PAGING DR.ROSENROSEN Sit tight in that waiting room. Kevin Smith is backburning his Fletch remake for one last go-round with his cult characters Jay and Silent Bob. The tenatively titled View Askew 5 is “going to be the last one in the Askewniverse series that started out as the Jersey triliogy and became five films” says Smith. Returning to Smith’s set are Jason Mews, Jason Lee (who will play both his characters from Chasing Amy and Mallrats), Ben Affleck (who will reprise his Chasing Amy role), and Chris Rock (who’s trading in his fallen angel Rufus from Dogma for a new character). Whether God will return to Askewniverse in the form of Alanis Morissette is yet to be determined.

Q. Has anyone here shared files over the Internet?

KS. I’ve never understood what the big deal was in regards to Napster. If someone likes an artist, they’re going to buy th CD. The number of those who download and opt against buying the CD is very small. There are plenty of libraries in this country, yet people still buy books. The Napster opponents underestimate the American fascination with ownership.

Q. Does everyone expect the current situation, which mostly envolves music, to spread to movies and other forms of digitized entertainment?

KS. With test-screening video dubs winding up in the hands of people who’ll sell them to film fans, it’s not a big leap to predict that you’ll be able to watch a film that’s not even been theatrically released yet on your computer in the very near future. I can’t imagine the studios letting this happen. The music industry opened this pandora’s box by leaking tracks on the internet as a publicity device. No studio is going to put a movie up for file sharing. And that’s where I think downloading music and dowloading movies differ. With music there’s a high chance the dowloader will sitll wind up buying the CD. For those who would dowload movies off the net the chances of them actually then paying to see the movie theatrically are slim. File sharing of films would hurt the movie biz more than file sharing of music can hurt the music biz.

Q. Mr. Smith, your website (WWW.ViewAskew.com) gives fan access to information they might not otherwise be able to get. The same could be done with your films. As an independent film maker do you view the internet as a piracy threat or a marketing opportunity?

KS. I’d lean toward the latter I can’t tell you how valuable our website’s been to building our audiance. If some of those fans wanted to download my flicks and trade them, they’re welcome to. I have faith they’ll buy the source material (on VHS or DVD) because packaging is important to people. Never underestimate the lure of a full color box.