• UK Film Distributors have revealed that “Cop Out” will make it overseas in a fairly speedy fashion. You’ll be able to check out the flick on April 16th in the UK, just about a month and a half after its February 26th debut in the States. No further rating or screen details just yet, but we’ll keep you UK fans posted of course, as always.

• You’ve seen our photos and pre-order details, but it looks like we now have an official date for this special edition Kevin Smith inaction figure. January 27th.

  Kevin appears as a zombie wearing the classic Monroeville Zombies jersey. This limited edition will be available in your favorite comic shop, as well as through the Stash (pre-order information coming soon if it’s not already there by the time you’re reading this).

  The figure is being advertised as having “zero articulation, zero accessories, and zero signs of life”. Gotta love that.

  Thanks to Horror-Movies.ca for the info. While it’s still not the long-waited “Clerks 2” set announcement we’ve wanted, it gets another inaction in the collection, and that’s ok with us.

• Official stuff directly from Warner Bros. has started to arrive here at the News Askew office, which we’ll continue to pass on in the coming weeks. With a release just a bit over a month from now, we should start seeing TV ads, perhaps another trailer (they sometimes will cut more than one, ya know), and more — For now, here’s a nice look at the film’s logo, which arrived attached to this nifty little press release:
  

  Directed by Kevin Smith (Zack and Miri Make a Porno), Cop Out features two longtime NYPD partners on the trail of a stolen, rare, mint-condition baseball card who find themselves up against a merciless, memorabilia-obsessed gangster. Jimmy (Bruce Willis) is the veteran detective whose missing collectible is his only hope to pay for his daughter’s upcoming wedding, and Paul (Tracy Morgan) is his partner-against-crime whose preoccupation with his wife’s alleged infidelity makes it hard for him to keep his eye on the ball.

  Kevin Smith directs Cop Out from a screenplay by Robb Cullen & Mark Cullen (TV’s Las Vegas). The film stars Bruce Willis (the Die Hard films), Tracy Morgan (TV’s 30 Rock), Adam Brody (Mr. & Mrs. Smith), Kevin Pollak (Tropic Thunder), Guillermo Diaz (TV’s Weeds) and Seann William Scott (Role Models).

  The film is produced by Marc Platt (Rachel Getting Married), Polly Johnsen (upcoming Cats and Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore) and Michael Tadross (I Am Legend, Hitch). Adam Siegel (Wanted), Robb Cullen and Mark Cullen serve as executive producers.

  The behind-the-scenes team includes director of photography David A. Klein (Zack and Miri Make a Porno, Chasing Amy); production designer Michael Shaw (August Rush, Boys Don’t Cry); costume designer Juliet Polcsa (The Sopranos, Jersey Girl); and Academy Award®-nominated composer Harold Faltermeyer (the Beverly Hills Cop movies). As he frequently does, Smith serves as his own editor on the film.

  Warner Bros. Pictures presents, A Marc Platt Production, Cop Out, to be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. The film is scheduled for release on February 26, 2010.

  Can we again say how happy we are to see that Kevin edited the film together himself? Just makes it feel all that more special.

  We’re also pleased to present a heap of official trailer links in every format under the sun — These download as well as stream, so grab yourself a copy if you wanna watch it a few times or show it off.

  WINDOWS HD

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  WINDOWS STANDARD

  Small Medium Large

  FLASH

  480p Small Medium

  QUICKTIME HD

  480p 720p 1080p

  QUICKTIME STANDARD

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  IPOD

  Standard

  “Cop Out” hits theaters on February 26th.

Got something to tell us? Wanna see your name in digital lights? Use this handy scoop form below to send us the dirt.

Prefer a more low-tech approach? Write us direct at scoops@newsaskew.com.

• Don’t say we didn’t tell ya so. Some folks loved the trailer, a few doubters expressed concern, but yesterday, at a test screening for “Cop Out”, audiences dug the hell out of the film. Web buzz has been highly positive, and Kevin reports that in-house reaction was so strong, one V.I.P. attendee was already questioning him about what he’d like to do next.

  Take a look at this reaction posted today at Aint It Cool News..

  Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis are great together. Jordan plays a cop and a husband who is fairly grounded in reality (not at all like his 30 ROCK Tracy Jordan character), only a bit paranoid (his wife, Rashida Jones, may or may not be cheating on him), a terrible actor (he plays a very unconvincing bad guy, when trying to trick a perp into giving up information), and possibly has a coke habit (the only reason I can think of for his constant sniffling).

  Willis is pretty much what you would expect in this, but plays off of Morgan really, really well.

  Adam Brody and Kevin Pollack play another team of detectives who are a couple of dicks. They figure into the story, but are somewhat inconsequential. Like he has in other movies though, Brody is pretty good about stealing the spotlight in the small opportunities he has.

  You know what you’re getting from Sean William Scott from the trailer: a wiseass. Only he does parkour, although not particularly well. He’s not a star of this movie, but is very funny in a few key scenes.

  Guillermo Diaz is the main bad guy and is all sort of bad ass. The dude has a habit of putting someone in a batting cage and hitting baseballs at them. Ouchies!

  In the end, this feels a lot like a LETHAL WEAPON movie for 2010. It’s got some action, some comedy, and is just pretty much a joy to watch all the way through.

  We never really spoke out about the trailer, and haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the final cut yet, though here’s what we think — If you watch the trailer, you can tell that the film just has such raw dialogue, that they had to struggle just to find enough to cut together in a green-band, which usually spells GREATNESS for an R-rated comedy. Plus, they’re not giving away much about the film’s plot or any of the big jokes. Don’t you hate when you go into a movie and just wait for all the jokes and beats from the trailer to unspool? You start thinking “Well, the movie must not be ending yet, I still didn’t see joke # xxxx from the trailer”.

  Kevin has stated that he didn’t cut the “Cop Out” trailer and that the movie will surprise anyone who saw the trailer and had doubts. Not that what’s in the trailer is bad, mind you, but what you’re actually going to see in the film blows that trailer out of the water. After being fans for so long, we know how Kevin constructs a film, and this one’s going to be a modern action comedy classic. There’s no doubt about it.

  Mark your calendars and be ready for “Cop Out” on February 26th — And if you catch it early, be sure to let us know what you thought.

• We do always warn ya that when Kevin hits Toronto, tickets don’t last — Once again that prediction has come true, as Ticketmaster just doesn’t have any more seats left through their box office. HOWEVER, you might still have a shot at nabbing some seats if you work directly with the Roy Thomson Hall box office . Give them a shot. It’s going to be a fantastic show, Kevin always blows the doors off the place but in Canada, things just get even crazier with a packed house full of over 2,000 die-hard fans. If you’ve got the means, and they’re got the seats, head into Toronto for this show. The fun kicks off a month from today, on February 6th at 8:00 PM. Be there.

  For details on current available dates on Kevin’s spring tour, check out the View Askew site for ticket links and more. We’ll promote and announce future dates for 2010 as they arrive — We hear there’s plenty more on the way. If Kevin hasn’t come to your area yet, now is a fantastic time for you to talk to your local college activities board or venue about getting him in town. Kevin often comes to venues where he’s asked, rather than seeking them out. In other words, if you ask — He will likely come!

• Howdy folks, just a few newsbites for the middle of a fairly quiet week — We do hope you’ve scoured the awesome new SModcast site from top to bottom. Ming’s design is amazing, the site’s a work of art and yes, it’s got every single episode there at your fingertips. A great time to get on board or pass on to a friend. Share the love of the greatest podcast in all the land! Hit up www.smodcast.com today , and don’t forget to check out the freshly minted episode #101.
• While this tweet’s getting near a day old now, twitter user @spoilertvmovies sent out the following message:

  If you are in the LOS ANGELES area on Thursday and would like to see a Sneak Screening of the new Bruce Wilis movie Cop Out – Contact us

  It might be worth hitting them up with a tweet or message to see if you can still get into the show tomorrow. Seeing Kev’s flick almost 2 months early? Priceless.

• Scooper Pat sends us the following deets on Kevin’s involvement in the Hughes doc, “Don’t You Forget About Me”:

  “…He basically explained his take on Hughes and his work. (As far as his films go, the doc focused mostly on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and Weird Science.) Kevin also mentioned that as much as the movies touched him, what he felt was missing for himself personally, he made into Clerks.”

  Pretty cool stuff, can’t say we recall Kevin ever referring to “Clerks” as missing material from the other Hughes movies brought to life in Kevin’s own world, but we like it.

• We ran the scan last update, now here’s a bit more detail from Entertainment Weekly on that “Cop Out” image they ran in this week’s ish:
  

  After an undercover stolen cell-phone bust goes bad in the cop comedy Cop Out, out Feb. 26, the detectives on the case — Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis — are hauled in for what director Kevin Smith calls “the classic ‘You guys are f– ups!’ scene.” Clearly, Willis isn’t too happy about it. “Later on, you’ll see three different forms of Bruce Willis action grimace,” says Smith. “But this is the getting-dressed-down-by-a-superior grimace, and that, mercifully, happens very little in the movie, because as we all know, Bruce Willis has no superior.”

  As for Morgan’s cellular attire, Smith jokes that the suit was “definitely a controversial choice.” While Morgan was always supposed to wear the suit in the previous scene, Smith explains, “I remember in the script, it didn’t say that Tracy was still wearing the suit. [I thought], let’s spin it a little bit by leaving him in that ridiculous outfit — it just plays into what happened, and we get a few more [comedy] beats out of it. The first time we see Tracy [in the scene], it’s Bruce and Tracy in profile. So you see Bruce and you see this giant cell phone suit, and then Tracy pops his head out of the suit altogether and says, ‘Thank you captain!'”

  The film also wasn’t always called Cop Out, either. You can click here for Smith’s ode to the film’s original risqué title, A Couple of Dicks, but the director says he stood firm about worries over the film’s salty R-rated language. “I’m sorry, in the world of cops, if people are firing guns at you, nobody says ‘freakin,'” says the director. “Except on TV, where they say ‘mother falcon’ all the time.”

• And finally to finish off the ‘Bites today, there’s nothing really new in this article, but we like how Empire brings up the tune of “Hit Somebody” and promotes their love of the idea — There’s even a direct link where you can listen to the song that’s inspiring Kev to write the film. Worth a listen.

  Furthermore, Obsessed With Film logs a nice summary of the project so far, piecing together a lot of the news we’ve logged over the past few months in a tidy little package. Sort of a “Cliff’s Notes” of “Hit Somebody” in its early stages.

• After SModcat episode #100, Kevin promised “changes”, and tonight, that promise becomes a reality. The official SModcast Wesbite goes live TONIGHT at MIDNIGHT, EST! This new site will give SModcast a dedicated URL and home for its entire archive of free episodes, all the way back to the start. Throughout the day, Kevin tweeted two teeny, tiny preview images which you’ll see above. But tonight, in just a few short moments, you’ll experience the official website, in all its glory.

  More good news? Well, first off, SModcast is still free. The new domain does not bring a cost with it. Not only that, but the iTunes delay is gone — Those of you who enjoy SModcast via your iTunes podcast feed will now see the new episodes show up as soon as they hit the site.

  Oh, and by the way? When the site’s live, so is episode #101. SModcast #101 TONIGHT!

  Quick Stop Entertainment is no longer a View Askew-owned site, but a new site called “Fred”, under the watchful eye of Ken Plume, who ran QSE and continues to produce the awesome SModcast (thank him for all the great music and FX you hear when you listen). So, we invite you to check out Fred, and of course visit the official SModcast site today.

  For the official press release from Kev (and a heck of a deal on a t-shirt), take a look here.

• Has Kevin got the record for most tweets in 2010 so far? Mr. Smith has taken the time to kick off the new year chatting with the fans over these past few days, approach almost 200 tweets for the year at presstime (190 by our count), where he’s dropped science on some familiar topics: sex, drugs, hockey, PSAs, and a little flick called “Cop Out” that’s hitting theaters next month. Ah, it’s nice to see the new year hasn’t changed things too much. Here’s a look at some of the most news/noteworthy:

  Via @wadew22 “Who plays the villian in COP OUT?” A guy I’ve wanted to work with for a long time now: http://tinyurl.com/iloveguillermodiaz

  Via @JeepersMedia “Is there ANY Old Movie that you could Remake Better?” DOGMA. I’d make minor cast changes and move the camera a lot more.

  Via @codyunderblood “Austin Q&A: Still a chance we’ll get live SMOD to close the show?” If it sells out, yes: http://tinyurl.com/kevaustin

  Via @thebdizzle “widening gyre kicking ass.” Thanks! I love it, too. Ish 4 ships this week (or next) & Walt’s almost half done w/ ish 5 art.

  Via @TJdaSportsGuy “Ever consider getting a show on XM/Sirius?” If they can set it up so I can do it all from my office every morning? In.

  As always, hit up the Twitter feed directly for all the lurid details, but strap in — And hide the kiddies!

• With special thanks to DenVog, News Askew is proud to announce our 5 lucky winners of a copy of the new Kevin Smith iPhone Application! These 5 winners were randomly chosen from all entries submitted, and will each receive a code that, via iTunes, will let you download a free copy of the App, also entitling you to free future upgrades. Congrats to our lucky winners, and thanks to all of those who tried:

  Patrick Piteo, Justin Owades, Dominic Soria, Eric Rummel, Zakary Kurzawski

  Winners: Watch your email and spam boxes, as we’ll be sending your codes out on Monday.

  For those of you who tried and didn’t win, or just haven’t purchsed it yet — We’d like to remind you that the app is a bargain at the low price of 99 cents, and an easy decision for any fan/follower of Kevin or News Askew to purchase. The app makes it easy to get the latest updates from Kevin, direct access to News Askew stories as soon as they’re posted, custom photos, ringtones, and lots of other toys. Grab yourself a copy of this very slick, affordable app today — A must-own if you want to keep up with Kevin Smith and News Askew. App prices aren’t set in stone, by the way — While we hope the price never changes, you never know, so if you’re on the fence, drop the 99 cents today and secure yourself a copy of this beautiful app at a fantastic price.