Backstage.com has an interview with Guillermo Diaz, who plays the main villain in the film. In this piece he discusses movies vs. TV (he played a memorable character recently on Showtime’s “Weeds” and currently plays a much less menacing role on NBC’s “Mercy”), and drops quite a few tidbits about working on “Cop Out”. Here’s a snip:

For his most recent film role in “Cop Out,” Diaz had to audition for Smith. “It was just another audition,” he says. “I was in the middle of doing ‘Mercy,’ and my manager called and sent me the script. I went in and auditioned for the casting director, and she liked me and brought me in to meet Kevin Smith. It was a really quick process. I auditioned for him once, and then a week later we got the call that he wanted me for the role, and we started shooting right away. It was a really fast process. But it was great, an amazing experience, working with Kevin Smith, who is such a brilliant director. He is so smart, so witty, and so excited about his movies. Just working with him–wow, I feel really lucky that I got to work with Kevin Smith.”

If you prefer to listen your “Cop Out” press rather than read it, a 4-part roundtable (pieces of which you might have read or heard previously), enjoy these four links which take you to YouTube, but it’s all audio with stills peppered in. Lots of great stuff in this roundtable, including stuff on working with Bruce and Tracy, and Kevin’s thoughts on the trailer and marketing of the film. Overall, around 30 minutes of interview here.

“Cop Out” Roundtable Audio – Part 1
“Cop Out” Roundtable Audio – Part 2
“Cop Out” Roundtable Audio – Part 3
“Cop Out” Roundtable Audio – Part 4

And finally, here’s one for the REAL fans — The IMDB reports that the great Ernie O’Donnell, childhood friend of Kevin’s and famous for his small roles in “Clerks”, “Chasing Amy”, “J&SBSB” and “Jersey Girl”, plays the role of a “Masked Man” in “Cop Out”. Way cool.

Kevin’s a good soldier, and continuing to do his part to promote his role in directing the film as much as possible. He’s also revealed that he’s just given Warner Brothers the OK to use his name in ads for the film if they choose to do so. When in Toronto, he conducted this 18-minute sit down with Tribute which they’ve graciously just made available online.

In other press, in case you missed our earlier story with the beautiful stills from the “Cop Out” press kit, /Film has taken it a step further and included a very long-form article on the production along with the photos from the press kit as well. There’s a LOT of detail in this one, so if you’re trying to avoid plot and theme spoilers, you might wanna take a pass on that one, though. Up you. It’s a LOT of detail, but if you’re looking for stuff on some of the minor characters, that’s your place to find it.

Finally, in round three for “Cop Out” today, AskMen.com talks with Kevin about becoming a director for hire, as well as the future. Here’s a peek:

KS : …What I did was different. I would rip open my chest, pull out the fatty chunks of heart and put it on the platter and project it. That to me is making a movie, that’s film, that’s the only way I know how to do it. Some people will see that and identify with that and feel it like religion. Other people will say it’s not standard: “This doesn’t count! This can’t possibly count!” They’re right, man. I was not fundamentally born to direct. But I’ve been doing it for 15 years and I’m sorry, I’ve gotten better at it. If you can stay in that long and work on your craft and sh*t, you get to the point where it’s like: I’m sorry, man, I got a legacy behind me now. I may have been chasing a $100 million gross for my whole career, but there are eight movies in my wake that have impacted the culture, impacted people [who] love those movies.

AM : So you think you had it all wrong?

KS : I did. And weed helped me out of it. Weed and hockey, and that’s why the next flick I’m doing is a hockey flick. It’s based on the Warren Zevon song “Hit Somebody” about a goon — a guy who shouldn’t be playing hockey because he’s not very good at it, but they make him play the one role he doesn’t want to play.

Let’s take a look at some of the press articles from the event along with some choice snippets. You can click the headlines below for the complete text of any article.

Macworld.com: Kevin Smith’s Expo Q&A is vulgar, obscene, and hilarious

“..While the questions he answered were almost all related to his life experience and his films, one audience member did manage to ask him a question about Apple: “What do you think about the iPad?”, to which Smith jokingly replied “the i-What?” When asked if he thought the iPad would change filmmaking in any way, Smith responded that he’s sure it will be used to kill somebody in a movie at some point, and that Steve Jobs will be displeased with this.

Other highlights include Smith being propositioned by an audience member, Smith giving words of hope–none of which I am allowed to print–to an audience member’s 14 year-old son, and learning that Smith had erotic feelings for the lead female alien character in Avatar.

Tasteless? Yes. Completely unrelated to Apple? Pretty much. Immensely entertaining and sidesplittingly funny? Absolutely.”

Even Forbes picked up on the hilarious iPad comments.

Wired: Kevin Smith Rains F-Bombs on Mac Nerds

“…Filmmaking students in the audience asked Smith what they should do to succeed as film creators after college.

“I’d make one,” he said. “Make one that everybody likes. What do you think happened? Think I was standing over a virgin holding a necronomicon? The trick is to make something everybody digs.”

However, Smith, whose mainstream movie Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, is due in theaters Feb. 26, acknowledged that the independent cinema scene has fallen on hard times. He mourned over Disney’s recent shutdown of art-house production company Miramax Films.

“I was very sad when Miramax shuttered,” he said. “It shows you the state of the business right now. Hate to throw that out to the independent filmmakers, but the market is fucked.”

Wanna see some video from the show? YouTube’s your friend. Kevin tweeted this clippage from Crunchgear which showcases around 10 minutes from the event. We particularly dig the story on Kev’s “Cop Out” directing techniques.

We’ll do ya one better, though. Scooper Brian was there with his hi-def camera and shot some footage as well. It’s all now up on YouTube in 3 chunks which will show you more than the Crunchgear video above.

Later today (Saturday), Kevin has announced that he’ll remain in San Fran for Bear SModcast, back on the schedule after his attendance was on a little shaky ground there for a while.

Click above for some looks at these shots, and click on over to Film School Rejects for their look as well.

Most Of Kevin Smith’s Filmography

Yes, they’re crude, obscene, and occasionally disgusting, but most Kevin Smith’s movies are also, at their root, romantic comedies. Think about it: the key conflicts in both Clerks films is Dante’s inability to decide whether he should be with his current girlfriend or be with another. Mallrats is about two guys who have been dumped and, while using the mall as a coping mechanism, try and repair their relationships. Zack and Miri Make A Porno is about two friends who discover that they have long had feelings for one another. Do I really have to explain Chasing Amy? These are all classic romantic comedy storylines, just hidden behind hermaphroditic porn and interspecies erotica. There’s no shame in that.

The project I wanted to ask you about was one that’s popped up on the IMDB called The Science Of Cool, which seems to hark back to the John Hughes films of the 80s? Is it finished?

No, it’s not. And you know what? A lot of those movies aren’t even started. The Science Of Cool is a movie that a friend of mine, Billy, is producing. And he asked me if I wanted to jump on board, and I read it and I thought it was good. It was a different character for me and stuff. And I don’t know how these people even get it up on IMDB like that.

There’s three other movies up there, but none of them are in actual production right now. They’re all in that stage where they’re getting characters, people attached to the script and some people are interested in financing, but nothing solid. That’s where that’s at. They have some people who want to do the movie and are interested, but they’re waiting to get financing.

…

Have you got any involvement in Cop Out?

No. I was supposed to do a small part in there, and it didn’t work out because the day they were shooting, scheduling, didn’t pan out. It was just a small part anyway, which still would have been nice, don’t get me wrong. It wasn’t worth adjusting the commitments I already had for a small part.

There’s a lot more interesting stuff, so we recommend you check out the entire article for a decent little read. Job well done by the folks over at DOG.

@Choccster “What did WB say to Hit Somebody?” Essentially? “That movie requires a needle-threading approach. We make chainsaws here.” Understandly, it’s an easier call with a script. So as of 2/24, I gonna start writing HIT SOMEBODY. WB’s in-or-out remains to be seen.

I dig COP OUT. It’s warm and funny and looks/plays like something I spent a great deal of my youth watching: a studio movie.

I view the flick this way: when Spielberg and Lucas made STAR WARS and RAIDERS, both were homaging the flicks of their youth – in their cases, the cliffhanger serials. Not implying COP OUT is remotely akin to the quality and ambition of SW or RAIDERS, but the ethos behind the making of this flick was borrowed from those guys: make that movie as an adult that I watched as a child. Tap into the movie buff that existed before I fell in love with Film. It was kinda like “Let’s make a movie for the fun of it.” (’cause Lord knows it wasn’t for profit.)

Anyway, I’m satisfied that I did what I set out to do. Whether people dig on what that is, exactly, is another matter altogether – and one, as guessed around this thread – that I’m not as invested in as I’ve been in the past. Even though there’s lots of me in the flick, I still have a sense of detachment from it – and not, as guessed, because I didn’t write the script. That sense of detachment has more to do with the fact that we all set out to make a piece of entertainment, not make a personal statement. This is the first round of press in which I assume we’ll talk more about the making of the flick than the flick itself – as there’s not much even the most imaginary cineaste is gonna be able to pull out it. I mean, it’s called COP OUT, not SCHINDLER’S COP OUT.

But for me? COP OUT (formerly A COUPLE OF DICKS) is – in ways I can’t clarify (as I don’t have the language for it yet) – a big step forward in my day job. Granted, not in that very-apparent CHASING AMY way, but it’s the start of something very different for me, inasmuch as the filmmaking thing goes. In the beginning, it was all very in-the-moment, now-or-never, fight-or-die. From this current vantage point – 15 years in, now fairly confident (subject to health) there’ll be a next 15? It’s calmer, not as desperate. The fight to be heard or to prove oneself is long over. There is enough work – different, original work – to qualify as a legacy. I know I’ll be remembered for what we accomplished in that 15 year span.

Check out the entire post at the official blog of Kevin Smith.

Want more proof that the film’s gonna kick butt? We’ve fixed that “red band” trailer link that went down briefly after the YouTube pulled it yesterday, so be sure to surf on back if you missed that one. The trailer has been officially available via Myspace, you just gotta put your birthday in there before you watch it. But here’s more. The Film Stage provides an essay on “Why ‘Cop Out’ Will Succeed”. Here’s a taste:

…It should also be remembered that trailers are all about marketing. Marketing to the majority market that will see the movie. Warner Bros. is in no way selling this movie to film buffs, bloggers, or Smith fans. Why? Because they know we are already going to see this movie. We don’t need to be sold on Cop Out. However, people who have never heard of this movie before, i.e. the majority market, needs to be sold the movie because a Bruce Willis/Tracy Morgan buddy cop comedy is foreign to them. Based on the reaction I saw from people when it played in front of Sherlock Holmes, I would say Warner Bros. succeeded.

[Now this piece was originally supposed to run before the Red Band was released. But since that was released early, here are my thoughts on the reaction to it. I had no doubt that, that trailer was going to be the one to turn people around. The reason being, that trailer WAS made for the internet crowd that already knows about the film. We are the ones Warner Bros. is marketing too in this case and like the green band, they succeeded.]

…

…Cop Out is a film that will have the Smith touch. It won’t sound like a Kevin Smith film, and might have a quicker pace than his usual work. But, it will be a Kevin Smith film. No one can deny that. This is a film that was grown for success. This is a film that is meant to show what Kevin Smith is capable of outside of his norm. This is the film that will prove to the world that Kevin Smith is more than just dick and fart jokes. Come February 26th, don’t be surprised to see Cop Out gain #1 at the box office (unless Shutter Island has two weeks in it).”

“…I found the ability to connect to News Askew web content to be most useful. You can find that feature buried inside the “More” tab which includes Smith’s SModcasts, Podcasts and Fanimation videos. The fact that Kevin Smith is already resident in the App Stores list of “What’s Hot” should be a small clue that this iPhone nugget is well on its way to cult superstardom.

…

“…While Smith does offer users the ability to purchase his films and soundtrack music from inside the app via iTunes, it’s not a feature being blasted in your face. Committed followers should feel overwhelmed with tremendous man-love for this epic iPhone offering. It’s a must-have dollar app well worth the price of admission.”

The trailer is non-stop R-rated hilarity, though of course we always like to warn you, some spoilers here, but more of a joke nature than a plot nature. Kevin’s marketing this one as a true popcorn film, and it shows. This new clip gives you a much better feel for the tone of the film as well as just how great the script and the jokes really are. A funny script is great, but delivery is always the key, and we know that Kevin’s a master at getting the perfect delivery of a line. This trailer’s got a bunch of that, especially that last moment that’s a laugh-out-loud payoff that many who had only watched the green band trailer have been waiting to see.

As an added bonus, check out these just-in shots of a massive “Cop Out” banner in New York City’s Times Square. Now THAT’S an ad that’s hard to miss. “Cop Out” hit theaters three weeks from today. Spread the word.

Via @RyanInHollywood “How’d HIT pitch go?” Dunno yet; maybe today. But I gave it my all in the room. All-heart pitch. Cried during 3rd act.

Via @hockeynight “How did the Hit Somebody pitch go?” Did the game proud and emptied the tank, sir. Puck’s in their zone now…

DC gig half sold-out after first day of sale. Never thought I’d say this, but THANK YOU, WASHINGTON! http://tinyurl.com/springtour2010



Unlikely pic of the week: Me, Harold Faltermeyer & Lady Marmalade herself, Patti LaBelle: http://preview.tinyurl.com/gitchigitchiyayadada

ThatKevinSmith: Via @dizzygirl “How the hell does she continue to look THAT good?” Can you believe she’s 64? She pwned COP OUT closing song, “SOUL BROTHER.”

Get the latest up-to-the-second tweets from Mr. Smith at his official Twitter feed.