- MTV sat down with Kevin and conducted a fairly extensive interview, from the look of things — They’ve posted quite a few new articles over the past few days, likely all from the same session, just pieced out by topic. Let’s take a look at each of the postings, with a brief summary and some choice clips from all of ’em. Please note, we’re just taking a few paragraphs from each. Click through for the full articles, many of which also include VIDEO clips as well.
This first article focuses on “A Couple of Dicks”. Of particular interest, it reveals that Kevin was offered directing gigs on both “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and Eddie Murphy’s upcoming “Imagine That”.
Kevin Smith On Trying To ‘Breathe New Life’ Into The Buddy Cop Genre With ‘A Couple of Dicks’
“For years, I’d been like, ‘No, I only direct stuff I wrote,'” Smith said. “I would do interviews and be like, ‘If you ever see me directing a script I didn’t write, I’m clearly paying off a mortgage.’ Stuff like that, because I never thought I would.”
But Robinov, who’d been a big fan of Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” thought the director would be the perfect guy to helm “Dicks.” And based on the personal way in which the script resonated with Smith, he was only too happy to accept–even as he continued to be surprised that the directorial offer had ever been made.
“I’ve never even directed anything but a Kevin Smith movie, so why would you trust me with anything else?” he said. “That’s why this is amazing. I can’t believe that somebody would be like, ‘Here, try to breathe new life in the buddy cop franchise.’ But I guess it makes sense. All I do is buddy movies. In this one they have guns and there’s a plot. As opposed to them sitting around talking about ‘Star Wars’ and sex.”
Smith’s ultimate goal, he said with a laugh, is to make “Dicks” a TNT channel classic. “It’s a throwback to ’48 Hrs.,’ ‘Beverly Hills Cop,'” Smith said. “It’s a buddy cop flick. It’s not like, ‘He’s a by-the-rules white guy and he is a jive-talking black guy, but together they’re gonna fight crime!’ They just happen to be black and white and they’re long-time friends.”
Next up, Kevin’s daughter Harley presents her own review of the vampy chick-flick “Twilight”:
Kevin Smith’s Daughter Reviews ‘Twilight’
Writer/director/actor/all-around nice-guy Kevin Smith stopped by recently to chat with MTV’s Josh Horowitz on a variety of subjects. While the ever-busy Smith had plenty to say about his own work, he also managed to squeeze in a brief review of “Twilight.” In all honesty, Smith didn’t have much to say about the movie other than mentioning that it made him wish he was a 14 year old girl. It’s his daughter who’s the real fan, and she was brave enough to step in front of the camera so she could share her thoughts.
Finally, Kevin mentions that he currently does not have any interest in taking comics and making movies out of them:
Kevin Smith Has ‘No Interest’ In Working On Big-Screen Comic Book Adaptations
“I have no interest in making those movies,” Smith told MTV News. “They look very tedious to make. It takes a talent that I just do not have. But I love to kick back and watch them.”
He went on to cite Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight”) and Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”) among the ideal candidates to direct comic book properties. And when it came to the question of writing another script, Smith questioned the very need for a “name writer.”
“When I got hired for that ‘Superman’ gig, the first thing out of my mouth was like, ‘Why are you talking to me?'” he said. “Why don’t you talk to Dan Jurgens or somebody who works on ‘Superman?’ You’ll get a great script out of a dude who’s worked on 60 issues of ‘Superman.’ I guarantee it.”
“But then it was all about, ‘Well, they’re not in movies.’ And now it’s different,” continued Smith. “Now you can cherry-pick and go into a genre and be like, ‘Let’s take these dudes. They write on ‘Lost.’ Their episodes are good. Let’s let them write a script.’ You don’t need a cat like me. And you shouldn’t get a cat like me.”
Archive for May 22nd, 2009
Anderson & Doherty to Star in New UK Flick…
- Here’s an interesting pairing! Askew vet Shannen Doherty will star in a new British indie titled “The Beautiful Outsiders”, with the great Jeff Anderson in a major supporting role. Here’s the press release.
Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty is set to take the lead role in British indie flick “The Beautiful Outsiders”. She will be playing Sarah Fugate,a prostitute who goes on the run from the law with ex-con Jason Starkweather (Cameron Douglas). Shannen replaces the previously attached Tara Reid who had to leave the project due to a scheduling conflict.
Shannen is famed for her work in cult films “Mallrats” and “Heathers”,as well as long running TV shows “Charmed” and the recently revamped “90210”.
Two other new cast members have also joined the project. “Clerks” star Jeff Anderson will feature in the major supporting role of Eric. Jeff is famed for his work with director Kevin Smith in films such as Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and the recent Zac and Miri Make a Porno.
Multi millionaire businessman Peter Jones,who is known to TV audiences in the UK and US for his work on Dragons Den and American Inventor, has agreed to play the cameo role of Ron in the film.
They join previously announced cast members Brad Dourif, Doug Bradley, David Hess,Giovanni Lombardo Radice,John Fallon,Claire King, Sarah Barrand, Stuart Cable and BAFTA award winning Welsh actress Stephanie James. The film is being jointly produced by Swansea based Masterplan Film Productions and LA based Thunderball Films with award winning Welsh filmmaker Andrew Jones writing and directing. Principal photography is now set to take place in South Wales during September and October this year.
It’s always a treat to see Anderson back in front of the camera. We’ll keep our eyes on this one, and hope to work with the producers to provide you some exclusive content once filming begins.
View Askew NewsBites™
- “Reaper” has sadly joined “My Name is Earl” in the series cancellation this year. Both shows were critically loved, but casualties of a tight economy, with networks giving the axe to most “on the bubble” shows. Kevin has suggested fans help the great Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee come back for another year of “Earl” via a Twitterized save the show campaign.
As for “Reaper”, the show’s pilot was Kevin’s first TV directing gig, so has quite a bit of historical significance. With a cancellation this late in the year, we’re betting that “Reaper”, like “Earl”, may also end with an unresolved cliffhanger.
- In a new interview, Dynamite President and Publisher, Nick Barrucci, chats up topics such as signing on Kevin and the future of “Green Hornet”. Although he does remain pretty tight-lipped about the storyline, and even the artists of the book, its a worthy read:
“…The main thing that’s been going on is ironing everything out with Kevin Smith. When we first acquired The Green Hornet we had quite a few creators wanting to be involved and had creators asking us for up to four years to be involved. A few of the creators we’ll be working with . . . and Kevin Smith was the only person we reached out to and he was interested – but we had to wait to see if it was a definite yeah or nay. Kevin was able to bring incredible amounts of media attention by getting brought on to entertainmentweekly.com, which we gratefully respect, and with the support of the comics industry we plan on making this one of our biggest launches that we possibly can.”
“…Well, Kevin came into the picture when we remembered that he was a fan of The Green Hornet. He’s done a movie with Seth Rogan [Zack and Miri Make a Porno] and while just like the original script that Kevin did that has no involvement with the new movie script with Seth, Kevin as a creator has grown over the last five years and we were able to approach him about doing The Green Hornet as he would approach him today.”
Newsarama has the full story.
- View Askew showed on last night’s episode of Jeopardy. The category was: Also A “Canterbury Tales” Pilgrim. The Answer was: “Dante & Randal in a 1994 Kevin Smith movie”. The question, of course, was: “What is Clerks?”
- “Fanboys” dropped on DVD Tuesday, and features some fun cameos from Askewers Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Zak Knutson, Ethan Suplee, Seth Rogen & Carrie Fisher. There are many other additional cameos of course, those are just the Askew related ones.
- Kevin reports 914 tix left for the Carnegie Hall show in his latest tweet on the topic. We’re hitting the home stretch – Now is the time to go grab your seats, and invite some friends! Kevin’s events are a blast with a big group.
- Just a small correction – When we excitedly talked about the Emma inaction figure for “Clerks II”, we meant it’s the first time that character would arrive in inaction form. Jen Schwalbach’s character appeared in the J&SBSB series of inaction figures on the C.L.I.T. team as well.
- Finally in the ‘bites today: Another blast from the past, straight from the famous “Chasing Amy” script…Seems that the titular character from the “Archie” comics will finally get out of his 3-way, and pick Betty or Veronica, according to MSNBC. After 68 years, it’s about time. Wow, those chicks sure were patient.