 “The Man Who Started It All” |
 “Smack My Bitch Up – aka Dave’s Greatest Hits” |
June 14 – San Diego
June 15 – San Francisco
June 16 – Portland
June 19 – Seattle
June 20 – Phoenix
June 21 – Denver
June 22 – Houston
June 23 – St. Louis
June 26 – Kansas City
June 27 – Cleveland
June 28 – Miami
On the 19th, my leg of the grass roots press tour kicks in (I was also supposed to start tomorrow, but had to put off my departure ’til Monday, as Harley’s birthday party is this weekend). Here’s where I’ll be whoring out the flick…
June 19 – Dallas
June 20 – Minneapolis
June 21 – Chicago
June 22 – Detroit
June 23 – Boston
June 26 – Philly
June 27 – DC
June 28 – Atlanta
June 29 – Toronto
June 30 – NYC
When the boys and I are done, there will be press days in NYC and L.A. for the whole cast as well (which is where Rosario kicks into action).
We’re now less than a month away from the premiere (July 11th at the Cinerama Dome in Los Angeles) and a little over a month away from opening day.
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6/13/06
Scott, Jeff and I recorded the In-Theater Commentary Track for “Clerks II” today. On the Monday after the opening weekend, you’ll be able to download the track at iTunes (not sure if it’s a free download or not just yet, but I’d imagine it is), pop it on your iPod, and bring it to the theater to listen to in conjunction with a viewing of “Clerks II”. It’s a wall-to-wall conversational commentary (no dead spaces of us just watching the movie, folks), and it’s loaded with spoilers, so I wouldn’t suggest listening to it unless you’ve seen the flick first.
The whole thing turned out nicely: very informative and pretty funny. I could see doing this for every flick’s theatrical run.
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If you identified with the movie 10 years ago chances are its still going to ring true for most people (us slacker types, who like to bitch..talkbackers I’m looking at you) and its a lot of fun. Though I admit I left the theater feeling like I had a strange warped sense of Déjà vu- like I wasn’t sure what to think at first, it was Clerks, but at the same time it was in color and had some parts of Jersey Girl thrown in or contaminated (depending on your point of view), all in all, the movie is pretty damn funny and the plot has more going on then the first Clerks, in that it goes outside the short time frame and gives a sense of whats gone on between the films and what could happen after, instead of just keeping the status quo of the first film. It feels more complete as a film than Clerks did and its a good thing.
You can read the entire thing HERE though we again warn you, spoilers are included.
As you get the banner placed on various locations across the net, simply send the URL of the site/page/board in to us at bannercontest@viewaskew.com.
Well add that site to your running tally. The person who gets the banner placed in the most locations across the net (without repeats!) by midnight on the day of the films release (7/21/2006) will win one of THESE FABULOUS PRIZES!!!
1st PLACE: AN ON-CAMERA, GUARANTEED-NOT-TO-BE-CUT WALK-ON IN THE NEXT VIEW ASKEW PRODUCTION (shooting early 2007)! |
2nd PLACE: RANDAL’S SCREEN-WORN MOOBY’S SMOCK AND “RANGER DANGER” T-SHIRT! |
3rd PLACE: A MOOBY’S PROP PACKAGE OF SCREEN-USED ITEMS (including “Bovine-Size It” cup and fries container, as well as Sweet ‘n Sour Surly box)! |
4th PLACE: A SET OF JAY AND SILENT BOB COLD CAST STATUES! |
5th PLACE: A COPY OF THE “CLERKS II” SCRIPT SIGNED BY KEV! |
6th THROUGH 10th PLACE: A “CLERKS II” PRIZE PACKAGE, COMPLETE WITH THREE WRIST BANDS AND A “CLERKS II” CAN COOLER!” |
11th PLACE: ROSARIO DAWSON HERSELF! (Just kidding; there is no 11th place.) |
Provided below is a line of code that will automatically insert the “Clerks II” banner and a link back to the Clerks2.com website. Your banner placements must use this line of code or your entry will be ineligible towards your tally.
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I couldn’t be any easier than that!
So what’re you waiting for?! Start smearing our “Clerks II” feces all over the internet landscape NOW!
“Clerks II” in theaters July 21st.
Kevin’s Myspace blog has the full details!!! No time like the present to get started! We wish you luck…And dang, with prizes like those, we wish WE could enter!
By his own reckoning, Kevin Smith’s last appearance at Wizard World Philadelphia three years earlier went very well at first. However, the director and comic book writer’s father, who was in the audience for 2003’s question-and-answer session, passed away that same night.
“Goddamit, my Q&A was so good,” mused the creator, “that it iced my old man.” Things went much better for him this past weekend, when he returned to the Philadelphia Convention Center to field questions, preview a clip from the upcoming film “Clerks 2,” and reminisce about cohort Jason Mewes.
Smith entered the room to a standing ovation from hundreds of eager fans, and began a two-hour conversation with questions ranging from the earnest (”Will this film live up to ‘Clerks?’”) to the ludicrous (”Will you eat this chicken nugget on the floor for $5?”) to the outright obscene (”Does your wife do anal?”).
The answers are: “I love it more than anything I’ve ever done,” even nudging the previous record-holder “Chasing Amy” aside; an accounting of his dignity required to eat the nugget; and an admonition to the crowd’s low “Booooo” that Smith himself had explored far more obscene ideas than the bold question.
Even at low points of inquiry, he retained his characteristic humor, honesty and charm. And, of course, the salty language. His fans ask seemingly inane questions not to pursue answers, but to reach out and grab a little bit of dirty humor for themselves. He obliges with the same attitude that makes them love his films: a Chaucerian love of human nature and its various functions that destroy barriers between the filmmaker and fans. He makes their conversations with friends into adventures. That’s one of Smith’s roles: he’s one of them, the fanboy who made it.
So it was illuminating to learn that after Miramax producer Harvey Weinstein passed Smith the “Green Hornet” film on a plate, the director was honest enough with himself and his employer to say that he was “not a very visual director.” He then enacted the Kevin Smith version of Green Hornet and Kato: two dudes standing around asking each other if they got laid before dispatching trouble off-camera.
The truth, as fans know, is that two dudes standing around inevitably proceed from vulgarity to self-discovery, much like when one attendee asked what was the most important lesson Smith had learned from making the original “Clerks.” “If you want the cat to shit on cue,” he whipped back, “keep the cat away from the litter box,” before moving to the slightly more serious response, “How to make a movie: set the camera up and let shit happen.” The answer he settled on, however, was to follow your passion right now in the moment and “Take a fucking chance! The worst that happens is…you go deep into debt,” which is actually pretty bad, he mused.
More informative to “Clerks 2” than “Clerks,” surprisingly, was his previous film, “Jersey Girl.” Returning to “Clerks” was not a retreat to safe ground following “Jersey Girl’s” failure to meet popular expectations. After the hullabaloo surrounding stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, Smith said he wanted to make a film where the attention was on the story first and the stars second.
“Clerks 2” dominated the conversation, with anecdotes like cohort Jason Mewes (a.k.a. “Jay” the dope-peddling misanthrope) dressing out his hotel room with Target furnishings and refusing to abandon his new home after the shoot’s completion. Smith described his lifemate as “a big cheerleader” on the set.
The film was well received at Cannes, where it garnered an 8-minute standing ovation. Smith recounted trying to leave after the first few minutes, when a stern look from Weinstein kept him rooted to the applause.
“I’m so trying not to oversell it,” he said, “It lived up to my expectations and surpassed them by a thousand degrees, but I have very low expectations. I don’t want to jinx it.” He added that for him the film is a personal success because “I just feel it.”
At one point he brought a member of his website’s message boards onstage for the “Everyman” testimonial. The film was described as having the passion of “Chasing Amy” and the humor of “Clerks.”
Smith also announced a straight-to-DVD Clerks animated movie, “Clerks: Sell-out,” in which characters Randall and Dante make a movie about working at the Quick-Stop. The room burst into cheers, when Smith dryly inserted, “Don’t applaud that,” for the first of many times. “I announce things and they don’t come out for years.”
One of the first things the audience wanted to know, of course, was whether anymore comic book work lay in the future. On that front, the horizon is bleak, but there will be a collected edition of “Clerks” comics with a new 22-page story drawn by Jim Mahfood.
The session ended with a clip from the new film, in which Randall taunts a coworker and customer with the inferiority of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy to “Star Wars.” Closing out the scene, Smith’s avatar Silent Bob played music to allay Jay’s boredom, causing him to re-enact “The Silence of the Lambs’” transvestite Buffalo Bill scene. “Would you fuck me?” Jay asked the camera.
As answer, one could only think of Smith’s response to an earlier question about whether he’d consider doing other sequels besides “Clerks 2”: “It’s like fucking Mewes. I’ve thought about it…but I wouldn’t do it.”
You can also find Brendan McGinley’s full article and some Clerks II photos (no event photos) at the CBR website.
… Split between the two theaters, fans on day one were shown a longer version of Smith’s 2004 film “Jersey Girl,” the yet-to-be-released “Catch and Release,” which Smith acted in, and a documentary about Smith’s film “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” titled “Oh What a Lovely Tea Party.” Also included was a documentary on homosexual bars in the South called “Small Town Gay Bar,” Brian Lynch’s comedy “Big Helium Dog” and “Clerks II.” On day two “Big Helium Dog” and “Jersey Girl” were dropped from the schedule since day one started at 10 a.m. and ran past midnight.
The sequel to “Clerks” and “Catch and Release” were a surprise to fans, who knew only that the day would include two secret films. However, “Clerks II” was definitely the highlight for many fans, some of whom had traveled to Red Bank from as far as Florida and Detroit.
Dan Drajesk from Massachusetts attended day two of Vulgarthon and said seeing “Clerks II” was his favorite part.
“I get to brag to all my friends,” he said about seeing the film almost two months earlier than its scheduled July 21 release date.
As for coming all the way from Massachusetts, Drajesk felt the day was worth the travel.
“Kevin Smith. Jason Mewes. It’s just a good experience,” he said.
We gotta tell you — If you’re reading this site and have never been to a Vulgarthon — Save your pennies for the next one, and make the trip. You won’t be sorry!
