Author Archive

View Askew NewsBites™

July 21st @ 11:28 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Tom O'Brien

  • Kevin gets some ink and a funny quip or two in this Hollywood Reporter piece regarding his acceptance of the first ever DVD Visionary
    Award earlier this month:
Edwards, Smith honored by VSDA

By Erik Gruenwedel

LAS VEGAS — With almost 50 films to his credit, including the “Pink Panther” movies, “Victor/ Victoria,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and the Bo Derek starrer “10,” director Blake Edwards received the Lifetime Achievement Award here Wednesday at VSDA’s Home Entertainment 2004 Awards.

The 80-year-old Edwards, who, due to failing knees, walked onstage with two canes, appeared embarrassed by the attention and joked about old age. “So many of my friends are here,” Edwards said. “They look so much younger in the dark.”

Edwards deadpanned that he didn’t know much about the VSDA, but “I do now because I have notes.”

He joked that the success of DVD sell-through of his movies has resulted in steady royalties and residuals, spurring his renewed appreciation of the VSDA.

Gen X director Kevin Smith, honored with the VSDA’s inaugural DVD Visionary Award, quipped that his accolade ranked him among an elite crowd.

“I’m in a select group of people that includes Shannon Tweed,” Smith said.

He said DVD gave him a larger audience and continued career, which he admitted took him by surprise.

During commentary for the video release of “Chasing Amy,” Smith expressed initial disdain for the DVD format.

“I opened the commentary with ‘Fuck DVD,’ ” he said. “I couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Jim Caviezel, honored as man of the year, played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” During a humorous recollection of a meeting with the pope, Caviezel said he told the pope that for a number of reasons, including the fact that “his mom thinks he’s God,” Jesus must have been Italian. The pope, Caviezel said, shot back, “I thought he was Polish.”

Rising Female Star of the Year winner Rebecca Romijn-Stamos thanked video for affording her the opportunity to see the film “Sixteen Candles” more than 80 times.

The award’s male recipient, Jason Ritter, who expressed excitement at being honored for the first time in his career, said he would try to “live up to (the accolade).”

  • There was a brief mention of Kevin and his history of attending San Diego Comicon as a fan and a director on NPR’s Morning Edition
    today. The piece is called “When Comic Book Fans Talk, Hollywood Listens”.
  • Jersey Girl’s Raquel Castro will be co-hosting The Ryan Seacrest show, set ot air on August 4th. Raquel is Ryan’s first ever co-host, and interviews
    Bobbi J. Thompson from “The Tracy Morgan Show”, the kids from “Everyone Loves Raymond” and Danny Bonaduce.

View Askew NewsBites™

July 20th @ 11:54 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Ian P, Mark Standridge, Chris Harrison, Jason Ross, Brendan Zegers, Tom Woodward, Jennifer Diffendale, Jeff, Geoff D, Mysterio, Dubh, Chris Eskew

  • It’s a very quick mention, but a high-profile one from CNN’s Nick Nunziata today in an article on the best comedy has to offer today. In
    it, Kevin is named in a short list of modern comic talent in the film industry:
Quote on Smith: “Add to that group of mercurial talent the genre-bending comedic work being delivered by the Coen Brothers, Larry David, Kevin Smith and Wes Anderson and the still strong output of Sandler, Carrey and now old-school industry heavyweights such as Zucker, Farrelly and Brooks, and you have what arguably is the strongest assembly of comedic virtuosity the movie business has ever seen.”

Quote on Carlin: “On top of that is …the still bright careers of legends such as Bill Murray, George Carlin and Steve Martin.”

Read the whole piece, which is quite good, at CNN’s site.

  • Here’s a new piece of coolness for ya today. The Ant Farm, a company which specializes in those catchy animated film titles you see at
    the top of most flicks these days, has snuck a GREEN HORNET motion in the middle of their Motion Graphics montage at their official site.
    Chances are this was just done as a concept piece since the film is still far off, but you may start seeing it on display at trade shows to tout the film’s
    title and get word out there. You can watch the full clip, which is pretty neat, at their site, or just check out the Green Hornet logo by clicking the
    local copy we put HERE.
  • For those interested, DVD Answers has just added the quite different Region 2 DVD artwork for Jersey Girl
    as well.
  • There’s View Askew and Kevin mentions coming up in the September Playboy and they’re both great ones. First up: They review only about 4 DVD
    release from the month in the issue. Jersey Girl’s one of them, and we hear it gets an excellent review. Also, in their article on outlaw comedy, while
    Kev or any the films didn’t make the main article, both Kevin and George Carlin did make the list of “25 Greatest Outlaw Comedy People”. Carlin comes in
    the top 10, with Kevin at #19, among such respectable company as Lenny Bruce, Hunter S. Thompson and many more. We’ll of course have actual scans or copies of
    these once they’re published, but as always, we wanted to let you know as soon as we knew. See ya next time!

View Askew NewsBites™

July 19th @ 8:31 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Tom Woodward, Jessica Wilson, Derek A. Schroen, Dan, Mysterio, TigerDeuce, Shimmer, Andy, Dave Julian

  • We’ve got a picturific update for you here today, with a bunch of nifty little graphics for you to click on. Fun, right? Let’s get
    started. First off, DVD Answers has gotten a hold of the proposed final disc jacket and disc
    art for the film-only release of Jersey Girl, coming up on September 7th. Looks like a basic look for the more basic release. We figure the gang will
    do something a bit more special for the Special Edition, as they often do.

  • Next we’ve got the scan of that Blender piece we mentioned yesterday. No big deal but it’s always cool to see a mention in the actual
    context. Click and enjoy.
  • Chasing Amy is now on Starz “On Demand!” Avaible through Starz, and showing until August 15th. If you’re too lazy to stand up and put
    your DVD in, you can just pop one of the best View Askew films from the comfort of your own chair.

  • You want more scans? Okay. How about this coolness? Look who made it into Trivial Pursuit Volume 6! Click to see.
  • Adult Swim contibutor MC Chris cites Kevin as an inspiration in this new interview from In Music We Trust.
  • Editorial: So now that the Superman project is back to formula at the Warners’, with Bryan Singer in the director’s chair, why not give
    Kevin a call back to do the script his way, without the polar bear and giant spider requirements? Anyone listening? A Kevin-scripted Supes would still
    be something we’d love to see.

  • And in our final photo of the day, some unintentional Askewage was spotted in an Australian coast town called Warrnambool.

View Askew NewsBites™

July 18th @ 9:42 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Frank Kergil, Buck Cendejas

  • Kevin’s on a Top 10 List of great things to come from Jersey in the August issue of Blender magazine. Page 168. If someone’s got a scan,
    we’ll run them all for ya.
  • Another wonderful reason to hit the San Diego con: Film Threat’s first feature comedy, “My Big Fat Independent Movie”, contains spoofs of indie films like Memento,
    Swingers, Pulp Fiction, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Amelie, Run Lola Run, Pi, and features Paget Brewster, Clint Howard, JASON MEWES, Bob Odenkirk, Julie
    Strain, and more. Sounds like a fun
    one!
  • Will Smith’s Jersey Girl cameo comes up in this piece
    that ran in the Orlando Sentinel this weekend. Here’s the snippet:
But getting to the “real” Smith is trickier. Kevin Smith, who directed him in a cameo in Jersey Girl, has Smith meet a disgraced-but-coming-back publicist in an office where the publicist, played by Ben Affleck, will either rejoin the showbiz rat race, or check out. And Will Smith, movie star, sets the publicist’s priorities straight.

“That’s Will’s interpretation of Will,” Smith says with a laugh. “The reality is somewhat more hidden, I guess. I hide it even from myself. I hope it’s realistic. It’s how I want to see myself.”

  • Jay & Bob get a quick name drop in this article on online comic creator
    Justin Peterson.

3 New View Askew Posters For Your Walls!

July 15th @ 9:50 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Matt Booker

  • You want new swag? Do ya? Well, we gots it for ya right here. How about 3 brand new View Askew posters to covers those ugly walls of
    yours? These appear in the latest Diamond Previews, and thus aren’t ready for
    order from us yet, but coming VERY SOON:
Dress-up those drab walls of your parent’s post-modern decorated living room with your choice of three new colorful poster selections.

* Clerks French Poster measures 24” x 36” and provides a new level of culture to your walls. Dialogue from the movie Clerks never looked so important.

* Mallrats: Soar Poster measures 30” x 24” and provides some much need focus and inspiration. Set your sights high… the worse you can do is crash and burn!

* Nails Promotional Poster measures 24” x34” and drives home an important point. The Nails Cigarette campaign will soon be going nationwide with it’s unique “Truth in advertising” rarely seen displayed by a tobacco company.


CLERKS FRENCH-Poster
24×36……….$6.95


MALLRATS: SOAR-Poster
30×24……….$6.95


NAILS PROMO-Poster
24×34……….$6.95

We’ll let ya know when you can get your paws on ‘em.

View Askew NewsBites™

July 15th @ 9:49 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Alonso Duralde, Affleckfan, Tim Continenza, Justin McGill, TigerDeuce, Matthew Kappenman, Tom O'Malley, Gordon McFarland

  • “I Love The 90’s” continues to air on VH-1 all this week and weekend, featuring Jay & Silent Bob prominently through each episdoe. Kevin
    made his first appearance as himself in the 1993 episode, talking about the X-Files.
  • PROJECT GREENLIGHT was nominated for an Outstanding Reality Program Emmy this morning. We hope they win. Congrats to all involved!
  • Affleck has exited from “Glory Road”, the project that
    was to star him as a college basketball coach.
  • Damon talks Kevin in an interview found at Dark Horizons today. There’s also a reference to
    his and Ben’s next, possible, project…with Ben directing? That could be interesting:
Are you willing to work with Kevin Smith again?

Damon: Well, I was in Jersey Girl. I had one scene in Jersey Girl. I’m always ready to do whatever Kevin wants. He’s normally very good about getting me
something to do in his movies, and sometimes, like in the case of Dogma, he gives me a big role. So I’m sure one of these days – Kevin kind of writes what’s
going on in his life. Obviously Jersey Girl was a huge thing when he became a father and he started ruminating on what would happen if he lost Jen, and
this kind of whole thing – and suddenly Jersey Girl came out of that, so as Kevin kind of keeps living his life, maybe a role that will come out that he
offers to me. And the second he does, I’ll take it.

  • Scott Kramer’s tribute to Clerks and Kevin Smith, “CHASING KEVIN”, will be playing at the Comic Con International Independent Film Festival on Saturday,
    July 24. More info can be found HERE. Scott will be at the screening for a little Q&A following it. Be
    there!
  • Seems that the September 7th DVD release date appears to be getting even more crowded. Save your pennies now! The long-awaited Rounders
    Special Edition DVD, featuring View Askew alum Matt Damon is slated for release on the same day as the Clerks X & Jersey Girl DVDs. Sounds like they have
    some cool stuff on there, too.
  • Here’s the August updates as of 7/14/2004 for August viewdates of the heinously-cut Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back on Comedy Central:
The early morning 8/7 airing has been deleted.

The following airing have been added:

Early morning 8/9 @ 1:30am (no word on whether this will be part of their “Secret Stash”, unedited block. Sure seems appropriate if ever.)

8/9 at 7:30pm-9:30pm

  • Hey Kansas! We’ve got another chance for you to see Jersey Girl on the big screen. The summer movie series at the restored art deco theatre in
    Hutchinson will be showing the film in August. Tickets are 5 bucks.
Aug. 19 through 22

Thur – 7:00pm

Fri – 6:30pm, 9:00pm

Sat – 2:00pm, 6:30pm, & 9:00pm

Sun – 2:00pm

View Askew NewsBites™

July 13th @ 10:31 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Preston J. Hultz, Eric, Jade Walker, Michael Patrick Sullivan, Mike Uehlein

  • It’s the Battle of the Shanne(o)ns! On July 19th, Mallrats alum Shannen Doherty and J&SBSB alum Shannon Elizabeth will be on Game Show Network’s “Celebrity Blackjack”. It airs at 10 PM. Check their website for more info. That Shannon Hamilton guy is too busy winning other tournys to play in this one, we gather.
  • If you’re interested in the latest going on with the seemingly unfilmable Superman project, E! Online has the latest. We STILL wish they’d take another look at Kev’s script.
  • Check out a new Matt Damon interview in audio format here with a few View Askew references (as well as a Dogma link in the related articles section). NPR’s got it!
  • Is Kevin’s popular female fashion accessory choice influencing girls across the nation? It did for this one, apparently.
  • And finally today: In Entertainment Weekly, Frankie Muniz answer this question:
“Q: On Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, you and your costars pop up during the movie for a visual cast commentary. Never seen that before.

Frankie Muniz: We’re the first to do it. The interactive thing makes you feel more with the commentator. I think it’s definently better for the kids, and for everyone. Hopefully, people will copy our idea.”

We’d just like to mention this for the record: We believe that the first disc to do this was MALLRATS: SE, many years ago. Just cuz we like knowing we’re on the cutting edge with DVDs. Right? See ya next time…

Westwood Stash: Coming Soon!

July 11th @ 11:34 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris



  • Kevin was kind enough to drop us some images of what the currently closed, but coming soon, West Coast Stash will look like. Yep, it’s
    official, the building’s bought and now some familiar faces are lining the windows, enticing you with what’s to come and staking claim on the Los Angeles
    comic book industry. This will be THE place to get your books in the L.A. area, and of course, ALL of your favorite View Askew swag. Anyone lucky enough
    to have attended our stash here on the east coast can attest to the fact that a visit to the store is like a View Askew museum, full of amazing props and
    one-of-a-kind relics from the films you just can’t see anywhere else. Stash West has tons of that coolness in store for you. The new shop is located IN
    Westwood, ON Westwood, across from Chilis. No firm set opening date has yet been established, but you can bet we’ll let you know when that is, and we
    expect a BIIIG party’s gonna be held to celebrate it, too. We’ll keep ya posted, of course.

View Askew In The News…

July 11th @ 11:33 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Greg Trawinski

  • View Askew’s popping up in news all over the country this week, with Jersey Girl still making the news, Liv with child, J-Lo hitched, and of course, the
    return of Jay & Bob in “I Love The 90’s. Let’s run down the mentions for ya:
  • “I Love The 90’s” premieres on VH-1 tomorrow, and we promise, you’re gonna love this. VH-1’s series is full of fun and features Kevin and
    Jay throughout, and of course, the return of Jay & Silent Bob! These are NOT to be missed. You can read all about the show
    HERE. In the alphabetical rundown of reasons to watch, Kevin takes the
    “K” category:

    “K: Filmmaker Kevin Smith couldn’t have envisioned the mini-franchise he was about to create when he filmed 1994’s ultra low-budget, black-and-white
    slacker comedy “Clerks.” The film — which features language so profane it initially earned an NC-17 rating — featured bit characters Jay and Silent Bob
    (the latter played by Smith himself), which would be featured in all of the director’s ’90s work (”Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma”) before finally
    receiving their own starring vehicle: 2001’s “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.”

  • Affleck had a few kind words to say about Jen’s recent nuptuals.
  • “Jersey Girl” gets a very brief mention in this Star-Ledger article
    on Jersey movies.

View Askew NewsBites™

July 11th @ 11:33 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Ross, Justin McGill, Owen Killham, Vince, Buck Cendejas, RayzerRay77

  • Jay Mewes made his debut on IFC’s new “Ultimate Film Fanatic” show this weekend. It’s reairing throughout this week, so check your local
    listings (a couple are coming up tomorrow night). Of course, Mewes provided the best moments:
-In the film debate round, contestant Jordan said that with Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino “made three fantastic movies and one piece of moose penis.” After
the other judges already picked him, Mewes said, “I was going to pick Jordan for the simple fact of moose penis.”

-During the final show and tell portion of the show, one contestant displayed his mask from Phantom of the Paradise. Still in the game, Jordan showed off
his log of the 365 daily movies he had seen in 2003. Mewes said, “It’s tough because both are really good, but I’m going to go with Jordan because I’m
thinking if he’s going to see a movie every day, dude ain’t getting laid much, so he’s given up a lot.”

The wackiness continues all summer long on IFC!

  • Mallrats is mentioned in Wizard Magazine during an article about “Comics’ Greatest Love Triangles.” Click the scan for a look. Kevin is also being
    promoted for next month’s Wizard X. He will be answering the fan letters for that issue. Should be fun! We’ll have it for ya.
  • An interesting rumor has surfaced that Eliza Dushku, who read for the Mary Jane part in Spidey, might return in the third film as The
    Black Cat. Just a rumor, folks, but a neat one at that.
  • Late last week, on Jeopardy, under the category “Independent Films”, Clerks was the question to the answer which was something to the effect of “Dante and
    Randall’s occupations are the namesake of this 1994 Kevin Smith Movie”. Braianiac record breaking champion Ken Jennings did not get the correct answer,
    but a very cool redhead at the far right did. Take THAT, Ken!
  • Just a reminder: Kevin’s scheduled to receive the first ever “DVD Visionary” Award
    from VSDA this Wednesday, July 14th. We’ll have full coverage.