Archive for August, 2006

Kevin Goes Global: Edinburgh & Australia Coverage!

August 22nd @ 8:45 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Jon Darren, Ross Maclean, Greg Andrew, Richard Ross


Photo Gallery #1

Photo Gallery #2

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  • While the excitement over here may be calming down after most of us have had the pleasure of screening Clerks II, we have to remember that the fun is just starting up for our faithful fans in Australia and Scotland. Kevin’s touring that part of the world now, and folks are loving the flick. Here’s a first-hand report of a fan who was lucky enough to attend the premiere screening in Australia last night:
I attended the Premiere of Clerks II at the State Theatre in Australia last night and I was totally blown away by the whole event. Kevin took to the stage before the flick started and welcomed everyone. He was wearing his Silent Bob coat and trademark shorts. He seemed totally relaxed and very happy to be in Australia, raving about how nice it was here, even calling it ‘Toronto Nice.’ After a quick intro, the movie began to massive rapture and applause.

And it didn’t stop there. Every gag was met with a flurry of belly laughter and clapping, so much so that sometimes you had to struggle to catch the next gag. But it didn’t matter, because this was one hell of a movie, probably Kevin’s best. It took you up and down, left and right, made you laugh and stirred your emotions. Just brilliant.

As the flick finished, there was a buzz in the theatre as everyone chatted about it. After a short interval, Kevin took to the stage for the Q&A, and again he received a standing ovation. Then the questions began, and Kevin talked straight for over 2hrs! At no point did the audience ever seem bored. He held the stage and kept everyone laughing with great stores about working on the movie, behind the scenes, Jason Mewes and his new bill of health, his family and the general topics of upcoming projects. I was able to ask Kevin a question myself, regarding the Train wreck videos, especially one where Jeff and Brian played a prank on Kevin as they pretended Jeff had cut his hand. It was an honour to talk to the man, face to face.

It was a fantastic event and I for one will be straight to the movies to see it again come opening day next week. Thanks for making the effort to get to Australia Kevin, come back anytime!

Thanks for that report, Jon.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival has photos from Kevin’s time in Edinburgh over the weekend as well. You can view the full slideshows at the links below. We also have select photos right here with this story. Fan Ross says, “It was great to see Kevin at the Fest and gave his Scottish fans a rare opportunity to see him. I’m all the more delighted that photo 7/7 on the Clerks II Premiere gallery is of Kevin writing ‘Fuck Tim Burton’ across my Superman Lives script.”

Clerks II has done really well with audiences at the Edinburgh Film Festival. It’s currently top of the audience rankings http://www.edfilmfest.org.uk/news/articles/standard_life_audience_award_update_day_6.

View Askew NewsBites™

August 22nd @ 8:45 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Leigh Webb, Dan Salet, Nathan Peebles, Greg Trawinski, Movidude74, Richard Ross, Greg Sorkin, Brooklyn Roach Multimedia, Colin Glider

  • As Kevin’s doing the Austalian thing this week, we’ll be posting all the latest from that part of the world as we can dig it up – We’ve just gotten word that Australian radio show Tony Martin’s Get this has announced they will have Kevin on Friday morning at 9am, they have been told he will only be there for two segments but will try to get him to stay for the whole show.
  • With the Australian premiere, local website Moviehole runs a new interview with Kevin today. A few select passages:
…Granted, Ben Affleck does have a role in “Clerks II” – but it’s very small, and initially, it was going to be even smaller.

“He wanted to be part of it, so he asked if he could be a background extra, but he wanted to get paid for it. I told him Gigli must have tanked harder than I thought”, Smith, who constantly takes the piss out of his friend Affleck, laughs. “I told him to come on out, but I knew he would want some dialogue. He came out and shot his scene, which was just him reacting in the background and we shot it twice and got it right and then he came up to me and said it felt like he should say something. I said, “Of course you do, here’s a line of dialogue for you.”

Smith, who says Matt Damon was also asked to appear in the film but had to decline the offer to do a role in a De Niro film he was doing, explains that the film would only have made sense if it were again headlined by the original stars, Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson as the slacker cashiers of the original film.

“I thought since Clerks is a story about what it’s like to be in my twenties, why not use Dante and Randall as the way-in again? It’s nice. There is a built-in poignancy of showing those guys 10 years later, especially if you open up your head, why not use the dudes who helped you the first time around, the characters particularly.

  • Seems UK fans will have to wait a bit longer for “Evening Harder”. Sony Pictures has announced a release date of the 15th January 2007 for the UK, which may coincide with Clerks II on DVD there as well.
  • Kevin joins the BBC’s Mark Kermode for his podcast this week. Oddly, Kermode is in Los Angeles this week, though Kevin called in from Edinburgh to conduct the interview.
  • Don’t forget, Kevin makes an appearance as clerk Duane Anders on the outstanding second season of “Veronica Mars” — Out on DVD today. You’ll catch his obviously ad-libbed turn in Episode Two, “Driver Ed”. We can’t recommend this show enough, by the way, especially after the stellar season finale. The show returns on the new CW in the Fall.
  • A new website’s been spotted, designed by web guru Ming Chen, for Zak and Joey, the genius behind the “Train Wreck” series. Check out their new production home on the web, “Chop Shop Entertainment”.
  • With Kevin currently off the project, we’re not following this too much, but it’s interesting to see that Zach Braff has still not officially signed on for the new Fletch flick.
  • This story claims a thief “dressed like Silent Bob” was responsible for the vandalization of a cool billboard for Showtime’s “Weeds” (a decent show, worth checking out, by the way, now just starting up season two).

  • Here’s a good one – A fan who took his new Sidekick 3 and used MyTego to make a Clerks:TAS skin to cover it, complete with Bear who Drive Car. Nice work.
  • And finally today, the “What If Steven Seagal Was In…” series takes on Clerks. Enjoy. We’ll see ya next time!

Clerks II Soundtrack: Full Track Listing!

August 20th @ 10:51 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Kyle Greenham

  • Bullet Proof Entertainment confirms an August 22nd release date for the Clerks II CD sountrack! We’re pleased to debut the full track listing of the disc now, which includes the never-before-sceen dialogue tracks that will mix in with the tunes. You can likely figure out the segments that will be used by the titles, but speculate away:
1. Anne Frank vs. Helen Keller
2. Talking Heads – (Nothing But) Flowers
3. Regret
4. King Diamond – Welcome Home
5. Of Parts Enlarged
6. James L. Venable – Neckin’ On The Swing
7. The First Of The Fallen
8. King Diamond – The Invisible Guests
9. The Unholiest Act
10. Q Lazzarus – Goodbye, Horses
11. On Knowing Pickles
12. B.J. Thomas – Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head
13. Twelve Step
14. Jackson Five – ABC
15. The Perfect Gift
16. All Too Much – Think Fast
17. Party Planning
18. James L. Venable – Goin’ Away Party
19. I’m Gonna Miss You, Man
20. Samantha Fox – Naughty Girls (Need Love Too)
21. Abstinence
22. Alanis Morissette – Everything
23. Semantics
24. Soul Asylum – Misery
25. Battle Of The Mega-Geeks

Order your SIGNED copy of this must-have disc from the Stash today for $17.99. We expect they’ll be shipping late this week or early next week.

Win Stuff With Your Clerks II Ticket Stub!

August 20th @ 10:51 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • Still hanging onto your Clerks II ticket stub? Send us a scan of it! We just got an e-mail from our good friends at Buena Vista Home Entertainment, offering us up 5 copies of the hilarious new DVD, “The Tick Vs. Season One” — It’s a funny cartoon, and for the first time anywhere on DVD. We figure many fans of View Askew have the same sense of humor as the show, so why not offer up these goodies to folks who were good enough to see Clerks II theatrically? So, email your scanned ticket to us here at scoops@newsaskew.com, and we’ll draw five random winners. The set, which involves 2 discs of 12 episodes from the show’s first season, streets everywhere on August 29, 2006. Good luck!

More High Res San Diego Photos!

August 20th @ 10:50 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Albert Ortega

  • Kevin & Jennifer arrived a bit late in San Diego for the con this year, due to traffic – But our favorite faithful photographer, Albert Ortega, didn’t miss a beat — Check out this new bath of Kevin, Jennifer, and a couple leftovers of Rosario and the Richard Kelley panel, too. As always, click these for large, beautiful high resolution versions, and thanks very much to Mr. Ortega for sharing his wonderful work with us. Enjoy.

View Askew NewsBites™

August 20th @ 10:50 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Hagai Jacobson, Chris Benka, Phil Villarreal, Judymack, Sroelofs, EJ

  • Here’s a look at the press release that’s going around confirming that October 25th overseas release of a 3-disc “Evening With Kevin Smith” which collects the original set along with the second installment. If the release date sticks, it does indeed look like some areas abroad will get “Evening 2” a couple weeks before the U.S.
  • Kevin gets mentioned by the ailing Roger Ebert in a recent e-mail sent out to his fans:
“…I am going to watch “Half Nelson” and I hope Kevin Smith was right. “

We send our best wishes to Mr. Ebert for a speedy recovery.

  • With the horrors of war happening in the middle east, it’s hard to imagine things do continue to move business as usual as well — Check out this scanned newspaper ad for Clerks II, which also promises free tickets to whoever lines up on September 1st in the Rev-hen Theater in Tel-Aviv. The film starts in Israel on Aug 24th.

  • That famous “Kevin Smith Way” gets mentioned (along with a photo) in a recent article in Paulsboro’s Gloucester County Times. See the scan here.
  • Here’s some fresh press from Australia regarding Clerks II. The film opens there on August 31st. Kevin hosts a screening of Clerks II on Tuesday, 7pm, State Theatre, 136 100, for $35.

Correction: Kevin NOT In Toronto…

August 18th @ 2:52 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Varun C, Scott Kinley, Chris Andersen

  • We apologize for the error – It seems that we were right to be suspicious, as the con we listed in newsbites yeterday has not only listed current guests, but PAST guests as well — A bit confusing. Kevin was indeed a past guest, but is NOT scheduled to appear this year.

We’re sorry for any confusion we may have caused. More news later!

“Evening 2: Evening Harder” Release Dates!

August 17th @ 9:25 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by John Couture, EJ

  • We’re getting all sorts of news on the highly anticipated “Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder” DVD release today. First off, for our US readers: VideoETA confirms that Sony has announced a November 7, 2006 release date for the new set. The official running time remains a whopping 236 minutes, and collects highlights from the Toronto and London appearances.

In addition to the single-set release, a two-pack collection of BOTH Evening 1 and Evening 2 is also planned from Sony (no US release date yet set). If for some crazy reason you didn’t get the first one, this will be your chance to get both at a great price. We’ll let you know full details on getting these items from the Stash as soon as possible. We’re certain there will be signed copies available.

Now, for Australia: We’re getting word that Sony Pictures plans to release Evening 1 and Evening 2 as a 2-pack set on October 25th! Could Australia get Evening 2 a couple weeks before we do? Quite possibly. We’re waiting for official word from Sony on this, but have a source in Australia confirming this date in the dealer packaging promotion. We’ll keep you posted on this exciting development, and hope to have an advanced review of Part Two for you as soon as possible. Evening 1 continues to entertain all who see it, we can only imagine the new collection will bring more of the same. International-style!

Rosario Does The Con: High Res Stills!

August 17th @ 9:23 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Albert Ortega

  • Professional photographer Albert Ortega’s back, with some beautiful high resolution shots taken of the lovely Rosario Dawson as she made her way around the recent San Diego Comicon, including filling in for Kevin’s Q&A panel when he was stuck in traffic. As always, click the mini pics for some gorgeous, fully pixelated versions of Ms. Dawson. Enjoy. Photos of Kevin and Jen’s arrival, and more, coming soon.

View Askew NewsBites™

August 17th @ 9:21 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Laura Andrew-Conohan, Jennifer A. Camp, Anthony McConell, Marisa Eytalis, Paddy Dunne, Greg Andrew, Maleah Dust

  • If you just want to listen to Kevin’s appearance on “At The Movies”, iTunes also has the file as a download through their podcast directory.
  • And speaking of film critics, Kevin’s rant against Joel Siegel gets mentioned in this L.A. Times article on movie critics having a bad summer:
….Kevin Smith went even further, launching into an obscenity-laced blog tirade after learning that “Good Morning America” critic Joel Siegel had walked out of “Clerks II” in a huff. “Cardinal rule of movie-going — shut your … mouth while the movie’s playing,” Smith wrote. “Leave the drama-queen antics to the movie stars.”…
  • You gotta admire an actor who gives everything he’s got to a performance. This fellow on YouTube may just be imitating great performances (in this case, Damon and Affleck’s famous parking garage scene in “Dogma”, but he’s pretty spot on and plays BOTH ROLES. Nice job, young sir. Keep it up.
  • Anyone else think it’s funny that post-”Jersey Girl”, “Sweeney Todd” has had such a resurgence? AP is confirming today that Johnny Depp has been cast in the lead of the new film, to be directed by Tim Burton. We still credit JG for the reason this film project exists.
  • Empire Online confirms a new casting for Jason Mewes. “Netherbeast Incorporated” is a vampire comedy set in the world of America’s businesses. Robert Wagner, Judd Nelson and Dave Foley are also in the cast for the film, which is now shooting in Arizona. Congrats to Jay, and we’ll of course keep you posted on this project.
  • Kevin’s “At The Movies” review of “Half Nelson” is mentioned in this CanMag article. Kevin had very positive things to say about the film during his guest spot.