Author Archive

Kevin’s “Top 8″…

November 15th @ 6:34 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

  • The Myspace system, for the uninitiated, allows uses to select their “Top 8” friends, who display on their front page. Kevin has a couple flicks at the top of his at the moment, one starring Jason Mewes that we’ve actually not yet heard of, and another which we’ve been promoting screenings of as we hear. Kevin’s got more on the topic:
So I’ve been getting some queries as to the first two slots of my top eight, and why they’re there.

“Fuck: A Fuckumentary” is this really fun and informative doc by Steve Anderson that examines the etymology of the word… well, “fuck”. It’s playing now in big cities across the country and worth a watch if you’ve ever wondered how we collectively settled on the term for myriad uses. Also worth a watch just to see venerable newsman Sam Donaldson extol the word’s virtues.

“Netherbeast Incorporated” is a flick that’s in post-production right now. I know very little about it (a teaser trailer is available here), except that my boy Mewes is in it, and he asked me to put it in my Top 8 to drum up some Friends for it, well in advance of its theatrical release. If you love Jason Mewes (and if you’re reading this, how the fuck could you not?), hit up”Netherbeast Incorporated” with a Friend Request.

Also not represented in my Top 8 (I don’t think they have a MySpace page) is a flick that’s currently in theaters which could use your support.

“Come Early Morning” is the directorial debut of Joey Lauren Adams – she who essayed the role of Alyssa in “Chasing Amy” – that’s been receiving some really strong reviews, thanks in no small part to Ashely Judd’s performance (and Joey’s assured directing). In a world in which male directors outnumber female directors by a massive margin, give “Morning” a look-see and help kickstart a much-deserving chick filmmaker’s career.

And while I’m on the subject of hawking shit…

Buy TALES FROM THE CLERKS right HERE! It’s nearly as heavy as a phonebook (so it’ll prop open doors nicely) and is as awesome as it is thick (unlike my cock).

Filed in: News

View Askew NewsBites™

November 15th @ 6:34 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by James Webb, Britt Schramm, Travis, Frank Stevens, Glen Flanders

  • Weinstein and Blockbuster! This just in from Variety — In an unprecedented deal, Weinstein Co. films will be EXCLUSIVELY available for rental ONLY through Blockbuster Video starting this January — That means that you Netflix memebers, Hollywood Video members, and the like will NOT be able to rent any future Askewniverse stuff unless you get it from Blockbuster. Interesting, no? In return, Blockbuster will offer front-of-store placement and other marketing exposure for Weinstein titles. Genius Products stuff (Clerks II, Now You Know) will not be affected by this deal, which gives them exclusive rental rights to their titles for 3 years.

In an interesting follow-up, we heard that the “Passion of the Clerks” subtitle has now been removed from the Blockbuster computer system (as informed by a BBV employee).

  • Just to keep our archives complete — Here’s a scan we mentioned earlier in November that just came in. A blurb with Kevin from SPIN Magazine about his favorite music (and guilty pleasures). Click it for a closer look.
  • Jason Lee’s psuedo-band “Phish Tahko” made IGN’s Top 10 TV Shows list with stiff competition like The Brady Six and Zack Attack from Saved by the Bell. Thought it’d be worth mentioning. They say:
Earl Hickey, before he discovered the concept of karma and reformed his wicked ways, didn’t always do the smartest things. So it wasn’t exactly inspired for him, along with his brother Randy and their friend Ralph, to form a band, seeing as how they weren’t all that talented. However, that didn’t really concern them, as all they really wanted to get out of it was sex from some random, local girls, and in that respect, the band was a success (though that doesn’t work out as well for Earl, who ends up sleeping with Ralph’s considerably older mother instead). Their first show was Phish Tahko’s one and only performance, until the day Earl decides to make amends to Tom, the old man they’d originally picked as their lead singer, only to kick him out. For one night only, the reunited Phish Tahko once again rocks the socks off the Crab Shack, as they do a less than memorable, but certainly energetic, version of The Edgar Winter Group’s “Frankenstein.” And yes, we are aware — as we’re sure the Earl producers are — that, as an instrumental piece, “Frankenstein” requires no lead singer.
  • And finally, in the weird news of the day, a Dutch hip-hop crew called “De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig” have a new single out called “Voor jou” — A spoof, of RNB songs. The video, by Michiel Krop and Stijn Windig from Lemonade Animation, features cameos of both Jay and Silent Bob in inaction form. You can look for them on YouTube. Jay skates by about 2 minutes in, Dark Knight Bob appears on a motorcycle early on. Thanks for flying with us today!

Filed in: News

The Clerks II DVD Has Arrived!

November 12th @ 12:01 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris, E. Christopher, John Whiteaker, Greg Trawinski, Moveidude74, Just McGill

  • The good folks at Genius Products, as well as our pals Zak & Joey, brought two bundles of joy to the News Askew offices late last week – First up, Zak and Joey sent us a personal copy of their exciting new documentary, “Back To The Well”, for an early preview. The next day, we got hooked up with, you guessed it, the Clerks II DVD itself, in all its glory! So, there’s a busy Sunday ahead, as we delve into all the nooks that we love about View Askew’s DVD releases, and write up a complete review and rundown of the disc and all its goodies. In fact, as soon as this update’s posted up, it’s couch time!

In the meantime, you can check out a VERY POSITIVE review of the disc over at Aint It Cool News! We’ll have a complete review of each area of the disc, screenshots, and much more up in the first half of this week. We’re gonna spend this rainy Sunday spinning up the disc and checking out all the bonus features, commentaries, and of course that highly anticipated documentary! Watch for our full CLERKS II DVD COVERAGE soon! And thanks again to Zak, Joey & Genius Products.

Filed in: Clerks II, News

Kevin To Mod “Hero” Fundraiser…

November 12th @ 12:00 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Gladahad

  • Kevin will participate in a fundraiser with comic legends Stan Lee and Joe Quesada on SATURDAY, December 2nd at 7:00 p.m. in UCLA’s Ackerman Grand Ballroom. It’s a fundraiser for “Hero Initiative”, a not-for-profit organization that provides financial assistance for comic creators in need (what a fantastic idea). Tickets are $18 for UCLA students and $20 for non-students. Want tickets? SURE ya do! Get more info and purchase yours today. VIP tix, by the way, which get you into an exclusive reception at 5:30, can be had for $100.

Filed in: News

More on “Manchild”…

November 12th @ 11:59 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Maleah Dust, Justin McGill

  • We’re really stoked with the news that Kevin will headline his own Showtime series. The uncensored nature of Kevin on a cable network show, a fairly well-known British import at that, is exciting stuff. Entertainment Weekly reported the news this week in this slightly catty snippet (though the writer does admit with new shows like this, it’s getting tougher not to add Showtime to the cable lineup):
In other TV news, it’s getting harder to put off adding Showtime to your cable: Michael C. Hall’s Dexter has already been granted a Season 2, and now Variety reports that David Duchovny will start in an untitled drama pilot about a charming character named Hank Moody, “a novelist trying to raise a kid on his own while battling an addiction to sex and drugs.” (If only Charlie Sheen didn’t have Two and a Half Men…)

The premium cable network has also signed Kevin Smith to its pilot of the British import Manchild, a title I’d only heard of because it starred Buffy’s Anthony Stewart Head on the BBC. Smith will be joined in his make-believe midlife crisis by Sex and the City’s John Corbett and Rome’s James Purefoy. (This is where I second my editor’s first thoughts: “a) Can he act? There’s a reason he played a guy named Silent Bob, and b) Smith’s middle-aged enough to be facing a midlife crisis? Damn, we’re old.”)

We’re figuring once the guy sees “Catch and Release” he’ll see Kev’s potential. Anyway, the show does play quite a bit like a male version of “Sex and the City”. In the original, Kevin’s role of “Terry” (at least that’s what it was for the UK series) was the lead on the show. The program also starred Anthony Stewart Head of Buffy fame. You can check out the entire run of the British “Manchild” on DVD if you’re curious.

Filed in: News, Television

A Better Look At The Clerks II Happy Meal!

November 12th @ 11:59 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Ehab Rashed, Karla

  • We’re very pleased to bring you the best pic yet of that exciting Best Buy exclusive coming November 28th — The Clerks II Happy Meal! We originally reported that the box would contain a t-shirt, but were misinformed — Instead, it’ll have a Mooby’s visor in there. And of course, there’s the cup, the nametag, the fun games, and the 2-disc special edition itself.

Cinematical also runs a little blurb about this unique collectible. You can bet we’ll both be hitting the local Best Buy on our lunch hours to pick this one up in person. It’s a keeper.

Filed in: News

View Askew NewsBites™

November 12th @ 11:58 am | No Comments » | Scooped by Stuart Ian Burns, Matt Mosley, Bryan Rockwell, Kathy Castro, Justin McGill, Robert Sanchez, Karla, PsedoJoe, Jeff Kelley

  • UK’ers: Catch Mallrats Mallrats on the U.K’s “FILM4” channel on Tuesday, the 14th of November at 22:45.
  • More news today on JOEY LARUEN ADAMS and her new film “Come Early Morning” (her first writing/directing gig). First up, a nice version of the film’s trailer has just hit the popular Apple Quicktime trailer site. You can check it out in high-res HERE. You can learn quite a bit more about the film in this new interview with her, courtesy “Suicide Girls”. Here’s a few select passages:
DRE: Oh you weren’t planning on directing?

Joey: No, I was never one of those people that thought “What I really want to do is direct.” It just never occurred to me and other people took the script seriously and believe in it before I did. The script did turn out to be a somewhat personal story and I tried really hard to portray the South in a very real way and respect the people there instead of caricaturizing them. It became that I didn’t trust anyone else to direct it and they weren’t going to get the directors I wanted like Michael Apted or Bruce Beresford. The directors they were talking were people I’d never heard of. I wanted to pick the music; I wanted to pick the locations, I wanted to be there when they edit it and that’s what a director does. So for a little while I was going to do both until I came to my senses and realized I don’t know enough about directing to do both.

DRE: You’ve worked with some great directors who have done similar films like Richard Linklater and Kevin Smith. Did you learn anything about this type of film from working with them?

Joey: Yeah, they definitely made it look easy. Rick and Kevin are both so laid back. You don’t see them lose it much. Unfortunately I probably learned more from the bad directors; because when things are going well you don’t really question it. Whereas if you’ve been in your trailer for eight hours, you have a tendency to walk out on set and go, “What the fuck is going on?” Then you start looking at the shot list and thinking “Why did the director decide to shoot that? If he would have shot this and this and this we would have been out of here by now.” Also the bad directors think they know everything and having been an actress, I was aware of every department on a film so I know the language. I know the teamsters are really important, which they don’t teach you in film school, but if you mess with the teamsters you don’t get your generator. Since I was aware of what I didn’t know and where my weaknesses lay, I surrounded myself with really talented people and turned to them often and said, “What do I do now?”

  • RAQUEL CASTRO has just returned from a trip to Los Angeles, where she filmed a role for the new Ludacris/ Mary J Blige video “Runaway Love”. She starts in one of the three stories that take place in the video. The video should hit MTV and the other usual venues later this month.
  • The IESB scored an exclusive look at the trailer for the long-in-production flick “Fanboys”. The flick charts a group of friends and their quest to see Episode I of Star Wars six months early. Kevin and Jay make a cameo appearance (not in the trailer, though).
  • News to us! Seems FYE is now advertising a CLEAN VERSION of the Clerks II CD soundtrack. Not sure why you’d want it, but there ya go. It does indeed exist.

  • View Askew came up on a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire rerun on GSN earlier this week. Click the screenshot to see. We hadn’t heard of this one when it originally aired.

  • Page Branson’s project to create a 37th birthday gift for Kevin, in the form of a keepsake book, continues. The cover’s been finalized and finished, and is quite cool we might add (see the full image above). Learn how you can be a part of the project at this WWWBoard thread. Page does some nice work. You can visit her website to see more.
  • Finally today, ever look at the history blurb at the top of our screen? Hard to believe that on this day, SEVEN YEARS AGO, Dogma was released! Seems like just yesterday. My oh my, how time does fly…

Filed in: News

Episode III: “Sucks Less” Is Here!

November 9th @ 7:54 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Brad & Chris

This week, the gang visits Samba Night at a local L.A. cafe, learn how to get free ice cream, and um….Xtreme Ironing? Yes, you heard it right. You must see this one.

As before, both PC and Mac users are supported with the video, which is wrapped up with more hilarious intros and outtros straight from the Stash in Westwood. Dig in to the 8 minutes of fun now!

Filed in: Multimedia, News

A Lengthy New “Chat With Kevin Smith”!

November 9th @ 7:53 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Will Harris

  • Bullz-Eye.com surprises us with a HUGE new text interview conducted with Kevin today, posted at their website. The thing’s massive, so massive that we’re not going to run it in full here, however, we’ve got a few tidbits pulled out to entice you over there:
BE: So is the “Clerks” animated film ever gonna happen, or are they waiting to see how well “Clerks 2” does on home video?

KS: No, I mean, if they had their druthers over at the Weinstein Company, it’d be done. But it’s just a matter of finding time to sit down and do it, and getting up the passion for it. I would hate to rush out there with something just because, “Well, ‘Clerks 2′ is out, let’s get this thing out there.” So once I have enough jokes and material, I think I’ll move forward.

BE: And what’s the status of “Ranger Danger and the Danger Rangers” and the so-called “Untitled Kevin Smith Horror Project”?

KS: I mean, the horror flick will go before “Ranger Danger.” “Ranger Danger” is something I want to wait on until I’ve got a few more years (of) experience and whatnot, but the horror movie I think we’re probably going to end up doing next. But I haven’t started writing that yet, either. “Clerks 2” was a real year-long process for me, of wrapping up and shooting and cutting and promoting and releasing and then working on the DVD. So, lately, I’ve just been hanging out, watching TV, playing Scrabble. I’ve been in the “entertain me” mode more than I’ve been in the “I will entertain” mode.

BE: Did you catch the “Smallville” episode last week, where they brought on Green Arrow?

KS: No! They asked me to be in that episode, too, but I couldn’t do it because I was out of town.

BE: I haven’t seen it yet, either, but I saw the preview and wanted to ask you about it.

KS: They asked me to play…I guess he robs a comic book store, and they asked me to be the guy who runs the comic book store, so I thought that was very sweet and I would’ve done it in a heartbeat, but I just couldn’t be there for it.

BE: So when are we going to see “Jersey Girl: The Extended Cut” on DVD? I know it’s been played at your annual Vulgarthon in New Jersey, so I figured we’d see it sooner than later.

KS: Yeah, I don’t know. Last year, we said to Buena Vista, “Can we put this out?” And they said, “Let’s wait a few years.” It would’ve been easier to do if Bob and Harvey were still at Miramax and that relationship still existed, but now, I really don’t have anyone over at Buena Vista that I’m tight with, so it’s much harder to make your case. Basically, they’re like, “‘Jersey Girl’? Why would we bother?” So, sooner or later, we will. I mean, at the end of the day, it moves good units for them. But they seem to be the only act in town who aren’t, like, “Yeah, man, fuck, let’s go again!” Like, Columbia/Tri-Star was, “Let’s do a ‘Dogma’ extended edition!” And I’m, “Really? We’ve already done two ‘Dogma’ DVDs.” But these cats are kind of dragging their heels.

We of course recommend you get your butt right over there after today’s update to read the whole thing!

Filed in: News

View Askew NewsBites™

November 9th @ 7:53 pm | No Comments » | Scooped by Ming, Jordan Autrey, Wydeskreen

  • CORRECTION: We got things a bit mixed up with the Clerks II DVD releases: It’s actually the Circuit City version that will contain the comic, and the FYE version that will contain the Train Wreck bonus disc. Like we said, prepare to buy up multiple copies if you want your View Askew collection to be complete!
  • Anyone notice a striking similarity with this new Tony Hawk character? Perhaps to a skateboarding Askew alum? Check out the photo at the top of this review of the new Project 8 game.
  • We ran this a few weeks ago, but just a reminder — The new AWESOME Xbox 360 game “Gears Of War” has arrived this week, and contains an Xbox achievement set up by an obvious Clerks fan — Defeat a berserker and obtain the Ma href=”http://www.cheatcc.com/xbox360/gearsofwarcheatscodes.html”>”My Love For You Is Like A Truck” title. Niiice.

Filed in: News