• This article’s getting major airplay across venues like CNN, Yahoo Movie News, and CTV so we thought hey, let’s join up and syndicate this one in full ourselves. Enjoy this new article with quotes from both Smith and Rogen on the new flick:

  
  Rogen shows some skin in Smith’s `Zack and Miri’

  By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer

  TORONTO – All Seth Rogen really wanted when he came to Hollywood was to make a movie with Kevin Smith.

  His dream came true, and more: Rogen got to make a dirty movie with Smith.

  Rogen stars with Elizabeth Banks in Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” a romantic comedy with a whole lot of skin showing.

  The 26-year-old actor recalled a meeting nearly a decade ago with a prospective agent who asked what his career goals were. That’s when he confessed his desire to work with Smith, whose profanity-spewing raconteurs were an influence on the sort of films Rogen eventually would make himself.

  The agent “said to me that’s probably easier than you think. I hadn’t realized that Kevin Smith movies didn’t make any money,” Rogen said in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. “To me, he was like Steven Spielberg. I didn’t realize the difference between good movies and movies that make a lot of money.”

  With the “Clerks” movies and films such as “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma,” Smith has built a huge cult fan base but has yet to break widely into the mainstream. Rogen, who has scored hits with the similarly adult-themed comedies “Pineapple Express” and “Knocked Up,” thinks “Zack and Miri” could be the one that puts Smith in front of a broader audience.

  “Zack and Miri” features Rogen and Banks as lifelong best pals and roommates who discover there may be something more to their relationship when they make a porn flick to pay off their debts. The movie premieres Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival in advance of its Oct. 31 theatrical release.

  Smith wrote the script with Rogen in mind, having seen the actor in the acclaimed short-lived TV series “Freaks and Geeks” and later in “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” By the time Smith finished the script in spring 2007, Rogen was the cusp of leading-man stardom with “Knocked Up.”

  “I started seeing billboards going up with his face on them and I was like, we lost this guy,” Smith said. “This dude was like a supporting actor in `40-Year-Old Virgin’ and he’s just waiting for somebody to give him his own movie.”

  But Smith said that when he sent an e-mail to Rogen asking if he would read the screenplay, the actor shot back an answer within 2 minutes.

  Rogen read “Zack and Miri” on the beach in Australia while doing press for “Knocked Up” and was eager to sign on from the start.

  The comedic sex depicted in “Zack and Miri” is tame by hardcore pornography standards, and the subject matter never gave Rogen a moment’s pause.

  “I love porn. I watch tons of porn. The Internet speeds have evolved directly with my sexual drive,” Rogen said. “I almost did it purely based on the title.”

  That, and the chance to work with one of his idols.

  “Without Kevin Smith movies, I don’t think I would be doing exactly what I’m doing now,” Rogen said.

• From the pages of “Creative Screenwriting Magazine” comes an excellent new article on, of course, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”. This one’s got new quotes from Kevin that we haven’t seen elsewhere. While it explores similar themes to what we have heard before, the article goes into more detail on Kevin’s writing process for this particular srcipt. There some depth on how Kevin has evoled his writing from going page to page and moved to working from page one. Also, the article discusses how Kevin has opened his mind more to ad-libbing this time around, changing inflections for different actors, and the more modest marketing plan this time around.

  Click the scans above to read it, or pick up a copy of the Sep/Oct issue of “Creating Screenwriting”.

• A final note on Kevin’s Woodstock Film Fest appearance next month — While it looks like “Zack And Miri Make a Porno” will screen on October 5th, the press release now lists the date Kevin will receive the Maverick award itself as Saturday, October 4th. Get your tix accordingly for the events you’d like to attend.
• The great Brian O’Halloran, still tops on the good guy list of all the View Askew personalities we’ve met over the years, will once again join ChillerCon as a guest next month, from
  October 24th through the 26th. Brian will be on hand to graciously sign autographs, take photos, and meet the fans in support of his horror comedy “Brutal Massacre”. He of course loves meeting all his View Askew fans as well, so be sure and stop by to say hello to one of the greats. The con takes place in Parsippany, New Jersey at the Hilton. Wanna hear more from Brian? Listen to this MP3 podcast from Drunken Zombie where the man is interviewed.
• “Clerks” was listed as a choice (and scored third) among the IMDB’s poll asking about the “Best Cult Movies Since 1983”. A very nice score against some tough competition, for sure. Bravo.
• We love JoBlo because of all the reasons they find to put sexy chicks in their web postings, so their latest piece on their favorite slutty characters in film is something worth reading anyway. Two Askew connections as well — In the number 10 spot, Newbie Askewbie Elizabeth Banks scores for her role in “The 40 Year Old Virgin”. In the number 9 postion, Clerks’ Marilyn Ghigliotti ranks for her “37” admissions of guilt.
• Recent new member of the View Askew family Justin Long confirms that there will be a sequel to “Alvin and the Chipmunks” which we assume will also bring back our pal Jason Lee. Long voices the character of Alvin in the film.

• And finally today, a fun photo snapped by a fan while on a trip through Nashville, IL. Seems we can add “farmer” to Jay’s list of talents? See ya next time…

• Well, heck of a time for the website to start giving us grief, but that’s the way it goes sometimes — At any rate, we’ve got a long-awaited update posted ahead for ya, including news on that banned poster and more — A lot of this stuff is from a couple days ago when our server got smacked down, so we’ll be catching up with some extra chunky updates this weekend. If you sent in a scoop, sit tight — We’ve got ’em all. Just gotta dig out of the pile.

  Major thanks to King Ming for the fix-up — After we wrestled with the issues for a day, he took another day or so to dig in and finally came up with the solution. The good news out of all of this is that we’re going to be moving to a new server in the coming weeks — So, expect a much faster response time as you browse around, comment, and the like. Hopefully the move can be totally transparent to you, but there may be a few bumps in the road — ‘Til then, we’ve got a new trailer, and a few more things. Please stick with us as we get all the site’s functionality back online this weekend, and we thank you for your patience. Again, big ups to Ming for the fix.

• Hot on the heels of that hilarious red band trailer, the “safe for all audiences” green-band trailer for “Zack And Miri Make a Porno” has arrived at the Yahoo Movies website. This one’s got a very similar structure to the red band, but a few extra bits of dialogue and jokes to compensate for the dirty stuff that we’re losing. It’s an interesting companion piece to the other trailer (which we assume you’ve seen by now). Take a look and let us know what ya think. You’ll catch a few more glimpses at what looks to be the actual “porno” in question, as well. Great stuff. Easily our favorite set of trailers that View Askew has ever put together to market a flick — Let’s hope audiences think so as well. Enjoy.

• Entertainment Weekly’s Popwatch blog hits a big exclusive today, bringing us a story and a photo on an MPAA-rejected one sheet poster for the film:

  

  Kevin Smith’s Banned-in-the-US ‘Porno’ Poster: Exclusive first look!

  You know what’s so special about this, the first poster for Kevin Smith’s new flick, Zack and Miri Make a Porno (due out October 31st)? It’s not that the one-sheet drops just before the movie’s premiere at the Toronto Film Festival (which it does), or that Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks look so surprised, or that the chocolate-mint color scheme is making me a little hungry for Friendly’s. No, it’s that you’ll only see this poster in Canada.

  Even after winning an appeal to overturn Porno’s NC-17 rating, Smith says the MPAA won’t give their blessing to the image shown here—which is eyes-only for our neighbors to the north. “When you’ve got the word ‘porno’ in the title, naturally, the marketing materials are gonna be scrutinized more closely by the MPAA,” says the director. “I understand they’ve got a job to do, but c’mon…this image isn’t that dirty; they’re both fully clad.”

  We can just add this to the long list of things we have Canada to thank for, like William Shatner, Michael J. Fox, and the fittingly monikered Peter North. “I’ve always loved Canada and Canadians for giving us hockey,” says Smith. “Now, I love ’em just a little bit more. For allowing tufts of hair.”

  We don’t really get it, either, though hey, it’s a minor loss and maybe just a nice final jab from the MPAA, who kindly left the film intact after an appeal, so we say THANKS to them for that. Of course we could all play the game of finding more offensive posters, but hey, we’re sure they’ll come up with a suitable US replacement. You can bet these will sell online for a decent amount now, so scoop ’em up — Perhaps the Stash can even find a way to sell some signed ones, as well? Sign us up.

• It’s been a great week run of exclusive photos, folks — But all good things must come to an end, and thus, we present the final remaining photos from the camera of Albert Ortega.

  
  We’ve got a few more shots from the Zack & Miri panel and behind the scenes at the San Diego con, as well as the final batch from the great Stash West “Spaced” signing that we found as a bonus, sitting in the wrong inbox! But of course we’ll just say we MEANT to do that.

  As always, click the minis and you’ll get the biggies. And my are they ever glorious. Enjoy, and special thanks to our photographers for their generous contributions.

• The Jacob Burns screening in Pleasantville, NY is fast approaching, and in the case of one lucky fan, he reports that logging onto the website actually allowed him to put a couple of the sold out tickets into his cart. Turns out that a few tickets may still be available, and that they might be released at random. So, you might want to keep checking the website. As for standby tickets, there MIGHT also be a chance to get into this highly anticipated screening on the day of the show – This from their PR:

  
  “We always have a standby line for ticketed special events such as this one. The policy is you have to be present at the theater one hour before showtime (though people sometimes start lining up earlier) to have your name added to the standby list. The list is first-come, first-served, no guarantees. JBFC members are always given priority on the list over non-members.”

  So there you have it. How bad do you want in?

  In other screening news, Kevin confirms that the Hollywood premiere will be at Grauman’s on October 20th.

  More ink on the Woodstock announcement yesterday comes from USA Today as well as Variety. Still no official time or venue for the “Zack and Miri” screening at that festival, but Keivn does also confirm the flick WILL be there, and we’ve heard it’ll close the festival. So, sometime on October 5th. More details as we get them, along with another full post summarizing all the screenings will be in the next update. Now we just need to find a venue in Pennsylvania to host one of these screenings, dang it!

• Canada’s National Post is now calling Kevin’s MPAA victory with “Zack And Miri” a result of the “Jolie Defense” according to this new article. Here’s a few bits:

  
  …”You’re not allowed to bring in clips — but you can cite precedent,” Smith started to explain during a not-long-ago MTV stop.

  As far as the sex stuff goes, one of the bones of contention involved a scene that the Motion Picture Association of America, the ratings board in question, said had much too much “thrusting” and was “gratuitous.” And so our Freedom Fighter stepped up his game, and took to referring to Taking Lives, a movie starring Ethan Hawke (during his Uma days) and the aforementioned Jolie (during her Billy Bob phase).

  “There’s a sex scene where they f—on a dresser,” Smith recalled, like the erudite student of film that he is. One that is “insanely titillating” and, um, “looks real.”

• Jay Mewes has been sharing some video game reviews via his Myspace page — He’s doing them in a fun way for National Lampoon. In the latest piece at their site, Jay and the gang have fun lampooning Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Comics as well as Call of Duty 5.

We are experiencing some residual issues from the crash yesterday, which are including difficulty posting HTML formatted stories here at News Askew. We are working as fast as possible to resolve this issue. So, stay tuned as we’ve got news on that banned Zack And Miri poster, more pics, and a whole lot more coming your way once we get this figured out.