• So yes, it’s official — Or as official as it can be — Kevin WILL tackle the horror genre next, with a focus on the horror aspects (not the comedic ones). Being huge horror genre fans ourselves since birth, and growing up watching all those bloody 80’s horror flicks (seeing the classic Friday the 13th sequels on opening nights was always such a blast), it’s nice to see the focus back on horror these days — Films are making money, and good ones are getting lots of acclaim (see “The Descent” if you can catch it, really fantastic, straight horror). So, we’re naturally both very excited to see Kevin taking on a new challenge, and highly look forward to covering this one. Taking Kevin’s intelligence, wit, and ability to tell a cool story, along with the understanding that this has to be bloody and scary…We think it’s going to be a real winner.

You can now check out the famous Rock-Paper-Scissors sequence on YouTube, where Kevin first announced his intentions to do a horror flick.

Kevin’s also recently posted this blurb on the flick:

Ain’t It Cool News reports on statements made regarding the unnamed horror project from the Rolling Roadshow as well.

We’ve heard that Kevin doesn’t plan for this one to be released for another two years, and that his romantic comedy starring Rosario Dawson would be bumped back to come after this film at some point. Of course, timelines and dates are all tentative, we can only report on what the plan is at present.

Here’s hoping we can get to the set on a really messy day with this one, and watch some of the horror FX magic unfold! We’ll keep you posted on this exciting new venture for Kevin and View Askew as news rolls in.

• If you’re like us, you just gotta have each and every inaction figure that hits the shelves, and there’s a strange joy in taking those suckers OUT of their packages (mint in box collectors be damned!) and arranging them amongst the growing, still-standing crew of previous inactions. The top of the desk I’m writing this update from is littered with the crew of inactions, looking fun and colorful (though a bit of a dusting nuisance)…And now, we’re happy to say, the time has come to increase that group even more. The Chasing Amy inaction figures have officially arrived!

Hey! She’s Gay!

Now you too can act out your own ill-advised three-way or scream BLACK RAGE! with your very own set of CHASING AMY INACTION FIGURES!

This 5th set of Inaction Figures based on Kevin Smith’s film CHASING AMY features 5 of your favorite characters from the film in classic inaction form. BANKY EDWARDS and the TRACER guy from the comicon come ready to throw down. Holden and Alyssa argue about sexual experience and inexperience and HOOPER X is ready to, “kill any white folks he lays his motherfu*king eyes on!”.

Sold as a set only. $45 per set.

Place those orders HERE and we’ll be shipping them to your door right away!

• It’s been the most popular question here at the News Askew office for weeks and now, we have an answer to “What happened to that Clerks II MP3 commentary track that was supposed to be released?”. Here’s Kevin:

As soon as the track is available we’ll have it for download here at News Askew. Stay tuned.

• Davis DVD confirms that December 5th release date we’ve been hearing for Clerks II on DVD, but brings more details, including the confirmation on what’s sure to be a gorgeous, 1080i High Definition edition available that very same day:

• A great double bill is on tap for Pittsburgh, PA this weekend – Clerks I and II at The Oaks theater! The fun starts at midnight Saturday the 12nd, and 10 PM on Sunday the 13th. THIS WEEKEND ONLY! Don’t miss it!
• Movie supersite iFilm have posted their extensive collection of Clerks II videos for your viewing pleasure, all in one spot. Check out their trailers, exclusive interviews, red carpet coverage, and more.
• ESPN.com’s Sports Guy, Bill Simmons, reviews Clerks 2 (and some other films quite hilariously) in his column today. It’s a B-minus mixed review, but generally positive.
• Check out this Wired article on Slackers for some mentions on Clerks II (and comparisons to Linklater’s Fast Food Nation).
• Kevin is mentioned briefly in this review of Talladega Nights when the reviewer mentions the appeal of his work to a specific generation.
• Australia’s starting to get excited about Kevin’s impending arrival for the Clerks II premiere. Here’s a scoop sent in from a local listener of a popular radio program:

• Fan Girl AmyWin blogs about her recent experiences with Clerks 2 at her blog site.
• Anyone who wants to get a better look at Randal’s new favorite website can check out the flash designed for Clerks 2 over at http://www.wheelieblog.org/.
• The lovely Claire Forlani of “Mallrats” fame (recently seen in a pretty bad Stephen King “Nightmares & Dreamscapes” episode) has joined the cast of CSI: New York. She will play the team’s new medical examiner.
• Add “My Name Is Earl” to the MySpace community – Yahoo News reports that Beginning this week, MySpace members can submit their photos via a My Name Is Earl profile page, with three pictures ultimately being chosen to appear during the credits of a second-season episode of NBC’s top-rated sitcom under the heading “Friends of Earl.” Your face on NBC! Best get over there and start submitting!
• Surviving Grady is a popular Boston Red Sox blog. They just did a dialog post using Randal and Dante, plus some of the Sox players. Good stuff. Especially funny if you follow the Sox, of course.
• A web post is now indicating that Screen International will release Clerks II in the UK on September 22nd.
• And ending on the big note today, horror, the Project Greenlight horror/comedy “Feast” will indeed have a small theatrical run before hitting DVD. The world premeire will be at the awesome Palms hotel on September 12, 2006 — Anyone got tix for us? 😉 Feast will hit theatres nationwide for special late night showings beginning on September 22 and 23, 2006. The special run will be followed by the DVD launch of “Feast” on October 17, 2006. We’re looking forward to seeing this one!

• Here are some fresh pictures taken last evening at the Netflix Rolling Roadshow screening of CLERKS. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect night, clear skies and a cool breeze. Over 2000 fans enjoyed one of the liveliest Q&A sessions in recent memory, even one fan was there in a full Stormtrooper uniform! I’d like to give some special thanks to all-round good guy Ming Chen. He got us into the gated off area when there seemed like no hope. If you live anywhere close to any remaining Netflix Rolling Roadshow events, you owe it to yourself to catch one. It was a blast! Here’s Kevin’s wrap-up of this awesome event…

• Kevin said that over 2,000 people showed up at the Stash for the big signing event last night in Red Bank, New Jersey, which ran for13 hours until every last person in line got their photo and/or autograph (ending at 4 AM). That means that at LEAST that many (but probably many many more) will be showing up at Red Bank’s waterfront tonight to see Clerks project in open air, on the big screen. We’ll be there covering the event, so expect a full report on the site this week.

If you’re anywhere near the northeast, this is a BIG event — The first-ever screening of its type for Clerks. Kevin and cast/crew will be on hand for a Q&A prior to the event (and likely available to meet and greet throughout the evening). Then, when the sun sets, Clerks will show for the biggest outdoor crowd ever! Bring chairs, munchies, and a bunch of pals – It’s going to be a great night with absolutely perfect weather for a screening. Thanks to Netflix for bringing the Rolling Roadshow to New Jersey.

Again, we apologize for the site being updateless lately — Our email has totally been offline for the past two days, due to some configuration error with News Askew. We are waiting for a fix, and hope at that point that the email sent to us in the past couple days will catch up with us. If your scoop didn’t get through, please send it again once we get this fixed.

• We’re looking into this one as we speak, though it seems Kevin dropped a big scoop at a weekend Q&A session — His next flick will be a HORROR film! We’d expected a non Askewniverse romantic comedy, from earlier reports, though this may have changed. As soon as we get ANY more details, and can confirm (or deny) this, we’ll let you know. Certainly a very interesting and exciting development if it holds true. It’ll definitely represent a new venture and direction for Kevin, and we’re of course excited to see where he goes with it (let’s hope scary and violent as all get-out!). More on this soon!

• Tickets for the Clerks II Premiere for Melbourne and Sydney are now available via this link.

For the next 12 hours (Australian time), you will need to use the password “silentbob” to get in on the presale. Tickets for the rest of folks who don’t know the password won’t go up for sale until 9am Australian time, so if you wanted in, here you go, News Askew readers! Don’t say we never did anything for ya. Enjoy!