role at the L.A. premiere of Changing Lanes. “I could really identify with him.” Daredevil’s disability makes him all the more interesting to Affleck: “There’s this really interesting effect to show how he gets his sense of where he is – [he has] his hypersensitive sound, almost like radar.” To prepare for the role, Affleck has been working with blind actor-writer Tom Sullivan, who’s been hired as a consultant on the film. “I’ve been studying how his body changes when he approaches things,” says Affleck. Amanda Peet – who plays Affleck’s wife in Changing Lanes – is eager to study other things. Says the actress: “There’s nothing I want to see more in this world than Ben Affleck in red tights!”

In a February interview, Marvel’s Joe Quesada told Newsarama that readers could expect some “humongous announcements” with respect to talent that would “affect Marvel books for the next two or three years.” One of those announcements came to light last month, when we reported writer J. Michael Straczynski was on the verge of signing an exclusive, multi-year contract with Marvel … a contract designed to allow him to continue writing Spider-Man (and possibly on a more-frequent-than-monthly basis), and work on other new projects starring other Marvel characters.

But Quesada said “announcements”, and it turns out the other creative shoe to drop will not only have another profound effect on Spider-Man, but on Marvel’s MAX line and a previously-announced DC project as well.

Newsarama has learned writer Kevin Smith – arguably the industry’s current most widely recognized and popular creator – will also agree to a multi-year exclusive contract with Marvel, with both writers likely signing for two years. Newsarama caught up with both creators to ask about the whys and whatnots of their deals.

“Joe [Quesada] asked,” Smith told Newsarama quite simply, asked to explain why he’s agreed to his contract. “It’s hard to say no to Joe. And after having been more-or-less exclusive with DC for the last two years, it felt right to give Marvel the same treatment.”

…

Once a newly-exclusive creators, Smith, Straczynski and Marvel have big plans, including Smith taking over the regular writing chores of Amazing Spider-Man, possibly in late 2002 or early 2003 [though Smith said, “If they’re smart, they won’t hand the book over until they’ve got a bunch of scripts from me”], and perhaps with artist Terry Dodson attached.

Smith, who said as far as he knows the upcoming Black Cat ongoing series will launch as scheduled [following the completion of the Spider-Man/Black Cat mini-series], also said he plans to write both Amazing Spider-Man and Black Cat concurrently, and he’s hoping to get the same creative partner on both series as well…

“I’m going to try to convince Terry [Dodson] to do both,” he said. “Wish me luck.”

Asked to describe how he’ll approach writing Spider-Man on a regular basis, Smith said, “Very carefully”.

“This isn’t Daredevil or Green Arrow, in terms of those were characters that weren’t pulling in the readers anymore, so I had a lot of leeway. This is Spider-Man, which sells well regardless, though particularly in this, the ‘Year of Spider-Man’. I’ll be minding my P’s and Q’s, so as not to ruffle fan feathers.

…

An additional aspect of Kevin Smith’s deal with Marvel is any new ‘View Askew’ Universe projects (based on his films) published during the term of the contract will be published as part of Marvel’s ‘Mature Readers’ MAX line. Smith responded “Hopefully”, when asked if he plans to write the long-promised Bartleby & Loki one-shot and Mallrats 2: Die Hard in a Mall.

However, Smith added it was “doubtful” Marvel would publish any new collections of previously published [by Oni and Image] ‘View Askew’ projects.

…

Speaking of other commitments, as for Smith’s Brave and the Bold series in development at DC [announced last summer], Smith said he has not written off the series, and that he still intends to do it once the term of this exclusive contract expires.

“Unless DC changes its mind,” he added.

Smith added he and Marvel have “got some plans” for Daredevil, though he did not indicate whether this meant the original graphic novel that has been mentioned by Smith for the last year or so, or something else.

Finally, also asked about Marvel’s plan to publish upwards of 18-issues a year on some titles, Smith said, “I’m just shooting to stay on a monthly schedule. It’s hard enough for me to get to twelve issues in a year, let alone 18 to 24.”

And in the light of the fact his next film Jersey Girl has just recently been officially “greenlighted”, we asked Smith how he’d respond to readers wondering how he’s going to find the time to keep all these planned projects on time.

“I’m wondering the same thing myself,” he concluded. “The best I can do is try to keep up, I guess. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Look for more details on all these stories when they are available.

April 21, 2002 — Bryan Johnson, high school buddy and protégé of New Jersey auteur Kevin Smith, is the first to admit that his new black comedy, “Vulgar,” which depicts a male clown being sexually attacked, is not for all tastes – to put it mildly.

“It’s for people who don’t like by-the-numbers movies, but movies that confront the viewer with the darker side of things,” Johnson said recently of his envelope-pushing film.

“Vulgar,” which opens Friday at the Angelika, moved about 50 people to walk out in disgust at its first screening at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2000.

Even among hard-core Smith fans at the only other public showing – in January at the director’s annual Vulgarthon film festival in Red Bank, N.J. – at least one audience member threw up.

The film had an unusual genesis: It was inspired by a drawing of an obese male clown in a garter belt, fishnet stockings and bustier that Walt Flanagan, a longtime pal of both Smith and Johnson’s, had created as the logo for Smith’s View Askew Productions.

“We were sitting around thinking what would be the worst possible thing that could happen to the clown – a really mind-bending and life-altering experience,” Johnson recalled.

Smith, who launched his production company after his 1995 no-budget indie hit “Clerks,” was busy with his follow-up film, “Mallrats,” so he suggested that Johnson write and direct the movie that became “Vulgar.”

“You have to understand that Kevin and I come from a small New Jersey town where nobody ever thought they could become a movie director,” said Johnson.

The film was shot in the fall of 1995 in New Jersey on a tight 25-day schedule and a tiny $125,000 budget, with “Clerks” star Brian O’Halloran cast as the clown who gets raped by a redneck and his two sons after the clown advertises his services for adult parties.

“I was stunned Brian agreed to show that side of himself,” Johnson said, “especially since he wasn’t in the best shape for the revealing costume he had to wear.”

The movie was picked up by Lions Gate films after its Toronto showing, but a long battle with the motion picture ratings board lay ahead.

“They originally gave it an NC-17 rating, which is considered commercial suicide,” the 34-year-old director said.

“They objected to the language, to the rape and even to a bottle being broken over a character’s head. Haven’t they ever seen any westerns? And the rape scene in ‘Boys Don’t Cry,’ which got an R rating, is far more in your face.”

Most puzzling, Johnson said, were the ratings board’s reservations about a middle-aged character wearing nothing but a diaper being referred to as a child.

As a result, the film is going into theaters, and ultimately out on DVD, without a rating.

But an expurgated R-rated cut was prepared for VHS, since Blockbuster – which controls 85 percent of the rental market – won’t handle unrated films.

“I couldn’t physically make those cuts, so I turned it over to producer Scott Mosier,” said Johnson, who is now working on a script for a horror movie called “Jersey Devil.”

In the meantime, the Monmouth County Community College dropout is supporting himself by handling merchandising for Smith’s Web site, Viewaskew.com.

“He’s even given me a job to keep me going while I’m trying to get into the business,” Johnson said of Smith, who makes a cameo appearance in “Vulgar” as a slick TV producer.

“Kevin’s looking out for me at every turn.”