- The University of Akron welcomes Kevin Smith tonight for another of his awesome live Q&A appearances, where anything can happen and, dollar for dollar, hour for hour, you ALWAYS get your money’s worth. Tonight’s show begins at 7:30 PM and with it being a Friday and all, we’re betting this will easily run past midnight. Tickets are at an amazingly cheap price (thank the University for funding most of the show), $8 for the public and $4 for students. The site still shows a live BUY TICKETS link, so we’re assuming they may still be some seats open. At this price, it’s a steal, and well worth a road trip in. So if you can make it — Get rolling! We look forward to hearing from those of you lucky enough to attend tonight. Enjoy the show!
Archive for March 2nd, 2007
Kevin On “The Schedule”!
- Moving into 2007, the biggest news we’ll be covering will be the TWO films announced for Kevin’s slate this year, first the horror flick, then the new comedy. Few details are currently available for both projects, though Kevin was kind enough to field a few questions regarding the plan for 2007 in this Board post:
Q: Will Trevor be involved with the next two flicks as well?
KS: Probably not the horror flick. I don’t wanna cast anyone well-known (especially in the VA circle) in the flick. Too distracting.
Q: Will the next two flicks be the horror flick and the rosario romantic comedy?
KS: That depends on whether or not Rosario’s got the time to do the comedy. But in theory, yes.
Q: Will they be small budgeted?
KS: The horror flick will be around (or a little less than) the budget of “Clerks II”. The other flick’ll be more than that, but less than “Strike Back”.
Q: If Manchild gets picked up,will the schedules for the next two flicks be changed?
KS: The schedules (and, mind you, said schedules are only speculation at this point) will only change based on “Manchild” NOT getting picked up. Then, we’ll be able to shoot a little earlier on the horror flick.
Q: Will the animated direct to dvd flick be view askew related at all?
KS: Naturally.
Q: Will Clerks:Sell Out fall by the wayside or be in comic book form?
KS: We’ll get to it eventually.
There ya have it, folks. Keep in mind speculation is the key here, though that’s the current plan. We’re expecting “Manchild” will be picked up, though happy to hear it won’t push the schedule back (seems they kept that in mind when coming up with the projects). And Rosario being considered for the next comedy? LOVE that news. We’ll keep you posted as we hear more.
News Askew vs. Yahoo Answers!
- This was posted as the “Ask Yahoo” question of the day for today:
Dear Yahoo!: Who came up with the idea of calling celebrity couples by one uni-name? It’s annoyingJeff
Decatur, Michigan
Decatur, Michigan
Dear Jeff: You’ll get no argument from us — this trend is extremely annoying. “Bennifer” was sort of funny the first time we heard it. But then Brangelina, TomKat, and Bennifer 2.0 came along, and our amusement quickly plummeted. So who’s to blame for the uni-name?
Fox News notes the trend started when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez began dating back in late 2002 or early 2003. Those were dark days. Tabloids couldn’t get enough of the couple, reporting every move Ben and Jen made. Somewhere during the madness, Bennifer was coined.
As for who came up with the nickname, we don’t know. Courtney Shea, a.k.a. the Gossipy Gal Pal, writes that trying to find out who coined “Bennifer” is a bit like “delving into the whole business of the grassy knoll. Everyone has a theory and many are eager to take credit.” Why anyone would want credit for unleashing this plague upon pop culture is beyond us, but there ya go.
For what it’s worth, “portmanteau” is the technical name for a word “formed by merging the sounds and meanings of two different words.” And, believe it or not, Lewis Carroll coined that word’s usage in “Through the Looking Glass.” Maybe we should blame him?
This is easy and documented, thanks to our News Askew archives. The term first appeared in an LA Times piece that we posted here on January 12th, 2003. Here’s the text:
Smith wanted to make “Jersey Girl” in 1999 right after “Dogma,” but there was the Jay and Silent Bob problem. The duo — neighborhood friend Jason Mewes as foulmouthed, id-dominated Jay and Smith as the taciturn Bob — had been effective slacker characters in each of his movies. There was no room for them in “Jersey Girl,” which, as Smith says, “stopped being ‘a Kevin Smith movie’ and became a ‘Jen and Ben movie,’ or a ‘Bennifer movie,’ as we call it now.” Still, Smith wanted a sense of closure — a way to acknowledge to the cult that without Jay and Silent Bob’s presence in his earlier films, “Jersey Girl” never could have happened. So he made “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” (2001), in which the two losers head from New Jersey to Hollywood to prevent a studio from corrupting a comic book based on their lives.
For the record, that was just meant as an inside joke that grew out of control, so folks who blame Kevin for the press’s overuse of the concept (and sort-of spoiling of the joke), that’s not his fault. We think the pinnacle of the fun was Affleck’s SNL monloogue (remember “Boprah”?). After that, the press just got too carried away with it. However, who coined “Bennifer”? Kevin himself, on January 12th, 2003. Take that, Yahoo Answers!
View Askew NewsBites™
- Where’s this week’s SModcast? Kevin’s got the quick answer:
New SModcast will be up on Monday. We got crushed (schedule-wise) this week and couldn’t get to it. But it’s been recorded and will be ready to roll Monday.
- Mallrats in HD? You betcha! Awesome DVD supersite The Digital Bits leaked a huge list of Universal HD-DVD titles in their rumor mill, and Mallrats was one of the many cool titles included (planned for June 2007). We’d love to see this colorful, fun flick in all its HD glory. HiDef digest seems to confirm the leakage so we’re gonna take this one as gospel. The only bummer of this news? Looks like we’ll be buying Battlestar Galactica Season One all over again — Who wouldn’t want to own the amazing season one in HD? Lots of other coolness in the list, including Peter Jackson’s underappreciated “The Frighteners” as well as “Shaun of the Dead”. Gotta love HD.
Commentary – Update On The Way!
- After a rather quiet news week here at the site, we’re going out with a group of nice stories, now being prepped for an update that will arrive somewhere close to 3 PM EST today. Those of you looking for a few extra minutes to kill on your Friday workday, here’s your chance. Stories on the way will cover Kevin’s upcoming appearance in Ohio tonight, status of the next SModcast, the upcoming shooting schedule, and much more. We hope to see you back here shortly!