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Press Onslaught!

April 2nd @ 12:20 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris, GAKish

  • We’ve got a bunch of press articles today on Kevin’s upcoming can’t-miss Q&A’s for ya, so we figured we’d just give them a headline, toss some cool quotes of your way, and let you click away at ‘em one by one. Let’s get started:
Home News Tribune: “The passion of Kevin Smith: Despite move to L.A., filmmaker’s heart belongs to Red Bank”

“…We’re calling it “Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks,” and we’re seeing how long we can get away with it before somebody from Mel Gibson’s office drops us a cease-and-desist letter. We start shooting in, it looks like, May. And then the dream is to take it to Sundance to debut it — because (the original) “Clerks” debuted up in Sundance back in January of ‘94 — and then go out in theaters early 2006.”

NorthJersey.com – “Kevin Smith won’t skimp with the fans”

Q. Why do a sequel to “Clerks?”

I would just love to see what [characters] Dante and Randall would be up to today. It’s going to be a lot of fun since it’ll be different from the type of films I’ve made recently. With “Jersey Girl” I burned out on making movies with big, famous people. That can come back and bite you if two of your stars date and then break up.

Q. So, are you saying that you won’t work with your pal Ben Affleck anytime soon?

No, I would work with Ben in a heartbeat. I just wouldn’t cast whomever Ben is dating at the time. [Laughs]

Q. So if the opportunity to work with Jennifer Garner came up…

I would work with Jennifer Garner but not with Ben Affleck. I wouldn’t put those two in a movie for fear that they would break up. I’m not going through that hell again.

Q. What’s the sequel to “Clerks” about?

What happens when an angry young man turns 35. You can’t be really angry anymore – well, you can still be angry, but you can’t be young. It’s not nearly as cool.

Courier News Online: “April Fool: Not-So-Silent Bob coming to the Raue”

“…I still can’t figure out the infatuation with celebrities. I guess it marks the time before death, but usually there is no good information. What was weird was I became the go-to person. People, Us, the Star were all calling me about him. It’s not like I sleep with him,” said Smith. “But it’s to the point where all you have to do is (what Paris Hilton did on a tape that first surfaced in the Internet) and you’re famous.””

Courier News Online: “Ask Him Yourself: Questions For Kevin Smith”

“Filmmaker Kevin Smith, who will hold court at the Raue Center Sunday night, said there are no stupid questions. Well there are, but those often lead to some of the better exchanges. And he’s at the mercy of his work, so, yes he’s been asked if he can has tried to perform a certain contortion that made for one of the best bits in Clerks. But if you are heading to the chat and can’t think of anything from our interview, here are some suggestions, some sublime, mostly silly, and maybe enough to kill four hours…”

See you in Red Bank: Tomorrow. Don’t miss the big homecoming appearance.

Filed in: News

Audio: Kevin w/ Miller, Rodriguez…

April 2nd @ 12:19 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Honest Abe, GAKish, Shawn

  • Kevin’s interview with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller about the INCREDIBLE Sin City is now online. It was conducted for NPR where it aired today. You can listed to the complete audio via the link at the top of THIS PAGE . The piece runs almost a full hour, and is extended further from what aired on this morning’s edition. It proves that Kevin not only makes quite the interviewee, but an astute interviewER as well. Enjoy.

By the way: Kevin’s Miramax Films get a very prominent plug in the literature and on the DVD that Best Buy is giving out to promote SIN CITY.

Filed in: News

See You In Red Bank!

April 1st @ 6:16 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Ming, Brad & Chris

  • In case you had a last minute schedule change, or just plain forgot about this HUGE event — Kevin’s Red Bank homecoming is celebrated THIS SATURDAY, with his first Q&A in the town since the last East Coast Vulgarthon YEARS ago! Tickets are still available for this huge event, taking place at the Count Basie right in Red Bank at 8 PM this Saturday night. Even better, Kevin will be signing his new book at the Stash immediately following the event. Here’s the official word:
KEVIN SMITH RETURNS TO RED BANK – GET YOURSELF SOME EAST COAST Q&A ACTION

For those of you on the East Coast who want to catch on of Kevin’s famous Q&A’s, there are still a few tickets left for Kevin’s Q&A in Red Bank at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey – the place where it all started.

The show starts at 8:00pm THIS SATURDAY – APRIL 2. Tickets can be obtained by calling the Count Basie box office at 732-842-9000 or visiting their online ordering site http://tinyurl.com/6dpzp.

AND AFTER THE Q&A….

Kevin will be doing a book signing for the newly released ‘Silent Bob Speaks: The Collected Writings of Kevin Smith’ at Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash immediately after the Q&A in Red Bank. This book does not street in other stores until April 13th so here’s your chance to not only get an early copy, but to also get it signed by the author.

Chris is stuck working the day job, but Brad will be there for the event — Stop and say hi! I hope to pick up oneof Ming’s nametags which might help. SEE YOU THERE!!!

Filed in: News

Kevin On Clerks Start Date, Title

April 1st @ 6:10 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brett

  • Kevin’s got an incredibly busy weekend, with Saturday’s Red Bank gig followed by Sunday’s Raue Center Q&A. The Northwest Herald ran an interview with Kev in anticipation of the show, and even tossed us a plug at the end (thanks folks). Here’s a few choice quotes:
I remember when you were working on “Jersey Girl” that you had said goodbye to all those characters from “Clerks.” So why go back?

It’s probably a three-fold reason. First off, I put them away at a time when Jason Mewes (Jay) was so knee-deep in heroin and oxycontin that is became not fun to make those movies any more. And he’s since cleaned up. April 6 he celebrates his two years’ completely-clean-and-sober birthday. So Mewes getting out of drugs certainly helped.

Also, last year I was working on this “Clerks X” DVD, which is a three-DVD set we put out to celebrate the 10th anniversary of “Clerks.” I hadn’t spent that much time with the movie since we were editing it, and I just fell in love with those characters again and was just like, Boy, I would like to make a movie about these guys to see where they were in their lives 10 years later, to see what happens when the angry young man grows up. Also, it became really appealling to shoot a movie with guys who weren’t insane movie stars, whose relationships on and off camera might threaten the box office of our movie or how our movie was perceived. So it was like, Boy, I would like to make a movie with Brian and Jeff again, that would be fun.

And then also I was supposed to be doing “Green Hornet.” I had signed up to do this big, cinematic comic-book adaptation. But once the dust settled from the deal being settled, I was struck by the notion that I’ve never wanted to make one these movies. I like watching these movies, but I never wanted to make one of those movies. The idea of making a $70 million movie, it’s just not your movie anymore. It becomes somebody else’s movie because you’ve got to appease the mainstream because that’s who’s got to show up in order for you to make your money back. You can’t just go after your fan base and the people who traditionally watch your stuff. You have to appeal to a far broader audience. And I just can’t do that. I don’t know how to do that, and I have no interest in doing that because then you start to lose your voice – me, personally, as a filmmaker. Some people can absolutely pull it off. I just don’t think I can.

So rather than think about doing that, I was like, “You know, I would rather make a movie where I have complete complete control, it’s completely in my voice, and I don’t have to worry about a bunch of people showing up to see it because the budget would be so insanely cheap.” So finally I was just like, “Do it. Do ‘Clerks 2.’ Why not ‘Clerks 2′?”

So, you’re working now on “Passion of the Clerks”?

No, we start shooting in the first week of June. That’s the slated start.

Are you going to be sticking with the “Passion of the Clerks” title?

Until Mel Gibson rips it out of our hands, yeah. I’d be shocked if we made it all the way through to theatrical release with that title. The bad thing about the title is that some people have been going, “So it’s a parody film?” Really, it’s not a parody film at all. The title is insanely appropriated for the subject matter once you’ve seen the movie.

Filed in: News

“Boring-Ass Life” Continues!

April 1st @ 5:57 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris, Greg Anderson

  • Kevin’s “Boring Ass-Life” web blog-like diaries continue today at the site, now fully caught up and available for your reading and commenting pleasure at The Board (And just for the record, we sadly missed Kev and Malc by a matter of around 10 feet — We were late as well, so we were inside chomping pancakes when the two of them drove by. A simple miscommunication, but a real shame to miss out on the breakfast company. For the record, though — What a fine little place that Griddle is. Both service and food, spectacular.)

Some interesting tidbits today, especially the censored stuff…Makes you go “hmmmm”. Here’s a few tidbits:

  • I talk to ********** who’s come to town for this meeting with the folks at ********** about a ********** feature. We plan for her and *********** (her producing partner/husband) to come over to the house at 9 tomorrow morning for a pre-meeting before we all head over to ***********.
  • ************* and *********** arrive, and they sit down with me and Jackman to talk about what’s going on with the ************ feature. All seems on track, as we’re all on the same page. At about 10:30, ***********, ********** and I head over to the ************ lot.

    (NOTE: As the above stuff is still in development stages, I’ve gotta leave the pertinent info out until deals are in place and signed. Sorry.)

Any guesses on that one?

We’ll be archiving all the complete diaries in a very tidy way here at News Askew as soon as we can get caught up on being away, all the Vulgarthon comments we’ve yet to update, and the like. Stick with us!

Oh, and by the by: JoBlo and CHUD seem to be following these diaries, as well, judging from their recent updates.

Filed in: News

View Askew NewsBites™

April 1st @ 12:35 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Ming, Justin McGill, Bill Chappell

  • Kevin made a call-in appearance to the Sarah and No-Name show on Alice 97.3 in San Francisco to talk about the Vulgarthon, the morning after the big show (just hours after it ended!). Listen to the 30 minute clip HERE.
  • The IMDB runs a few more specific details on the new Weinstein deal:
After months of tug-of-war negotiations, the Walt Disney Company and Miramax founders Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein finally announced an agreement Tuesday, ending their 12-year relationship. It boiled down to this: Disney gets the Miramax name and library; the Weinsteins reportedly get $130-140 million, Miramax’s Dimension Films subsidiary, and several films that they’ve been developing (although they must pay Disney a fee for each of them). Today’s New York Times reported that the Weinsteins intend to combine the money with whatever their investment bankers, Goldman Sachs, line up to start a new film company. For the time being, it’s being called “The Weinstein Co.” In an interview with the Times, Harvey Weinstein implied that things might have gone differently if the new regime at Disney had been in place earlier. Weinstein ticked off numerous “entrepreneurial deals” that Disney, under Michael Eisner and chief strategist Peter Murphy had rejected. “At the new Disney,” Weinstein told the newspaper, “I think that those entrepreneurial efforts will be met with a stronger response. So that’s the irony of this deal.” Separately, he told the Wall Street Journal: “I could have built a $5 billion company, rather than a $2 billion one.” Analysts expressed doubt that the Weinsteins will be able to enjoy more autonomy with their new company than with their old. Veteran media analyst Jeffrey Logsdon with investment bankers Harris Nesbitt said in a Los Angeles Times interview: “Clearly, they’ve had enormous financial flexibility under the Disney umbrella, which is not likely to continue no matter how they design their independent company.” The Weinsteins are due to remain with Miramax until September 30. Thus far, there has been little speculation about who will replace them. (Disney said Tuesday that their successors will be named in July.) Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, Paramount Pictures Co-President Ruth Vitale remarked, “To me the biggest curiosity factor is who’s taking over Miramax and what will that look like? That’s more interesting to me. Harvey and Bob will be Harvey and Bob wherever they are.”

A story from IndieWire with new quotes from Harvey HERE as well.

  • Vulgarthon attendees! Jeff Anderson has asked that, if you were into his flick, “Now You Know”, that you head over to the IMDB and vote it up C’mon… show the love, folks. VOTE HERE.
  • So is everyone as stoked to see Sin City tomorrow as we are? We’ve got some cool news on this front as well – Kevin’s interview with the duo behind the film will be online shortly from NPR, and run nearly one hour long. Their site has a preview of the piece. See you soon!

Filed in: News

Disney/Miramax Split Official…

March 30th @ 7:14 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Alonso Duralde, Jessica Folmar, Darren Crist, Don Dudoussat

  • It’s proabably no surprise to you fine folks reading this site, but articles are running rampant that the Disney/Miramax split is indeed official today, with the announcement formally made. We’re going to run down all that press in a minute for you, which basically confirms that Harvey and Bob will start their own company, leaving the legacy of fine work behind in the Disney vaults, along with the company that they personally named to honor their family. Oh, and ALL the Miramax flicks. What this means for the View Askew stuff, and future rights to DVD releases, etc…we’re not sure. Seems like it’s all going to work out fine for us, though.

Dimension comes with them. Miramax stays behind and will get a new leader by July. Harvey and Bob will stay part time with Disney through September. They’re planning to do 15 to 20 films a year in the new shop, the FIRST of which was just greenlit: the Clerks sequel. How’s that for making some View Askew history, huh?

There’s more detail in the many press articles running across our desks today, so here’s a look at some of ‘em:

AP/Yahoo – Disney, Miramax Founders Reach Settlement

“…The Weinsteins will take with them relationships with directors Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Anthony Minghella and others who have become part of the company’s stable of loyal filmmakers.

The Weinstein’s new company will release 15 to 20 films a year, including co-productions with Disney, Weinstein said. It will also include other components, including the Internet and publishing, which will be detailed in the next few weeks, Weinstein said.”

Defamer – Weinstein’s Divorce A Done Deal

“…As the work at Miramax continues, we are also preparing to launch our new company in the near future, and look forward to spending time in both the LA and NY offices discussing with you our future plans and potential employment opportunities with our new company. While, under our new agreement with Disney, we have agreed to certain changes, including not making new financial commitments towards the development, acquisition or production of projects on behalf of Miramax, this does not apply to our activities for our new Company, and we plan to immediately begin scouting out new projects for it to pursue.”

Indiewire – Weinstein’s Leaving Miramax, Will Form New Company; Brothers Taking Dimension Label, Leaving All Film Libraries at Disney

“”Harvey and Bob’s unprecedented 12-year association with Disney will go down in the motion picture annals for its unparalleled contributions to independent filmmaking and the entrepreneurial creative spirit they fostered within a corporate environment,” said Michael Eisner, CEO, The Walt Disney Company. “The Weinstein’s passion and enthusiasm for film are infinite and will thrive wherever their vision takes them.””

We’ll keep you posted on any news with this breaking story. Harvey and Bob are bringing the best talent with them, and can’t wait to see the projects they back as the new company sets up shop. It’s a very exciting time for us all!

Filed in: News

View Askew NewsBites™

March 30th @ 7:14 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Greg Trawinski, Simon, Alonso Duralde, Justin McGill

  • Love Clerks? That go give it some love in the current poll at Box Office Prophets asking folks what their favorite recent black and white film is!

  • Rope Of Silicon has posted the never-before-seen Matt Murdock cameo
    that was removed from Elektra. Click on the clip “Come Back” to watch Affleck’s brief, never-before-seen appearance.
  • The lovely Claire Forlani has become the second Mallrats cast member to currently be involved in
    a TV show (3rd, actually, if you count Ethan Supplee for being cast in Lee’s sitcom). She’ll play a magazine editor
    in a drama pilot for CBS.

  • Know the dude in the Jersey Girl Hard Rock scene who mutters “that guy’s toast”? His name is Mark
    Jwayad. He worked on JG as Scott’s assistant, and now has a film of his own coming out. “Oh Danny Boy,”
    premieres in Portland, Oregon – Saturday, April 9th, at 8:15 PM. It’s a crazy feature length, college comedy about
    summer school, Catholicism, and the theater. Check here for details or contact Mark
    directly markjwayad@hotmail.com for more info. They’re also scheduled to do shows in Seattle on April 22nd and San
    Francisco (where it was shot) on May 1st.

Filed in: News

Jet Lag…But We’re Workin’ Thru It!

March 30th @ 12:09 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • We’re back on the chillier and cloudier east coast today, safe and sound after a full day of travelling yesterday that took us into 3AM last nite (air travel…ick). So, now that we’ve home, it’s time for the dust to settle and get caught up on things.

We’ll have a full update containing all the news stories that have been breaking this week – The Disney/Miramax split, news on another Mallrats cast member heading to the small screen, Affleck’s Elektra cameo, and more. Coming very soon.

Vulgarthon was a real treat. Our coverage page is a bit sparse now, as updates were tricky to make on our slow cell modem connection in the theater (imagine about half the speed of a 56k modem). So, now that the event’s over, we’re reflecting back on things and have a LOT more to say. As a result, the Vthon 2005 page is going to get a full rewrite with new/enhanced photos, info, stories, and lots more. There’s a lot we forgot to tell you about.

While you’re waiting, if you’ve got a Vulgarthon story, or photos, you’d like to share, SEND THEM IN! We’d love to add your experiences to our Vulgarthon 2005 page to save in the archives for all time. It was nice meeting some of you, and we hope you all have/had a safe journey back home this week.

Filed in: News

Chasing Amy Cast Reunites!

March 29th @ 9:15 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by

Alright, let’s say this to start — We’re finally back writing updates after a HUGE deal here…The entire Chasing Amy cast just reuinted just around 7 feet from me!

The reunion Q&A was full of questions….Some good…Some bad…And even one fan proposing to his girlfriend, in the audience.

Not a lot of NEW information, given this was filmed for the DVD…Some great stories, humorous comments from Affleck, very few words from Lee (who, coincidentally, got the largest amount of applause for those in attendance, though Affleck had the most autograph chasers).

Given the fact that Jersey Girl is now screeing a 2:25 cut that we’ve yet to see, we’re going to leave it at that for now. We can tell you this about this cut so far — In the theatrical cut, Jen dies around 10 minutes in. In this one, she dies 40 minutes in. Factor in a totally different ending, still yet to be seen, and this is easily the longest JG cut that anyone will ever lay eyes upon.

Sorry that we can’t say more at this point, and we apologize if the pics aren’t the best (someone get us new cameras for Christmas!)….We hope you enjoy. Talk to you again soon. The marathon continues!

Filed in: News