February 24th @ 6:12 pm | 6 Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris
- With filming now over halfway gone on the newest comedy from writer-director Kevin Smith, “Zack and Miri Make A Porno”. While this time around, the production crew has taken a more silent route, meaning no videos or stills yet leaked out from View Askew, we have learned a LOT about the movie in the past month or so. No spoilers here, mind you, just some general info, a lot of which you have seen before. Still, we like to gather up our tidbits of knowledge in one spot, every once in a while, in case ya missed anything. So, let’s take a look at the FACTS — Confirmed stuff that we can tell you about the movie (again, safe to read as far as spoilage goes):
- The film takes place in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. It’s also being filmed in and around that very same town (yep, a REAL place, much like Clerks and Chasing Amy, who referred to the towns they were actually filmed in).
- The aspect ratio will be 1:85 — This is the larger letterbox which fills your 16×9 TV, and continues in the tradition of “Clerks II”. Most of Kevin’s films follow this ratio, by the way, with the exception of “Dogma”, “Jersey Girl” and “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back”.
- Filming began on January 17th, 2008. The opening days of filming involved a daytime shoot at the Monroeville Mall (home of the original “Dawn of the Dead”), and other scenes inside a moving car. Shooting has since moved to rural Monroeville areas, including the inside of a high school there, and a real strip club. February 12th marked the halfway point of the shoot, which by our calculations will continue until around March 9th, give or take a few days.
- The billing order for the cast in the film’s opening credits will be as follows: Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Craig Robinson, and Jason Mewes. A large supporting cast has been confirmed, along with some confirmed and unconfirmed cameos. We believe some appearances will be kept secret in the hopes they can be discovered on opening day. Johnah Hill, however, will NOT appear, as confirmed by Kevin.
- Kevin recently confirmed shooting his “first snowfall” for the film in February, which tells us that “Zack & Miri” will take place in Winter, perhaps in its entirety (the mall scene above takes place on “Black Friday” which falls in November). The entire movie does NOT span only that one day though, Kevin confirms.
- While over an hour of the movie has already been roughly edited together by Kevin, he does not anticipate to have a trailer anytime soon. Current hopes are for the movie’s official trailer to debut with “Pineapple Express” im July. Going by a rough theater rule of thumb, that means they’re likely eyeballing a September or October 2008 release date for the movie (this is only speculation).
- The first test screening is planned for April or May, meaning that Kevin anticipates a mostly-finished version of the movie by that point. The screening will be by special invitation only, and held in the Los Angeles area.
So there ya have it, folks — Like we said, it may not be new to all of you, but it’s kinda cool to see it all in one spot, right? And it sure is enough to have us stoked to see the first footage, as well. As always, keep your bookmarks set to News Askew, and we’ll be happy to continue to give you the up-to-the-minute latest from the world of “Zack & Miri”.
February 24th @ 6:07 pm | 1 Comment » | Scooped by
- Cinematical now runs a small story on the “Zack & Miri” photos we referenced the other day. Nothing new here, just a blurb.
- The Bergen Performing Arts Center has fully updated all info at their website now, regarding Kevin’s big Q&A appearance on May 2nd. The event is set to be their biggest of the year, and will almost certainly sell out, so get those seats now, before they’re gone. Prices range depending on where you wanna sit, making it even more important to book NOW and get the spot you want. As this is a Friday night show, expect a fun room (and maybe even some clippage from a certain new movie that should be edited together by then..)
- Anyone have any hulu.com invites, by the way? The new FOX/NBC venture is featuring a huge database of their current TV shows in legal online fashion. We hear it’s cool and wanna give it a try.
- And last, but most certainly not least, let’s not forget to cheer on Scott Mosier tonight, who was a co-producer on the Oscar-nominated short documentary “Salim Baba”. We think the flick has a real shot, and it sure would be a thrill to see Mr. Mosier taking a statue home. Jon Stewart hosts tonight at 8 PM ET, 5 PM PT, on ABC — It’s the 80th annual celebration of the event.
