- The inboxes were flooded yesterday with news of the cancellation of Kevin’s UK Forbidden Planet book signing. While we have not received any further information, the notice also seems to indicate that the entire UK trip has been cancelled, which would mean some other gigs and appearances may also be off. We have not yet received official word from View Askew on this, but it’s looking likely to be true at this point. Here’s that e-notice that many fans received:
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
We regret to inform you that the Kevin Smith signing event has been CANCELLED.
It was due to take place on Tuesday 16th October but Kevin has had to change his plans and is no longer coming to London.
We’ll inform you of any further developments here.
Author Archive
Pardon Our Dust…
- You may have noticed some random uptime or downtime this week — That’s because our server elves are at work on a bunch of fixes, which will speed up News Askew considerably (if all goes well). We’re talking WAY faster than it’s ever been before. In the meantime, we’ve had to relocate some stuff, so the scoops mailbox is temporarily down. If you need to get in touch with us, please use the contact form or drop a direct email to nascoops@gmail.com. Any e-mails you send to the newsaskew.com domain will probably bounce back to you and never reach us until full functionality is restored. We apologize for any downtime, slowness, or errors you may see this week, and look forward to being back and better than ever shortly. Stay tuned. Updates will resume as soon as we can get the scoops box flowing again (in the meantime, we’ll be treating you to some reviews that have been in the waiting this week to help pass the time).
Server Woes This Weekend…
- Just a quick word here, for those who can read this – Since last night, we’re again experiencing some major errors on our web server that are having a negative effect on the performance of the News Askew web server. We’re waiting word back from the server gods (i.e. Ming) on a fix — So hang tight. The server also handles all the scoops mail traffic, so stuff you’ve sent may need to be resent from the past day or so once we get back to a more manageable speed. We’re continuing to look into other solutions for this strange problem, which seems to only be affecting our site despite others that run on the box. Our database is massive due to the ten years of content, so we’re thinking that could be part of it. Anyway, we do apologize for the slowness and wanted to let you know that we’re aware and doing the best we can to get things resolved. Thanks in advance for your patience. A full news update is on the way once things get back to normal, as well. See you with an update soon.
“Red State” Is Written!
- You heard it here first, folks — Kevin scoops us tonight with the news that he’s finished his first draft of “Red State”, his first foray into the horror genre. The exciting news here is that it sounds so DIFFERENT than anything we’ve seen in the 14 years of the View Askewniverse, in tone, dialogue, and running time. Like that leaked script page of “Zack and Miri”, this blurb from Kevin will be remembered as that first post that really sent our minds spinning about the possibilities. Here’s Kevin:
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It is written.
Finished “Red State” today.
Shortest flick (in terms of page count) that I ever wrote. Least amount of dialogue, too (not to say there’s no dialogue; just that there’s about half as much as I normally write).
Unlike any other script I’ve ever authored, to say the least. Very fucked up. If I’d never said anything about it in the press and put it out under a pseudonym, I doubt anyone would ever connect me with it.
Can’t wait to shoot it.
Kevin’s kept the plot details of this one fairly secretive so far — We know that there’s a very small cast set for this one, though no credible rumors regarding the roles at this stage of the game. We know it’s horror but not in the traditional sense. Due to the a small cast, we’re not expecting to see a mass murder bloodbath type picture here, but something likely more psychological. Kevin compared it to “The Shining” in a recent interview.
Stick with us for the latest news on “Red State” and everything else in the Askewniverse. This is the first time we can recall that Kevin’s had TWO scripts written and ready for shooting at once. We’re anxiously awaiting for these two post-Clerks II follow ups.
Rumor Control: Who’s “Zack”?
- A rumor crossed our path over the weekend regarding a potential actor for “Zack and Miri Make A Porno” – The scoop mentioned nothing of this actor playing the lead role, but rather, just playing a part in the film. That actor’s name is Jason Bateman, whose recent memorable turn as Michael Bluth on “Arrested Development” has showcased his great comedic talents. Today, Ain’t It Cool News has added fuel to the fire posting the same rumor, though we’re unsure if this comes from the same source or elsewhere. We tend to check on stuff like this before we post it, hence why you didn’t see it here – As far as we know, this is just not true. Not only is Bateman not currently signed to play Zack, he’s not signed to play any roles at all in the film.
Naturally, we LOVE the idea of the guy being involved in this film or any View Askew project, so that’s not to say this could change — We just wanted to set the record straight as far as what we knew as fact, at the present time. We’ll keep on top of all the latest casting news for you, right here.
SuperMax: No No No!
- We’ve been going back and forth with Peter over at /film, who had a similar idea when he posted the Wizard interview bit we posted regarding what a great fit Kevin would be for “SuperMax”, the in-development Green Arrow action flick. We first mentioned the notion when we posted the Wizard interview earlier this week here at News Askew, simply stating it would be a neat collaboration. Peter posted a similar story almost simultaneously though assures us it’s just coincidence — We both just, well, had the same idea when reading the Wizard piece. So, that’s that.
Today, just to show you how rumors can fly out of control, check out this story from Daily India, which claims that Kevin IS directing the film. Wow, some stretch, huh? No concrete sources, mind you. Sigh.
At any rate, here’s Kevin, who gives the final answer via a brief TalkBack at Cinematical today:
I dig Peter at slashfilm, but that conjecture was a real stretch.
I.E. – No, I’m not directing “SuperMax”. You may all breathe a sigh of relief now.
Will this end the speculation? Let’s hope so. More news later!
No “Miri” For Rosario?
- This one caught us by surprise — Rosario Dawson gave an interview to MTV Movies today, where she hints she may NOT be able to take on the role of “Miri” for “Zack & Miri Make A Porno” due to scheduling conflicts:
It’s been a full-time job keeping up with all the Rosario Dawson casting news over the past couple weeks. A few days ago, ”Eagle Eye” director D.J. Caruso (”Disturbia) told us that Dawson was set for his new flick opposite Shia LaBeouf, and the week before, Kevin Smith told us all about how he wrote the part of Miri in his upcoming flick, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” specifically for the “Clerks 2” star. Smith even confided to us that he’d be “flabbergasted” if she didn’t do it.
Well, consider Smith flabbergasted. We talked to Dawson for some 40 minutes yesterday about her new film, “Descent,” and just about every other project under the sun (stay tuned for more from the interview soon) and so we of course brought up the Kevin Smith film.
Her response? “It’s going to be a really interesting film. I don’t think I’m going to be a part of it. He wrote it for me, but I’m just signing on to do [”Eagle Eye”] and that’s going to be shooting from November to March.”
Wow, consider us flabbergasted, too. We’ll dig some more on this one and keep you posted on what else we hear. Could it mean a schedule change? A new actress for Miri? Things change fast in the biz. We’ll let ya know.
NewsAskew In The House..
- We’re here in Red Bank eagerly awaiting Kevin’s big 37th birthday Q&A. There’s quite a big crowd here at the Baise Theather — unfortunately some heavy traffic got us into town later than we expected, so we missed most of the pre-show festivities (including the Dublin House). Luckily we found a wifi hotspot so we figured we’d drop a quick line up on the site. We’re about to pick up our tickets, though we are unsure if we’ll be able to report from inside the theater. If we are, expect updates in a little while and as the night progresses. If not we’ll write up a full report and see you back here tomorrow.
Tomorrow: Kevin LIVE At Crazy 4 Cult Art Show!
- Just a little update before bedtime here — Don’t forget, tomorrow night is your chance to catch Kevin and Scott at “Crazy 4 Cult”, quite possibly the coolest art show we’ve ever seen – All the artwork included will have a cult movie theme. The examples posted at Kevin’s blog are just fantastic. The opening reception is absolutely FREE to attend tomorrow night (unless you buy art, of course) at located at Gallery 1988, 7020 Melrose (and La Brea), in Los Angeles. You can also visit their home page for further details. And be sure to take a peek at that amazing Laura Palmer funeral piece that they’ve been showing around (now up over at Kevin’s blog).
Kevin will be LIVE for an in-studio appearance on KROQ radio Tuesday (tomorrow) morning at 8:00 AM pacific time.
You can listen live to the broadcast via their website, no matter where you live. He’ll likely be there to plug the show, but you know that some other stuff’s gotta come up as well. Be sure and tune in locally or via the web.
The New Site – What’s The Latest?
- We appreciate the feedback we’ve heard form you all on the new design and site so far. First up, we want you all to know we’re glad that you like what you’re seeing, and also appreciate what we’re doing. The site that you’re looking at is, really, in our eyes, still very much a “beta” site. We didn’t want to miss our 10th birthday, and had the site at least in good working order, for the most part, so we decided to go ahead with the rollout, figuring more eyes on it would mean more testing, and more feedback. So, we thank you for all you’re doing so far.
The first round of bugs we plan to tackle are visual ones. We can see that a lot of you (almost 50% of the site visitors) are using Internet Explorer 7 or 6. This will definitely result in some display issues, especially in IE6. Once we get the bug fixed, you’ll see all the pretty pictures much better. We also have some toolbar overlap with the top dropdown menus that’s only happening in IE, not Firefox or Safari. So, visually fixing up the site is our top task at the moment.
For those of you with smaller screens or resolutions, we hear you. The right sidebar is a bit larger than necessary and we’re working to take that down a bit to assist you. The site looks awesome in widescreen settings and higher resolutions, and takes full advantage, it just doesn’t scale down as nice as we’d like. We’re working on it, and we’ll ensure that you have as pleasant an experience as the rest of us. We have already started removing the sidebar from pages such as a the Drinking Games splash screen, where the large image was causing issues for smaller screens.
Header graphics will return, either the one you know and love or a brand new design. We’re doing all the design off-site right now, so our changes don’t interfere with the site you’re viewing. When we get it looking pretty, we’ll roll out design fixes, as available. The site’s look will evolve over the next few weeks and months, all for the better.
Iphone users: We hear the site looked pretty good on the phone’s safari browser, though with all the extra header and sidebar fluff, we worried it was a bit much. So, for now, you’ll get a special version of the page automatically when you connect via your iphone, that will just give you a plain version of the news. We’re hoping to soon add in an option that will allow you to switch between the bare bones version and back to the full colorful version, if you choose.
Our live archive is something we love and will continue to improve over the next few weeks. It involves going back to every story and categorizing it to allow more specific searching through old posts. Soon, we’ll have an advanced search that will give you category based control, as well. But not until we have everything in its place. Categories are brand new for News Askew this time around, so it involves a lot of time and effort in reading each old post, and deciding where to put it. Even creating new categories as we see fit. The live archive is up and running but is beta software using javascript. It may not work for you. If not, please try a more recent browser and ensure your javascript is running.
We sincerely hope you are enjoying the new News Askew, and that you’ll stick with us as the new site continues to evolve into its new form. Thanks as always for your patience and support.