The show takes place on Friday, February 6, 2009, 7:00 PM in Roy Thomson Hall, Toromto. Kevin’s Canadian appearances are among the all-time greats, so don’t miss out — This historic two night event is sure to go down in View Askew History as one of the greats. Some fans attending Saturday have been buying seats for Friday as well, now that tix have opened back up, which is fine, as no two Kevin shows are ever the same. In fact, his last Red Bank Show was a completely open forum that went in any direction Kevin would allow the audience to take it, no preset stories among the night. If this trend continues into February, we may very well see two totally different shows in Toronto. Here’s hoping to see many a News Askew fan among the crowd. Enjoy the show(s)!

Preorder today from the Stash, and your discs will ship to you on release day. SIGNED BY KEVIN!

SIGNED Bluray – $34.99

SIGNED DVD – $29.99

Shot Glasses – $4.49 each

Kevin’s given us a TON more information on the contents of the Bluray and DVD, so move on to the next story and see why you just gotta own this movie…

– 43 Deleted scenes (totaling 95 minutes)
– 22 Money Shots Webisodes (50 minutes)
– Feature-length documentary, Popcorn Porn: Watching Zack & Miri Make A Porno (75 minutes)
– Comic-con Panel 2008 (23 minutes)
– Gang-bang: Outtakes & Bloopers (13 minutes)
– Seth vs. Justin: Battle for Improvisational Supremacy (8 minutes)
– Blu-ray only: BD Live—which will gives us the option of having downloadable bonus features at some time in the future

Totaling 4 hours and 21 minutes of bonus

Full disclosure: The extra feature – Seth vs. Justin: Battle for Improvisational Supremacy (8 minutes) is only one of two parts. Due to Weinstein Co’s exclusive deal with Blockbuster, there’s a Blockbuster-Exclusive Extra Feature called “Seth vs. Justin: Battle for Improvisational Supremacy Pt. 2.” So if you’re a BlockBuster cat, there’s that. I have no control over these things.

Here’s some general comments from Kevin in response to WWWBoard queries on the disc.

On a single vs. double disc DVD: “I was informed it couldn’t be one disc and have all the material we wanted on it – at least according to the folks at Weinstein Co./Genius Home Video.”

On the extras: “There’s well over an hour of extra footage. The doc itself is an hour. I don’t know what the “Money Shots” combined are, but it’s a bunch. Then there’s the flick, the San Diego ComiCon Q&A, behind-the-scenes featurettes. This DVD has, essentially, all the elements that all of our DVDs have had, except a commentary track and intros.”

See Kevin’s post for more details on his feelings on the lack of a commentary track this time around.

Finally, in his post Kevin also shared the absolutely fantastic Hong Kong poster for the film, which he would have loved as the Bluray DVD’s cover (but would have gotten sued over it). Check this work of art out.

“Zack and Miri Make a Porno” hits DVD and Bluray on Tuesday, February 3rd.

“Pairing director Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen was either going to result in something wildly overrated or sheer genius, and it wound up being the latter. “

• A bunch of deleted and extended scenes
• The full length documentary by Zak and Joey (last we heard, titled “Popcorn Porn”
• All of the “Money Shots” promo videos (uncensored, we assume with never before seen episodes that didn’t make the web)
• A blooper reel

The standard DVD set’s running 2 discs, so likely you’ll get the film on one, and the doc on the other. Of course, the Bluray will have everything on one easy place due to the massive storage capacity.

The one massive omission here is an audio commentary track, we believe the first time it’s missing on a View Askew DVD. Kevin states an interest in using SModcast to record such a track that will run along with the film, so watch for it. Lucky Bluray owners should also be able to embed future tracks released automatically into the disc.

We’ll cross our fingers for an early copy so we can hook ya up with all the other secrets and details on what’s sure to be another gem on your DVD shelves next month.

We don’t have any official details on extras yet, but this makes us almost certain that we will indeed see the feature-length documentary from Chop Shop Entertainment on this set, along with (we hope) a commentary track, all the deleted scenes, and more. Frankly, we’ll be totally amazed if they’ve managed to assemble all this stuff, but considering Kevin and Scott’s talent for keeping DVD in mind right from the start, they also make it easier than some other filmmakers.

View Askew has always been the reigning king of special edition DVDs, so we’re betting this release will continue that tradition. Fans still regret that a director’s cut packed disc for “Jersey Girl” never arrived after the small low key release. We think the guys are gonna go full blast for the initial “Porno” arrival in just a few weeks. We expect full specs any day now. And we expect good news.

21. CLERKS

With its cruddy lensing and sound, Kevin Smith’s way-low-budget debut feels like a bootleg copy of an adolescent mind.

AVC: You were in Zack And Miri Do A Porno with Seth Rogen. You’ve both worked extensively with Judd Apatow, who is famous for encouraging improvisation, where Kevin Smith is known for discouraging ad-libbing. Did Smith allow improvisation on Zack?

CR: Definitely. This was supposed to be the first movie he did that on. He just told us to go for it, to do our thing. I wouldn’t have guessed that he’d ever discouraged improvisation, but I guess he’s just used to doing scenes down to the letter. He was very encouraging about doing improv at this particular time.

AVC: Were there any particular improvisations you were especially proud of?

CR: There were a couple of things. Tisha Campbell came out with both guns blazing. She was going off. She was totally off-book, so I just had to catch up with her and go with her toe-to-toe. Kevin’s direction was that at first I was kind of stunned, but then I think, “Are you going to take that?” So I’m like, “Oh yeah, here we go.” Then the titty auditions, that was all improv. Kevin just told us to start here, then end up somewhere else.

Read the whole thing at AV Club.

7. “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”


Writer/director Kevin Smith found his stroke once again with this riotous and surprisingly heartfelt comic yarn about a platonic couple (Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks) who discover they’re in love while making a nudie flick. The movie encapsulates Smith’s heedless joy of filmmaking.

“Jersey Girl” (2004)

Continuing his streak of playing #2s, Damon reunited with his “Dogma” director Kevin Smith for a bit of déjà vu. Shortly before he became a household name with “Good Will Hunting,” Damon took a minor role in “Chasing Amy” as “Shawn Oran – Executive #2,” an MTV producer who tries to lure Holden and Banky (Ben Affleck and Jason Lee) to adapt their comic book for TV. In “Jersey Girl,” Lee and Damon sit across from Affleck’s Ollie Trinke as PR execs #1 and #2, respectively, who interview Trinke for a job. Smith laments on the DVD commentary, “You don’t know how disheartening it is to be at a test screening and get cards back where like ‘scene liked most: Jason Lee and Matt Damon’ because you’re like dude, they were in the movie for a minute.”

The “Clerks: The Animated Series” scenario

This is by far the most depressing of the three scenarios. The network might initially give support to the show in the conceptual phase even though they’re not entirely sold on it. Once the show has got a few episodes in the can, the network executives will balk at the prospect of giving it even the tiniest bit of support.

This has happened many times before with other shows, I’m certain, but there is one particularly ugly example that comes to mind for me. I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with movie writer/director Kevin Smith. Back in the early part of the decade he was approached by ABC to have his very first film, “Clerks”, translated into an animated series. Even though Kevin’s involvement with the project was minimal compared to that of his films the project looked good on paper. It had Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson & Jason Mewes reprising their roles as Dante, Randal & Jay, so what could go wrong? Everything!

First of all, the often vulgar “Clerks” was a concept that was not at all compatible with ABC, which is owned by Disney. If it had been optioned by a cable network like Comedy Central or Cartoon Network there was a chance it would have translated quite well to the small screen. Even the Fox network could have made it work, given their success with shows like “The Simpsons” & “Family Guy”. But because ABC took it on the show’s producers attempted to transform “Clerks” into something it definitely wasn’t: a normal animated sitcom. It ended up being such a watered-down version of the source material that it turned off a lot of Kevin Smith’s normally loyal and forgiving fanbase (myself included) and viewers unfamiliar with Smith’s other work just didn’t connect with it.

It doesn’t help that ABC seemed to revel in making a bad situation worse. It delayed the premiere of the series from early Spring to Summer, then it made the decision to air the fourth episode of the series as the pilot episode. The network then aired the second episode, which was a “flashback” episode with the flashback sequences referring almost solely to what was intended to be the first episode. With seemingly the entire deck stacked against it, “Clerks: The Animated Series” was cancelled after merely two out of the six completed episodes having aired.

Two new “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” items also showed up for purchase today — A two-sided shirt based on the film’s stick figure promotion, and some way cool Monroeville Zombies bumper stickers for your car, car window, cubicle wall, etc. I’ve been getting tons of comments on my Zombies hoodie since I broke it out for the winter, so you can’t go wrong with this stuff. Fans are everywhere. View the new swag and all the other Z&M goodies, and purchase online with just a few clicks.

Shirts are available in M-XXXL and the stickers are $1.49 each. As with all sales, prices are subject to change and quantities are limited. Stock up for yourself or gifts while ya can.

Jeff Raymond, Anthony McConnell, Chris DeLuca, Jason Wraight, and Adam Bunch! Congrats fellas.

“Netherbeast Incorporated” is now available online and in stores everywhere, so if you didn’t win one, now’s the time to place your orders or hit your local DVD retailer and pick up your own copy.