Now then, let’s summarize a few of the recent tweets that may be of a News Askew-type interest to you:

• “Did (nearly) full-cast read-thru of the script today. Funny, funny stuff. Lucky to be joined by two way-talented DICKS.” (referring to the new cast signings of Brody & Scott).
• Kevin linked up a Comic-Con piece from last year regarding the panel he sat on with Apatow, Miller, & Snyder.
• On Friday morning, Kev promoted an appearance on radio program “Scott & Todd” in NYC that we hadn’t known about. If anyone sees the podcast goes up or has audio, let us know.

To follow Kevin on twitter, it’s simple, just hit twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith. You’ll enjoy his regularly changing background images there as well. You can also follow News Askew on twitter, where we post a tweet and direct link to each new story on the site as it goes live.

“It’s been roughly two years since Mr. Kevin (“the Clerks. guy”) Smith and his other hetero life-mate (and producing partner), Mr. Scott Mosier, launched their own podcast series, entitled SModcast. Since then they’ve posted seventy-six pieces of what I can only describe as some of the most absurd, silly, raunchy, and down-right brilliantly funny audio bliss ever! And since that time I’ve been a devout listener, always waiting patiently each week for their next new posting — sometimes even having to wait up until a month or so for a new one to show up (I dare not complain, Smith’s a busy man).

For those of you unfamiliar with SModcast, the premise is as follows. Each week Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier find time amongst themselves to sit down and, well, shoot the shit for lack of a better term. In the beginning each show lasted roughly fifty-two minutes, plus or minus, with only a few notable exceptions. Once the series began to reach double digits, however, the show began to change up. SModcast was created partially as an attempt by Smith for he and Mosier to get together each week and catch up on things, but as the show progressed it became apparent that such a notion wasn’t always feasible. And so with it’s thirteenth episode, “SFodcast (or SWodcast),” SModcast found itself with an absent Scott Mosier and special guest, sitting in, Walt Flanagan (“Fanboy,” to the fanboys), one of Smith’s best friends from his youth. And while there is not, and probably never will be, a SModcast without Smith himself, we found that from time to time there will be one without Mosier, at which time we will be treated to a special guest…”

Read the whole article over at Lockergnome.

“…These filmmakers such as Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and M. Night Shyamalan proved that you didn’t need computers or big bangs to be able to reach the audience. These filmmakers brought a real renaissance to independent film and set up a nice dichotomy in the decade between the decadence of special effects-driven event movies and personal talkies of smaller films.”

Seann William Scott and Adam Brody are joining Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan in Warner Bros.’ “A Couple of Dicks,” a buddy action comedy being directed by Kevin Smith.

The script, by Robb and Mark Cullen, follows a maverick cop (Willis) and his partner (Morgan) who, while tracking a valuable stolen baseball card, tangle with a memorabilia-obsessed gangster and rescue a Mexican beauty who holds the key to millions in laundered drug money.

Scott plays a thief known as the Shit Bandit for the souvenirs he leaves at his robberies. Brody is an abrasive detective not happy to be working with Willis and Morgan.

Shooting begins Monday in New York.

Marc Platt and Polly Johnsen are producing. Sarah Schechter and Matthew Milam are overseeing for the studio.

This marks the first time that Brody will work with Kevin on a film. Scott as you may recall, was thrilled to be a part of “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back” for a memorable cameo. Joblo confirms the story as well.

And yep, shooting starts THIS MONDAY! We’ll be ramping up coverage here at News Askew, with the hopes that a New York location shoot might get us some more visible scoopage that Zack & Miri’s more subtle Pittsburgh-area stuff. Stick around. It’s gonna get good.

Lee’s got at least one more official interview segment on the way, plus some possible outtakes. YouTube has spotlighted the interview clips in 23 countries, and the videos continue to score record traffic. We can’t recommend this great interview enough, one of our faves of Kevin’s career.

“The fake blood is still a little sticky after all these years, and it’s rendered the fabric quite hard and stiff–it’s almost like a hard plastic plate attached to the fabric. Must have been uncomfortable to wear.”

The film: Quickstop employee Dante (Brian O’Halloran) wasn’t supposed to be at work today. Pissed off and with his girlfriend on his case, he just needs to make it through the day.

Passing time with Randal (Jeff Anderson), the clerk from the adjacent video store, they discuss movies, deal with annoying customers, and play hockey on the roof.

Why It ought to be a musical: It’s one for the college crowd, a cult hit from the word go.

No locations to worry about, and Dante and Randall’s profane, scattershot dialogue would translate perfectly to the stage.

Music & lyrics by… Bruce Springsteen and Kevin Smith. New Jersey’s finest together at last.

Hit songs: ‘I’m Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today’, ‘Down At The Nudie Booth’, ‘I Can Do Without The People In The Video Store’, ‘Happy Scrappy Hero Pup’, ‘I Don’t Care If She’s My Cousin’, ‘Best Of Both Worlds’, ‘I’m Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today (Reprise)’.

Producer’s notes: Stage the production in black and white for authenticity.

Heck ya — We’d go.

This first article focuses on “A Couple of Dicks”. Of particular interest, it reveals that Kevin was offered directing gigs on both “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” and Eddie Murphy’s upcoming “Imagine That”.

Kevin Smith On Trying To ‘Breathe New Life’ Into The Buddy Cop Genre With ‘A Couple of Dicks’

“For years, I’d been like, ‘No, I only direct stuff I wrote,'” Smith said. “I would do interviews and be like, ‘If you ever see me directing a script I didn’t write, I’m clearly paying off a mortgage.’ Stuff like that, because I never thought I would.”

But Robinov, who’d been a big fan of Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” thought the director would be the perfect guy to helm “Dicks.” And based on the personal way in which the script resonated with Smith, he was only too happy to accept–even as he continued to be surprised that the directorial offer had ever been made.

“I’ve never even directed anything but a Kevin Smith movie, so why would you trust me with anything else?” he said. “That’s why this is amazing. I can’t believe that somebody would be like, ‘Here, try to breathe new life in the buddy cop franchise.’ But I guess it makes sense. All I do is buddy movies. In this one they have guns and there’s a plot. As opposed to them sitting around talking about ‘Star Wars’ and sex.”

Smith’s ultimate goal, he said with a laugh, is to make “Dicks” a TNT channel classic. “It’s a throwback to ’48 Hrs.,’ ‘Beverly Hills Cop,'” Smith said. “It’s a buddy cop flick. It’s not like, ‘He’s a by-the-rules white guy and he is a jive-talking black guy, but together they’re gonna fight crime!’ They just happen to be black and white and they’re long-time friends.”

Next up, Kevin’s daughter Harley presents her own review of the vampy chick-flick “Twilight”:

Kevin Smith’s Daughter Reviews ‘Twilight’

Writer/director/actor/all-around nice-guy Kevin Smith stopped by recently to chat with MTV’s Josh Horowitz on a variety of subjects. While the ever-busy Smith had plenty to say about his own work, he also managed to squeeze in a brief review of “Twilight.” In all honesty, Smith didn’t have much to say about the movie other than mentioning that it made him wish he was a 14 year old girl. It’s his daughter who’s the real fan, and she was brave enough to step in front of the camera so she could share her thoughts.

Finally, Kevin mentions that he currently does not have any interest in taking comics and making movies out of them:

Kevin Smith Has ‘No Interest’ In Working On Big-Screen Comic Book Adaptations

“I have no interest in making those movies,” Smith told MTV News. “They look very tedious to make. It takes a talent that I just do not have. But I love to kick back and watch them.”

He went on to cite Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight”) and Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”) among the ideal candidates to direct comic book properties. And when it came to the question of writing another script, Smith questioned the very need for a “name writer.”

“When I got hired for that ‘Superman’ gig, the first thing out of my mouth was like, ‘Why are you talking to me?'” he said. “Why don’t you talk to Dan Jurgens or somebody who works on ‘Superman?’ You’ll get a great script out of a dude who’s worked on 60 issues of ‘Superman.’ I guarantee it.”

“But then it was all about, ‘Well, they’re not in movies.’ And now it’s different,” continued Smith. “Now you can cherry-pick and go into a genre and be like, ‘Let’s take these dudes. They write on ‘Lost.’ Their episodes are good. Let’s let them write a script.’ You don’t need a cat like me. And you shouldn’t get a cat like me.”

The 64 Kbps stereo copy. (2:02 runtime, 56 MB file size, right-click to save). Or…

Here’s the 24 Kbps mono copy. (2:02 runtime, 21 MB file size, right-click to save).

As always, thanks to Will for his encoding skills — Following this show, Opie went on to attend the New Jersey Devils playoff game at The Rock with Kevin — A game I was lucky enough to be invited to as well, with thanks to Kevin and Ming. What a place!

“Films will be viewed through the lens of auteur theory, since that seems the most appropriate to the director/writer.

This is the second time the course will be taught, and there are, as of this writing, still seats available for this course, although not many.”

We’re awaiting some further details on how one can register for the class – Though we’re guessing a call to the University for more info couldn’t hurt. Sounds like a fun weeklong course, that’s for sure.

Like Pegg and Frost, Jay and Silent Bob refer to each other – well, one of them does – as ‘my hetero-life-mate’. Their double act developed over the course of four previous Smith films, but it was here, in his broadest and most outrageous comedy to date, where they took central stage, showcasing a relationship that was as fucked-up as it was tender. They’re the perfect duo.

Most Bromantic Moment: The whole thing. Theirs isn’t a relationship where an excuse must be contrived for them to have an argument, just so they can reconcile later in an emotional scene with soaring strings. These guys stick with each other through thick, thin and really, awfully, very stupidly thick.

Who’s The Beard? After a fashion, jewel thief Justice (Shannon Elizabeth), who pines after Jay, for some reason we still can’t entirely fathom.

• The rarely-seen “Oh What a Lovely Tea Party” documentary, which follows the making of “Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back”, will be included in full on the upcoming Bluray release of “Clerks X”. It will also feature all the great stuff from the most recent “Clerks” release, including “Snowball Effect”, the brilliant documentary from Zak & Joey.
• In other Bluray news, Kevin and the cast are currently recording new material (another documentary perhaps?) for a “Chasing Amy” Criterion Bluray, making it sound like this dream will finally become a reality. Kevin has in the past revealed he wanted to repackage all the great Criterion stuff that already existed along with new stuff on top of that.
• On the “Jersey Girl” front, the must-see extended cut of the film is “very possible” for next year, on both DVD and Bluray. We’ve seen the extended version a couple times, and really dig it — It gives a lot more depth to the characters and is our preferred cut. Let’s hope this one comes to pass, as it’s been years since we’ve seen it this way.
• The new comic book project from Kevin and Walt Flanagan will be unveiled at the San Diego Con this July.
• Kevin would one day like to make a hockey-themed film.

Fans are reporting that Kevin once again (as always) brought his A-game, with stories old and new, and more talk of the Walter Gretzky tournament and his admiration. No new details about “A Couple of Dicks”, though it’s going to be a while before that one gets in front of cameras. Fans are also mentioning a dude who asked to get naked on stage last night, whom Kevin apparently allowed to do so. Sounds like another crazy one, which just goes to show, no Kevin Smith show is ever the same, and you never can predict what you’ll be in for. Keep your eyes on our upcoming events calendar, and don’t miss your chance to see Kevin live on stage if he’s near your town.