- The Shadow Lawn Stage, the professional summer theatre at Monmouth University, will be running three shows this summer. The second one, entitled “The Beauty Queen Of Leenane”, will be starring Brian O’Halloran in the lead male role. The show will be at the Lauren K. Woods Theatre (again, at Monmouth University), running Wednesday through Sunday from July 2 until July 13. 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, 8:00 p.m. every other night. If you’re within driving distance, be sure and take an evening to enjoy some theater and watch O’Halloran’s live work. We’re sure he’d love to see all of you there.
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View Askew NewsBites™
- Palisades toys have posted some new shots from Wizard World that you might want to check out, featuring some Askew folk with their hilarious little Beaker toy. Ya gotta love Beaker, man.
- A reader caught “Clerks” airing on HBO Zone earlier this week, so expect it to re-air throughout the month as well.
- And finally, it’s tough to see, but this scooper in Toledo, Ohio caught an Askew reference at his local “Jeds Barbeque and Grill” and took a snapshot to send in. Peace out.
Jersey Girl Q1 Release Confirmed…
- Today’s Variety has confirmed the new move for Jersey Girl, from Quarter 2, 2004 to Quarter 1, 2004. This does put it on target for the February 2004 release date that Kevin and Jennifer have been mentioning. We expect the film will be in theaters on or before Valentine’s Day. Once an actual date is announced, we’ll have it for ya right here.
View Askew NewsBites™
- We figured some of you might be interested due to all the news about the flick and the Ben/J-Lo involvement: The trailer for Gigli (or “Tough Love”) is now avaialble online HERE.
- This weekend in Israel, viewers of the Satellite “Yes”, will enjoy a “Kevin Smith Weekend”. Starting today, they’re showing: Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back on the network. The channel is “Yes 2”, where the films will air back to back, followed by a 4 hour break, then they’ll air again.
- Pro skater and Jackass star Bam Margera lists Mallrats and Good Will Hunting as two of his favorite films in this interview at his website.
- The DVD for “A Guy Thing” is out, featuring Jason Lee. The disc is packed with behind the scenes material (plenty of Lee stuff to go around), a commentary track with Jason and the rest of the cast, and more. Remember, every dollar spent on a Jason Lee project is furthering his chances to be the next Fletch!
- Cartoon Dante himself appears (and isn’t supposed to be there) in today’s edition of the online comic The Inferno.
- See ya again soon. Ya’ll have a great weekend now, ya hear?
Kevin On Being Back In Philly…
- In this article from back on May 30th, Kevin checks in with the Philadelphia Daily news and gives his thoughts on being in town again for Wizardworld and chats about his Tonight Show Roadside Attractions that he filmed in and around the city:
Director Smith happy to be back
By JEROME MAIDA — For the Daily News
By JEROME MAIDA — For the Daily News
Despite the demands on his time as a hot writer/actor/director – and best-selling comic book writer – Kevin Smith is happy to appear at Wizard World East for the second year in a row.
“I spent about a half a year in Philly [filming ‘Jersey Girl’] and I kind of grew to love it,” he said, “so it’s pretty easy to go back when asked, particularly when there’s something like a con.”
Many fans of Smith’s movies (”Clerks,” “Chasing Amy”) have also checked out his comic book work on titles like “Daredevil” and “Green Arrow.”
As a popular comic book writer and store owner Smith openly admits his love for the medium.
“Comics are thought of as kid stuff, but usually only by people who haven’t picked up a comic in the last 10 years,” he said. “Yeah, there are a few titles for kids…but they’re not really written for kids anymore. They deal with more adult themes, and some of the best writing out there is in comics.”
Smith is currently finishing a long-delayed comic book miniseries starring Daredevil and Spider-Man. He’s not sure what he’ll do after that.
But he does know where he’d go for a cheesesteak if he had to pick between Pat’s and Geno’s.
“I’d have to go with Pat’s,” he said. “but it’s not fair because I haven’t tested every cheesesteak place in Philly.”
Not that he hasn’t tried.
“When we were doing Roadside Attractions [on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno”] we did one from Philly and part of it was ‘Looking for the Perfect Cheesesteak’ and…we went from place to place. We hit the big ones: Pat’s, Geno’s and this other one…and I had two cheesesteaks at each place in the span of two hours.
“That’s six cheesesteaks in two hours, and boy, I loved every minute of it!”
View Askew NewsBites™
- Well, it didn’t take long, but signed B&W figures are now showing up on ebay, along with B&W Randal figures. No need to mail us all the different auctions, you folks can track them down if you want ‘em. We’re not sure if they actually sold out at the show or not yet though, so you may wanna also stand by to see if the Stash offers any at a special price, too.
- During a recent radio interview, Jennifer Lopez indicated the film would be in theaters for Valentine’s Day, 2004. Does she knew something we don’t? It would be about right for the release timeframe that Kevin recently suggested. We’ll keep you posted.
- The very bizarre T-Shirt Hell has a quite inappropriate use for the Buddy Christ it seems.
- Salon.com mentions that those Coors Twins from the commercials appear in Jersey Girl — We’re not sure, but we believe that would be in the film’s early Christmas party scene.
- Even more chances to own that Daredevil DVD early — According to www.play.com, the region 2 disc streets on June 30th, a week before the Australian version and a month before we get it Stateside.
- Finally today, if the dude who sent us the photos we ran of Kevin speaking and signing at the con yesterday could get in touch with us, we’d apprecaite it. Thanks. Also, here’s a few more shots from the con, of the crowd gathering outside to wait and hear Kevin speak, a close-up of Kev at the podium, and Brian at his VA booth signing post where he made many a fan’s day with his surprise appearance. Enjoy the rest of your day, folks.
View Askew NewsBites™
- Here’s a couple more pics from Wizardworld, a slightly closer shot from Kev’s Q&A and from his autograph signing session on Friday (Kevin likes to get up and walk through the line, instead of sitting down the entire time, which is cool).
- The Gloucester County Times had a report on yesterday’s Q&A in today’s edition:
‘Silent Bob’ opens up about ‘Jersey Girl’
PHILADELPHIA — Award-winning writer and director Kevin Smith chuckled at the thought that a small road bears his name in Gloucester County.
“Kevin Smith Way,” Smith proclaimed in a special question-and-answer forum at the Pennsylvania Convention Center Saturday. “It’s the way everyone should live their lives.”
Smith was in town as a guest panelist for the three-day Wizard World comic book convention, where he took random questions from the audience, spoke about his upcoming movie “Jersey Girl” and relentlessly poked fun at the flick’s high-profile stars.
“Jersey Girl,” the much-hyped film starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, was filmed primarily in Philadelphia and Paulsboro over the summer and fall of 2002.
When shooting in Paulsboro wrapped in October, borough officials honored Smith by renaming Tyler Street Kevin Smith Way.
Paulsboro’s proximity to Philadelphia made it a prime choice to be a stand-in town for the North Jersey Highlands, Smith said.
“So that’s why we went to Paulsboro,” Smith said. “They were really, really nice to us there.”
“And it was the only town that would name a street after me,” Smith joked. “The road leads right into a school, which I thought was appropriate.”
Smith said the film – which is now slated for a February release – is a sharp departure from his other cult classics such as “Clerks,” “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma,” but that the latest film is his favorite by far. Smith said he was heavily involved in the editing process for the film, which wrapped shooting in early January.
“It’s dialogue-driven, but not as driven as other stuff,” Smith said. “Every movie I think starts to look better than the previous one.”
Two brief preview clips of the film were shown during the panel discussion Saturday. One scene featured Affleck and Lopez arguing before a trip to the Video Music Awards. A second clip showed Affleck humorously walking in on his movie-daughter flashing a neighborhood boy.
No Paulsboro backdrop in either of the scenes.
The film was scheduled for a November release, but was bumped to February to avoid competing with a third installment of “The Matrix” due out at that time.
Smith said the exact release date in February remains unknown.
PHILADELPHIA — Award-winning writer and director Kevin Smith chuckled at the thought that a small road bears his name in Gloucester County.
“Kevin Smith Way,” Smith proclaimed in a special question-and-answer forum at the Pennsylvania Convention Center Saturday. “It’s the way everyone should live their lives.”
Smith was in town as a guest panelist for the three-day Wizard World comic book convention, where he took random questions from the audience, spoke about his upcoming movie “Jersey Girl” and relentlessly poked fun at the flick’s high-profile stars.
“Jersey Girl,” the much-hyped film starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, was filmed primarily in Philadelphia and Paulsboro over the summer and fall of 2002.
When shooting in Paulsboro wrapped in October, borough officials honored Smith by renaming Tyler Street Kevin Smith Way.
Paulsboro’s proximity to Philadelphia made it a prime choice to be a stand-in town for the North Jersey Highlands, Smith said.
“So that’s why we went to Paulsboro,” Smith said. “They were really, really nice to us there.”
“And it was the only town that would name a street after me,” Smith joked. “The road leads right into a school, which I thought was appropriate.”
Smith said the film – which is now slated for a February release – is a sharp departure from his other cult classics such as “Clerks,” “Mallrats,” “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma,” but that the latest film is his favorite by far. Smith said he was heavily involved in the editing process for the film, which wrapped shooting in early January.
“It’s dialogue-driven, but not as driven as other stuff,” Smith said. “Every movie I think starts to look better than the previous one.”
Two brief preview clips of the film were shown during the panel discussion Saturday. One scene featured Affleck and Lopez arguing before a trip to the Video Music Awards. A second clip showed Affleck humorously walking in on his movie-daughter flashing a neighborhood boy.
No Paulsboro backdrop in either of the scenes.
The film was scheduled for a November release, but was bumped to February to avoid competing with a third installment of “The Matrix” due out at that time.
Smith said the exact release date in February remains unknown.
- Professional wrestler Rob Van Dam did an interview is this month’s issue of Wizard Magazine (#142). He’s the writer of an upcoming series called “Twisted Perception.” In addition to this, he’s opening Rob Van Dam’s Five Star Comics in LA. So they couldn’t resist asking:
WIZARD: Kevin Smith owns a comic book store. Who’d win if you two fought?
RVD: I could take Jay and Silent Bob on at the same time and kick their asses. And then steal their stash.
RVD: I could take Jay and Silent Bob on at the same time and kick their asses. And then steal their stash.
- It seems that the Clerks open/closed sign we ran photos of yesterday had previously been available before. So, we suppose this is just a new Stash item or something that’s been re-issued.
- A video featuring some of Jason Lee’s earlier skating days called “Video Days” , directed by Spike Jonze, will soon be arriving on VHS and DVD.
Kevin: JG In February & More From WWE…
- Howdy, folks! Had a fine day today at the wonderful Wizard World East convention. Even got us some nice early admission with our spiffy News Askew Press passes (thanks Jim!) and some nice new View Askew swag (thanks Ming!). Check above for a shot (pun VERY intended) of the Dogma barware that was also surprisingly for sale there today (more to come) as well as a new OPEN/CLOSED sign that any View Askew fan will love (we predict they’ll start showing up on comic shop doors everywhere). Looked like they also had an Askew t-shirt made up to celebrate the convention this year.
It was a packed crowd today, with by far the biggest turnout for Kevin, but also a never-ending line for surprise guest Brian O’Halloran, who we stopped to say hello to (I thanked him for getting me drunk in New York last month). He was very generously signing everyone’s exclusive B&W Dante figure, and pretty much anything else they put in front of him…Taking a lot of photos as well. Brian’s got some more appearances that he’ll be filling us in on soon, so watch for that.
Of course there were some other folks drawing a crowd as well: Alex Ross had a HUGE turnout and some beautiful but very pricey artwork for sale — Smallville’s Allison Mack also had quite a crowd but seemed genuinely happy to be meeting with the fans (pretty good show, that Smallville).
Kevin signed yesterday, and appeared for his Q&A at 3:30 in the largest room in the place. The lineup outside was MASSIVE. Now, of course we always learn a few things when Kevin gets in front of an audience. Today’s Q&A ran 2 hours and we did manage to gather a few tidbits of interest for ya:
- Kevin acknowledged that Jersey Girl has indeed been pushed back to 2004, but not as far as we’d thought yesterday. This was mostly due to the holiday competition, namely, Matrix: Revolutions. The film is now currently slated for a release here in FEBRUARY 2004, which should be just perfect.
- He never got around to his rewrites for Scary Movie 3, the film will open this summer but Kevin never touched it.
- The Clerks Animated Movie is still very much on the schedule of projects and still in the front line.
- Also on the front line: Fletch Won, which may very well be the next film, IF Kevin can talk Miramax into using Jason Lee in the lead role.
- The Clerks 10th Anniversary DVD is still in the works, and should be released in October 2004 (just in time for the anniversary iteself).
Kevin also brought two scenes from Jersey Girl to show the audience, very funny scenes from the film which got a HUGE reaction of laughter and applause from the audience (much of it drowning out the lines following the jokes). First up was a clip featuring Ollie (Ben) & Gertie (Jen) getting ready to attend the MTV Video Awards (which has one of the funniest and most Kev-like lines in the film), the second featured Affleck, Rachel, and a playmate of hers in an awkward but hilarious situation. Again, this one’s a highlight from the film, and one that’s best seen, not described. Those of you who’ve seen the film already will know what we’re referring to.
That’s about all we got for now, it was nice meeting some of you at the show — Maybe next time we’ll spend some more time behind the counter at the incredibly busy View Askew booth so we can meet more of you fine folks.
Announcing: View Askew Shot Glasses!!!
- Being the home of the View Askew Drinking Games that we created and that started what was this site right around this time back in 1997, we’ve been given the honor of announcing a new item soon to be available at the Stash: View Askew shot glasses! That’s right, now you can play the drinking games with the official drinkware of News Askew. All 5 of Kevin’s films will eventually be available in shot glass form, but first up is “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back”, which will be available for sale first at Wizard World in Philly THIS WEEKEND! Yep, before you can even buy ‘em at the Stash. So if you’re coming to Philly, make sure you stop at the View Askew booth, so you can be among the first to own one of these beauties. Watch for more promotions and tie-ins with the drinking games and the shot glasses soon.
First Look: B&W Clerks Figures!
- They’ll only be available to ya at the Wizardworld show in Philly this weekend, so you know you better start making some east coast friends soon if you don’t have ‘em already — Here’s your first look at the exclusive Black and White Dante and Randal — They’re even colorless down to the packaging, very clever indeed. Don’t walk into the con without an extra $20 to buy ‘em. Just make sure you save us a couple of sets, don’t buy them all up on us!