• We’ve got two fabulous new items available from the Stash online (and in stores, of course) today. First up, own a piece of TV history before it hits the air. A new Canadian “Snoogans” winter hat is in season right now, and ties right into the new Deagrassi plotline that will be showing up on Canadian televisions shortly (January 31st on CTV!). And then, there’s the item that everyone who places an order should just toss a few of in the bag for good measure, our brand new 4” logo sticker. At only $1.50, it’s a steal.

• Movies Askew, our online short film competition/community, has announced its ROUND 3 FINALISTS. Yep, now it’s your
  turn. Watch them all for free and vote for your favorites, as well as the coveted lifeboat, where we let one more lucky film back into the mix. Congrats
  to our 5 latest finalists, and may the best short win!
• The current story line of web comic “Warriors of the Flame” at www.happyworldofbunnies.com references Mallrats, Clerks, and Kevin’s
  troubles with Tim Burton.
• Once again, Chasing Amy will air uncut on Starz’ “Love Stories” channel. This time, it’s airing at 1:50 AM Thursday. A good way to get
  through a sleepless night, if you’ve got the remote nearby.

• Yes folks, you read it right — After many years of sitting there on the sidelines while a bunch of us east coasters had a big party, the west coast is going to have their first chance to experience the joy and bliss that is a View Askew Vulgarthon.

Dates have yet to be set, though Kevin has announced that it WILL happen, though most certainly over a weekday period, NOT a weekend, due to the reluctance of movie theaters to close their doors to the public when ticket sales are the highest. So, look to clear a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday off your schedule sometime in the coming months. Exact dates? MOST LIKELY…February 21-23, or February 28-March 2nd.

Alright, don’t take our word for it — Kevin’s announcement can be found at the View Askew website and he’s also asking what dates and days you prefer. So let’s hear it. Here’s Kevin:

This webmaster’s opinion? Why not do it on a Monday, so folks who come into town special for the show and work a standard Mon-Fri work/school week can come in early and tack a day or two of vaca on before the big show? Just a thought.

So, what will a West Coast ‘thon bring? Surprise “Evening 2” footage? Your first look at the elusive “Big Helium Dog” or “A Better Place” on the big screen? The first-ever screening of “Jersey Girl” at a ‘thon? Special west-coast-type celebrity guests? We can’t wait to find out.

East-coasters, take heart. We’re also hearing rumblings of an upcoming event that should ease your sorrows of not making it to the latest ‘thon due to distance issues. We can’t say more than that right now, but hope to reveal that one very soon. Stay tuned for more information!

• Wizard has revealed the first look at what will be the first Kevin
  Smith exclusive inaction figure from the cons this year – Los Angeles Kevin! Rumor has it that each con will have an exclusive figure, with Kevin in a
  jersey from the town of the con. This will be the first, so start making friends attending WizardWorld LA now, and reserve yours, because as always, once
  we run out of these limited edition inaction figures, we don’t make any more. Snazzy!

• This sounds like fun. An animated online “theater troupe” called “30 Second Bunnies” has been posting re-enactments of films, hilariously done, taking just, naturally, 30 seconds to accomplish the feat (The “Alien” episode is a particular fave). Anyway, why do we tell you this? Well, Starz has announced that they’re going to start airing new spots from the bunnies, one of which will be…CLERKS! There’s a full list at the Bunnies’ site (along with some of their classic work). The press release also indicates that Pulp Fiction, Weird Science, and Night of the Living Dead will get spoofed. We can’t wait. The official press release is HERE. No news yet on airdates, though the spots will be exclusive to Starz for a while, before coming on the web to join the other episodes. Watch the Angry Alien productions site and right here at News Askew, we’ll let you know when Clerks is ready to roll (perhaps even give you a little preview!).

• Affleck rumors abound: First off, E! News is reporting that Ben might be doing a guest stint with new squeeze Jen Garner on Alias
  sometime this season. Also, talks of a Daredevil 2 are now starting to flutter around, with a nice opening weekend for Elektra. The second film would
  reteam Affleck and Garner onscreen. Maybe Kev can write it? Here’s what the Hollwood Stock Exchange reported:

• IGN.com has posted their Best of 2004 awards, and View Askew proved it was still on the map. For the award of Best Bonus
  Collection/Extras, The Ultimate Matrix Collection took the honors, but Clerks X was the first runner-up. Clerks X also nabbed a runner-up award in the
  Best Making-of Feature(s), which the newly released Star Wars trilogy effortly grabbed. Also with DVD of the Year, it was a tie between Lord of the Rings
  and UItimate Matrix, with Clerks X coming in as a runner-up. It’s cool to see a ten year old classic giving flicks like Hellboy and LoTR a run for their
  money. On a slighlt unrelated View Askew note, in the Best Director’s Cut/Special Edition, DareDevil: Director’s Cut won the honors. If you’ve yet to
  check out that cut, it’s a very much improved version of the theatrical.
• Check out the very interesting official site to Southland Tales , the new Richard Kelly film in which Kevin is playing a
  role to which we’ve yet to hear any details. It’s a very obscure site, but perhaps some of you sleuths out there can dig up some clues as to what this
  mysterious flick is all about.
• FX guru Vincent Guastini cites Kevin as his best working experience on a film in this new
  interview he did with Movies Online. Vinny and his crew are responsible for some of the practical effects you see in
  Dogma and Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back.
• Mewes scores a name drop in CHUD’s review of the Collateral DVD. It’s in one of the screenshot photo captions.
• An Afroman ipostor was ordered to cease and decist for impersonating the man in live shows
  up and down the west coast. Many of you remember the REAL Afroman’s “Because I Got High” tune from J&SBSB’s credits.

• We love getting ink in a major magazine, and they don’t get much more infamous than the one and only “Playboy”. This month, that plug
  we mentioned a while back appears in Playboy magazine, and it’s a glorious little mention of the new digs (including the fact that a bunch of hot chicks
  are hanging out there all the time…wha WHA? Damn this east coast…). Click the scan and take a peek.

• R.U.U. that is!! Yep, our make your own short movie contest over at Movies Askew is continuing, and with round 2’s winner now in the open, it’s time for new submissions and new finalists to be announced. So get on over to Movies Askew, watch some free flicks, and let your voice be heard! The next 5 finalists come up on Saturday the 15th. Stay tuned, and congrats to Shawnald for earning one of our top spots.

And, speaking of moviemaking contests…

• It may be our favorite reality series of all time — Here’s hoping the censored nature of Bravo doesn’t ruin what was a great thing. Yes,
  Project Greenlight returns to televsion with 9 1-hour episodes on March 15th, and we’re already counting the days. This time, the group is tackling a
  new genre: Horror! Here’s all the details:

ALL NEW SEASON PREMIERES TUESDAY, MARCH 15 AT 9:00 PM ON BRAVO

LOS ANGELES — January 13, 2005 — On Tuesday, March 15 at 9:00 PM, in partnership with Miramax Television (”Project Runway”), Bravo will launch the long-awaited third season of “Project Greenlight,” the Emmy nominated and critically-acclaimed filmmaking contest and behind-the-scenes documentary series that chronicles the challenges of first-time-writers and directors given the opportunity of a lifetime. For the show’s third season, partners LivePlanet and Miramax are creating a series and a film that will revolve around a horror genre script (the past two season’s films were based on coming of age stories).

First time director John Gulager will direct the winning script written by screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan. Horror guru Wes Craven (”A Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Scream”) has joined to produce the film “Feast.”

The series, which will air on Bravo for the first time, consists of nine, one-hour episodes.

“Bravo continues to give viewers real access to the creative process, no matter what area of arts or culture,” said Lauren Zalaznick, President of Bravo. “By tackling a new genre, the new season of ‘Project Greenlight’ really confronts the economic realities of the independent film business.”

“Project Greenlight” gives aspiring filmmakers access to independent filmmaking through an online community, a film, and a television documentary series. “Project Greenlight” holds a contest where an amateur writer and an amateur director get to make an original film together. Miramax Films finances production of the film with a minimum $1 million production budget, and distributes it. The documentary series shows the entire filmmaking process, from the selection of the script, through production and editing, to the film’s release. In addition to the contest, the “Project Greenlight” community provides a forum for screenwriters and filmmakers to work on their ideas and gain knowledge in a peer-to-peer environment.

Last season’s “Project Greenlight” confirmed the public’s appetite to be behind the scenes on a film production by demonstrating an increase in its viewing audience by twenty percent from the show’s initial season in 2002.

Additionally, the series’ producers have been recognized by the Producers Guild of America as nominees for the organization’s 2004 Producer of the Year Award in the category of best Reality, Game and Information series.

“Project Greenlight” is executive produced for Miramax Television by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Chris Moore and Sean Bailey of LivePlanet along with Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz of Magical Elves.

Chris Moore, we’re gonna miss you dearly.

• The excellent replica Silent Bob coat designed professionally by Abbyshot has appeared, being worn by Jay, in press photos from the Degrassi shoot. In the
  photo at their site, you can see just how much this coat resembles the real deal (being worn by
  Bob). It’s neat to see the coat doing so well after recalling the start of this venture of theirs. They also ran a nice little blurb on the Degrassi
  happenings:

Airing in Canada on CTV this month, Kevin Smith will appear as himself in Degrassi: The Next Generation in a three episode arc. That bit of news was announced in November of last year, along with the fact that ‘Jay’ (Jason Mewes) will also appear in the series. For our fellow Canadians, you can find the programming schedule on News Askew.

There’s also an interesting piece on CTV’s website. The program (and specifically the episodes featuring Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes) will air in the US on Noggin later this year. Degrassi: The Next Generation is set in the famed Degrassi Community School made famous by the original series in the 1980’s. This new series, now its 3rd season, has won national and international awards.

What had this to do with AbbyShot? Well, AbbyShot provided a Silent Bob Coat to CTV’s program eTalk daily. During some of the network’s promotion Kevin’s Degrassi episodes, Jay and Silent Bob did this photo-shoot. Silent Bob (Kevin) is modelling his own coat, the original that was featured in his films. Jay (Jason Mewes) however, is modelling AbbyShot’s officially licensed replica Silent Bob coat! Be sure to also check out the January 30th edition of TV Guide (Canada only). There will be more info about the Degrassi episodes, get your copy quick!

In case you’re wondering, this is one heck of an ‘AbbyShot first.’ It’s the first time that an AbbyShot coat has been photographed next to the original garment that we’ve recreated. Add Jay and Silent Bob to that mix and this definitely one of coolest things we’ve ever put into our humble newsletter. (Come to think of it, we’ve got some new customer reviews on our Silent Bob Coats.) There’s still a few more cold months left this winter, order your Silent Bob Coat today!!

And yep, you can still get your very own Bob coat at Abbyshot!