• For those of you who were looking for new SModcast today, and not finding it, here’s Kevin with the why:

  
  Mos was at a Steelers game all day, and I was out Christmas shopping with Jen, so no new SMod tonight. Earliest you can have it is tomorrow night (we’re scouting all morning).

  Sorry.

  
  ‘Tis that time of the year, and we can relate. We’ll of course keep an eye on SModcast, and let you know if an episode does drop this week. If not, we’re pretty certain the guys will have things set up for next Monday (with two full weeks of great stuff to chat up). Stay tuned.

• Both Clerks and Mallrats make the ReelzChannel list of films related to shopping , part of their holiday feature:

  
  9. Clerks

  Sure, the clients here are shopping for snacks, gum and cancer sticks, but still shopping nevertheless. And if you have really crappy parents, they just might go to the Quick Stop to fill your stockings.

  6. Mallrats

  Kevin Smith clearly has a thing for shopping as he graces our list for a second time with this cultish little mall-based movie from the mid-90’s. Jason Lee and Jason London troll the malls discussing everything from relationships to comic books and even new and exciting uses for chocolate covered pretzels.

• Screenwriter Michael Wilson has great kudos and comments towards Kevin in his latest blog entry, where he announces his next project and names Kevin as his inspiration for it all. We’re looking forward to seeing what he’s got planned.

• Finally today, a couple more scans from the Wizard movie ish – Kyle Newman, the director of “Fanboys”, shares with us information that Kevin and Jay’s appearance in the film may be too “R-rated” to make the PG-13 cut of the film that’s planned. The full footage will be on the DVD. He also shares with us a blessed vision of Kristen Bell in the slave Leia costume. Wowza! Click the scans for a closer look at the article (and Kristen).

• This week’s Entertainment Weekly sees columnist (and famous author) Stephen King recapping his top 10 movies for the year — In it, he lists “Gone, Baby Gone” at #2 with high praise for Affleck’s skill as a director.
• A reader noted that there was another reference to the Askewniverse in a Top 10 list (linked from the Top 10 fake bands list we newsbited the other day) — Check out the image used in number six of the Top 10 Kid’s list of “Ways to Kill The Mood”.
• And finally today, two astute fellas over at the Film-411 site put “Clerks” as one of their Top 5 flicks that they’d like to see made into a live action show — Hey, these guys know this was (badly) tried by before, right? Now that ANIMATED version, THAT was a show…

  
  3. Clerks

  Sure, it’s been done before. It’s been done well before. But it was done as a cartoon that existed as it’s own beast for the most part. A sitcom that begins more faithful to the source material could easily score big with fans of Kevin Smith’s flick as well as VH1-ers whose lives actually are complaining about their jobs and making snarky remarks about what’s happening in pop culture(which is not to say that there isn’t a helluva lot of overlap there). With this one, I’d especially want to start with a new cast and encourage everyone involved to really make it their own the way that the American version of The Office started being almost too faithful to its source material and then expanded itself to become so much more.

  3. Clerks

  I’d also like to see a show based on our favorite convenience store clerks, but unlike Ben I have no desire to see the roles recast. In fact, I’d like to See Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson reprise Dante and Randal and pick up the story after Clerks 2, with them running the Quik Stop. I’d want Elias in the show too, because he rules, and of course numerous cameos from Jay and Silent Bob. You’d need new characters as well, since Dante and Randal won’t want to spend all their time at the stores, and Randal deserves a love interest damnit! The one problem is Dante is married with a kid and there’s no way Rosario Dawson would do a TV show (I imagine), so we’d need to recast.

  
  See ya soon – We’re hoping for a new SModcast tomorrow! Get that podcast downloading software ready…

• “Clerks” checks in at #22 on AOL/Moviefone’s list of the “Top 25 Raunchy Comedies”:

  
  Kevin Smith became a cult hero to minimum wage slaves everywhere when he turned $27,000 into a glorified student movie with a dirty mouth and one hilarious scene after the next. It is ‘Clerks’ that truly schooled many a teen in the birds, bees, necrophilia, hermaphroditic porn and the significance of number 37.

• It seems that every time we read about Affleck lately, he’s getting fantastic press. First, he wound up the list of Entertainment Weekly’s 50 smartest people in Hollywood. Now, yesterday, he was spotted giving coats to charity on Good Morning America yesterday. Affleck remains one of the nicest, most down to earth guys in the biz. Good on ya, Ben.

• Ben’s “Chasing Amy” sidekick Jason Lee is no stranger to the press these days, as well — The scans above come from a new TV Guide interview where he chats about “Earl”, his role in the new Chipmunks movie, favorite TV shows, and Alyssa Milano. Click above and we’ll blow ’em up for ya.

• Kevin gets a nod in the November issue of Playboy, page 53. They interview Robert Redford and have a sidebar with the best actors/directors in the business today. Kevin is featured with Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner and Zach Braff. How’s THAT for some company? If anyone’s got the ish, hook us up with a scan!
• The amazing IMDB gets a little cooler with a recently new feature (at least, recent from our point of view) — You can now not only track an actor, but a film character through their cinema journey as well. Thus, track the travels of both Jay and Silent Bob as they made their way through the world of movies and TV. Pretty neat (though the lists are a bit incomplete from where we stand, currently).
• There’s nothing like seeing a View Askew film with a great audience on the big screen. That’s why Vulgarthons are always so fantastic. So, we always like to let you know of other chances to catch these modern classics in your local theaters. Marcus Cinemas is running “Cult Classic Month” in Madison, WI and they are showing Clerks on the big screen (along with Scarface, The Big Lebowski, and Pulp Fiction.) There are two showings – one on Friday, October 19th and the other on Saturday, October 20th. Both shows are at 10:00 pm CST and cost only $6.00. See their site for the full story, and a rare chance to see “Clerks” projected larger than life.

• And finally today, Phil dropped us a photo showing us just how dedicated a fan he is — Take a peek at his View Askew themed tattoo. Phil says that he wants to be a film critic, and Kev’s films are the reason why. In a good way, of course. He uses the tattoo as a reminder of his mission. Good on ya, Phil! See you folks next time…

• The new fact-based Brian De Palma flick “Redacted” is benefitting from a lot of buzz lately. A teaser trailer recently posted at Aint It Cool features several sound snippets from the flick, one of which directly references a famous “Clerks” line, relating it to the war in Iraq. The film sounds incredibly hard-hitting and a like must-see, certainly controversial. For an alterate site, you can also watch the teaser at AOL Movies.
• Clerks rightfully makes the list in this new LA Times article on “Alternate Movie Endings”.
  “Clerks” (1994)

  
  Writer-director Kevin Smith didn’t know how to end his low-budget comedy, so he had a gunman enter the convenience store and shoot the main character, Dante (Brian O’Halloran), during a robbery. Then, a man (played by Smith) enters the store and steals cigarettes. The ending made it through only one public screening before Smith was persuaded to give the film a more upbeat ending, which no doubt helped it become a smash hit but prevented “Clerks II” from being a zombie movie.

• Retro alert! You can now view the full video (and audio, of course) for the original Clerks review from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert via their site archive. Watch for the Ebert praise which caused so many folks to seek the original out back in 1994. It’s a great watch, you can see that Ebert immediately connected with Kevin and the world of View Askew — The late Siskel also heaps similar praise. It’s great to see this online after all these years — A welcome addition to the multimedia archive.
• Thanks to YouTube, you can now peep out Kevin’s brief appearance on the DVD extras of “Hot Fuzz”. The segment featured is a brief moment from the Q&A session held after an early screening of the film. Seek out Fuzz on DVD now, another inspired entry from this brilliant team. Can’t wait to see what they do next (and secretly hope Kevin might be invited on board for a cameo in it somehow).
• /film takes another route in confirming that Jason Bateman is not attached to play any roles in “Zack and Miri Make A Porno”, despite rumors that were running rampant otherwise. A couple weeks back, we checked with Kevin and
  confirmed that the rumor was just that, and now, the /film guys have briefly spoken with Bateman as well. So, the entire cast of the film, even the desired cast, remain a total mystery. Speculating’s always fun, though — We’ll keep you informed of any whispers going ’round.
• FREE EARL! The new season of quite possibly the best sitcom on TV right now, “My Name Is Earl”, starts back on NBC soon. Fans of the show recall our hero was left in the slammer at the end of last season — Now, word has it that he’ll remain there for the start of the new one, and NBC’s got a great campgain running to promote it. You can watch the complete “Free Earl” music video (done “We Are The World” style) as well as a web-exclusive “behind-the-scenes” both courtesty of NBC.com. Earl returns to NBC with a 1 hour season premiere on September 27th.
• Over at his blog, promoting his new film “The Nines”, director John August releases a theatrical podcast commentary which they’re promoting for the film. He does, however, mention that Clerks II did it first (though this likely will be the first time it’s out coinciding with a theatrical release, as the Clerks II track did get pulled and saved for the eventual DVD due to fear of it interfering with audiences). Here’s the entry:
  “But in the age of iPods, there’s really no reason why audio commentary has to be relegated to DVD. That’s why Ryan Reynolds and I recorded one last week for The Nines which is now yours to download. (47MB, right-click to save to disk)

  
  This isn’t an original idea, by the way. Kevin Smith recorded an in-theater commentary for Clerks II, though I can’t find confirmation he released it into the wild. (Someone in the comments section will know.)”

• And finally today, on a light note, with a name like Kevin Smith, you know there’s gonna be others — This “Kevin Smith Show” features a gentleman of that namesake doing a podcast on the paranormal. Enjoy, perhaps between SModcasts? See ya next time!

• IGN wisely cites “Clerks: The Cartoon” as the 5th best movie to TV transition of all time:
  #5: Clerks: The Animated Series (2000)

  Taking place in the same world with the same characters as Kevin Smith’s hit independent film (of the same name), Clerks never quite found its audience and as such was cancelled after airing only two episodes. With the -uncensored- DVD release, however, this comedic animated take on Smith’s raucous film was given new life, becoming one of the first DVDs to find a larger audience in DVD sales than in its television viewership.

  Fans of the Clerks films, as well as other Kevin Smith movies, will recognize the main characters of the series: Dante Hicks, Randal Graves, and Jay and Silent Bob. Focusing the series around Dante and Randal, Clerks followed the same format as its film counterpart by taking in the day to day happenings of Dante (the convenience store worker) and Randal (the video store ‘worker’), while spicing it up with guest appearances by Jay and Silent Bob. While the names and the basic premise is the same, the show took drastic steps to separate itself from the shadow of the hit indie film by taking the four lead characters and placing them in wildly unpredictable and random situations. By changing up the locales and the pace of the program, Clerks became less about clever conversations and more about madcap comedy.

  With storylines such as Dante and Randal taking down their new villain Leonardo Leonardo (voiced by Alec Baldwin), Clerks was a refreshing bit of random comedy which was never given a chance by ABC. Aired out of order, hilarious bits such as the second episode of the series being a flashback clip-show, were never fully realized… leaving us to scratch our heads asking why they were remembering such arbitrary memories. These problems were solved, however on DVD, making us remember just how funny this series could have been, as well as how successfully it was able to work off of its film property. If you have never seen this series, it is worth watching for the final few minutes of the fourth episode – where the show ran out of money and was forced to send the rest of the episode over to Korea to be completed.

  We can’t get enough of the stories Kevin tells about this show, regarding aborted scripts and plans for the eventual direct to DVD films. They can’t come fast enough, we say! Pop over to IGN to check out the full list.

• Kevin made an appearance at the premiere for the hilarious “Superbad” last week. Here’s a press photo from the event. More news later! Thanks for dropping by.

• IFC declares Clerks one of their films with an alternate ending that’s worth checking out. In case you haven’t seen it yet or don’t know, the film’s originally downbeat end had one of our beloved Clerks getting gunned down, fading to black with silent credits. Here’s what they had to say:

You can check out the complete list at the IFC site.

• Here are some fresh pictures taken last evening at the Netflix Rolling Roadshow screening of CLERKS. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect night, clear skies and a cool breeze. Over 2000 fans enjoyed one of the liveliest Q&A sessions in recent memory, even one fan was there in a full Stormtrooper uniform! I’d like to give some special thanks to all-round good guy Ming Chen. He got us into the gated off area when there seemed like no hope. If you live anywhere close to any remaining Netflix Rolling Roadshow events, you owe it to yourself to catch one. It was a blast! Here’s Kevin’s wrap-up of this awesome event…

• We’re sad to report that, just weeks before the big event, the Netflix Rolling Roadshow screening of Clerks in Leonardo at the actual Quick Stop has been moved, due to noise concerns. This is really a bummer, however, we do understand that the logistics of pulling this off in that small area (given the crowds expected) would have been tough. Thankfully, the town of Red Bank has stepped in to keep the event rolling. Here’s more from the Asbury Park Press:

We’ll be there with full coverage — Hope to see some of YOU in that projected crowd of 2,000 as well — It’s a great excuse to spend a summer evening to catch a free showing of one of the funniest flicks of all time, AND take in some local sights as well. See you there! Check out a similar story at Jersey’s Home Tribune News site as well.