• The world-famous Sundance Film festival, which runs January 20th to January 30th in Park City, Utah, will mark the world premiere of Kevin Smith’s first foray into horror, “Red State”. Kevin broke the news on his new podcast titled “Plus One” this week (details on that in a story below). While not in official competition, the screening is still a great honor, and gives potential buyers a chance to view the film with an audience and even potentially place some distribution bids. From a Variety story this morning:

  “One high-profile title hunting for a buyer is Smith’s fundamentalism-skewewing horror pic “Red State”. Festgoers will be curious to see whether Smith follows through on his suggestion in an earlier podcast that, were “Red State” to play at Sundance, he would publicly hand-pick the distributor right on the spot (“Might even bring up a professional auctioneer to make it fun and unintelligible,” he said.)

  /Film hints that some of the cast and crew may be in town for the film’s premiere. No further details have yet been announced as far as a screening date or theater, but we’ll be sure to reveal that as soon as we can, for those of you lucky enough to be attending the festival. Maybe we can find a way to get you inside info to get you in the door. It will easily sell out and be a tough ticket, as Kevin’s films debuting at festivals have always been extremely popular.

  Here’s Sundance’s official logline for “Red State”:

  Red State / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Kevin Smith) – A group of misfits encounter extreme fundamentalism in Middle America. Cast: Michael Parks, Michael Angarano, Kyle Gallner, John Goodman, Melissa Leo.

  If you’re curious to learn about the other films just announced, /Film has done an excellent summary of everything and so has GeekTyrant.

  Director Richard Kelly’s seen the film, and his quote reminds us of those we read from the rare few who Kevin shocked by passing the script on to them back when it was written. Check THIS out again courtesy /Film:

  “I have never seen a filmmaker reinvent himself the way you just have. I won’t say anything else because I don’t want to spoil anything. It’s really really exciting. If the movie ends up playing at Sundance, I might actually come up to just see the audience’s response. I can not wait…”

  Nice, right?

  A few final notes: Kevin reveals that we’ll get our first look at John Goodman’s character in the next issue of the UK’s Empire Magazine. Get those scanners ready for us, UK’ers. Keep up with the latest happenings via the “Red State of the Union” podcast which Kevin promises will NOT come close to spoiling anything about the film. Not even close.

  Huge congrats to Kevin and the entire cast and crew on this major achievement. Now, on to distribution and a theatrical release date.

• When Kevin set up the first podcasting network and the world’s first live podcasting theater, we initially thought it would be for a couple of shows — Amazingly, in just months, we’ve watched the network evolve into a fantastic and varied array of programming. From film to sports to sex to comics to music…It’s just incredible. The shows are drawing record numbers of subscriptions and playbacks, and continue to top the iTunes charts almost instantly after they hit the airwaves.

  This week, Kevin proudly debuts his latest creation, “Plus One”, a regular program featuring him and his wife. Here’s a few tweets on this week’s debut, in which they revealed that “Red State” would be heading to Sundance:

  FINALLY! I do a weekly podcast with the only woman I nut all up in! JENNY! Pre-Nups are for pussies on PLUS ONE! http://smodcast.com/plusone

  PLUS ONE is where some mouthy broad give me my comeuppance. Subscribe: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/plus-one-smodcast-com/id407598704

  Many thanks! You made PLUS ONE the # 1 podcast on ALL of iTunes: http://viewaskew.com/kevin/PlusOneNumberOne.jpg You folks are big enablers!

  That brings the count to at least FOURTEEN different shows that have aired on the network, with over 9 of them being regular weekly (or almost weekly) programs. That’s quite an achievement from a program that was at one point just a single podcast, with aspirations of having around 5 shows a week. At the rate of expansion, it’s tough to determine where the ceiling is, though it seems that SModcastle has given the gang a rare opportunity to try out new programs, pilot episodes if you will, expanding or downsizing as needed. With an unlimited amount of bandwidth out there, the sky’s the limit as to how far the network will go, but we’re sure enjoying the ride so far.

  The best way to keep up is simply by finding your favorite programs by searching in iTunes, or using the official iTunes and RSS feeds you’ll locate at the beautiful SModcast Web site . And congrats for finding it — You’re part of a groundbreaking mix of entertainment and technology.

• It’s Friday, so we’re gathering up the best and most intriguing of Kevin’s tweets from the last week. The feed has gotten quite a bit more active over the last few days…Though still not back to the levels of when the tweets kicked off with his official account, but by far the most in some time, with “Red State” now completed. As usual, we’re only grabbing the newsworthy stuff, as well as summarizing the latest podcast episode announcements (remember: sometimes podcast schedules change, or special live episodes are posted — follow Kevin’s twitter feed for the up to the second info).

  Let’s take a look, first, at the SMOD-related stuff (new episodes announced this week), followed by some comments from us :

  The day of the Lord cometh like a thief in the night – as does a brand new #SMODCAST http://smodcast.com/main.html 147: Belly Full of Spells

  Via @VideoETA “Sorry to hear about Sundance.” s’cool. I listened to this & it made me feel better: PLUS ONE # 1! http://smodcast.com/main.html

  FILM NERDS! Hear a new LIVE FROM @SMODCASTLE featuring a discussion with Darko-Daddy Richard Kelly: http://smodcast.com/livefromsmodcastle/

  Loving Mewes, is easy ’cause you’re beautiful. Hear a brand new episode of JAY & SILENT BOB GET OLD right now! http://smodcast.com/getold/

  It’s time to Babble the fuck on! Listen to me & @RalphGarman on the brand new HOLLYWOOD BABBLE-ON! http://smodcast.com/babbleon/

  Via @yourmelody1 “How’d the show go last night?” These beautiful fucking Californians SOLD THAT SHIT OUT FOR US! EXCELLENT way to debut!

  Via @ScottElvisKappy “What’s the capacity in new theater?” 300 & change. With tables out: 600. We’ll need it… FOR OUR NEW YEAR’S EVE SHOW!

  Whoa! Fell asleep old-man-early last night & forgot to give y’all THIS: the latest RED STATE OF THE UNION Q&A! http://smodcast.com/redstate/

  On the new RED STATE OF THE UNION: more on HIT SOMEBODY lead Nic Braun with casting director DebAquila! http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0032597/

  Via @DJBrujah “Do we get a new Smodimation today, sir?” Monday, sir. And it’s pretty awesome. For now: http://smodcast.com/smodimations/

  @RyanFerguson83 “will we ever get an Affleck podcast?” If the Askewniverse was like BLOOM COUNTY, then #SModcast is like OUTLAND. Opus & Bill came over. Then, during the six year run of the strip, almost all our Bloom County favorites eventually showed up. #ItsOpusTime

  We especially love that last comment and “Outland” analogy. It really does seem that gradually, all the greats from View Askew past and present have been stopping by the SModcastle or the recording studio to check in for an episode or even a series. We’re looking forward to the days we see the likes of Affleck, Lee, and others recording special episodes.

  For those of you a little behind on “Babble On”, just to summarize — The show’s become so huge that it’s moved to the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club at Universal Citywalk at least through the end of the year with a standing Friday night engagement. As you can see, it’s already selling out. If you have the means, get there and see what you have been missing. The show is absolutely hilarious.

  SModcast Network and SModcastle continue to get e-ink as well.

  Finally, for those wondering when they’ll get to hear the Gaiman/Palmer special, wait no more — The official site for this 3-hour event has gone live. The show will eventually be free like all SModcasts remain, however, for its debut, we’re asking for a charitable donation of 90 cents and up, per chapter (3 chapters total) which benefits The Wayne Foundation. In chapter one, hear Smith talk candidly with Gaiman and Palmer. In Chapter 2, hear Palmer rock the stage. And finally, in Chapter 3, hear Gaiman read! All starting this Monday. Find out a little more about what you missed via this blog from an attendee. A clip:

  …I’ve seen a million interviews. Live and on TV. The subject is promoting something, and certain topics are taboo, and truth rarely comes out. Kevin’s only interested in the truth. He extracts it. And one got more insight into the struggle to be an artist last night at the Smodcastle than at any panel at any music conference ever.

  You see it’s about the people. They’re a special breed. And those who last are not about the money, because it’s too hard for it to only be about the money. They were always a little bit off, always living in an alternative reality in their heads. And it’s only when they laid this down that they found out huge swaths of people identified.

  The folks at @FastCompany took a look at #SModcast & @SModcastle in THIS article.

  It’s a busy and exciting time for the SModcast network — Keep following News Askew along with Kevin’s twitter and the SModcast network’s site for all the latest, with new content showing up every day.

• Affleck. Lee. Damon. Banks. Kevin’s had his eyes on some folks who went on to do big things in Hollywood. So, it’s with excitement that we reveal his discovery for the lead of “Hit Somebody”, a relative unknown by the name of Nicholas Braun, who Kevin just revealed (via the just-gone-public new episode of “Hollywood Babble-On”) will take on the lead in the flick:
  Meet Nicholas Braun – the star of the last film I plan on making. He IS my Buddy. Literally.

  Deal Cenrtal posts a nicely detailed full story:

  Kevin Smith has announced that Nicholas Braun will play the lead role of Buddy McKraken in the director’s upcoming hockey comedy “Hit Somebody.”

  The filmmaker broke the casting news during the 14th episode of his popular podcast, Hollywood Babble-On.

  “He’s this really great actor who I love to death and he is the perfect lead for this hockey movie, for this script, which is based on this Warren Zevon song,” said Smith.

  I’m not familiar with Braun’s work but I trust Smith implicitly when it comes to casting, as he has a great eye for spotting natural talent. Who else could turn Jason Mewes into a household name, or make a Hollywood star out of a skateboarder named Jason Lee?

  Smith is the guy who helped put Ben Affleck on the industry’s radar in “Mallrats” and “Chasing Amy,” gave Will Ferrell a major role in “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” before he became an A-list movie star, and cast George Carlin as a freakin’ Cardinal in “Dogma,” so he’s earned more than a little good will when it comes to casting matters.

  The director also revealed that his Hollywood Babble-On co-host Ralph Garman will appear in “Hit Somebody” on the heels of his appearance in “Red State.”

  Smith hopes to start filming sometime between July and September of 2011.

  Seann William Scott was previously set to star before he accepted the lead of a rival hockey comedy, “Goon,” which co-stars Jay Baruchel, Liev Schreiber and Alison Pill.

  Braun has previously appeared in “Sky High” and on the ABC Family series “10 Things I Hate About You.” The actor also has a role in Smith’s next project, the political horror film “Red State.”

  Braun is represented by WME and Levine/Okwu/Erickson.

We’re guessing life’s going to get a lot more interesting for Mr. Braun in the coming days/weeks, and are excited to see things continuing to move forward on this hockey-themed flick, long a passion of Kevin’s now becoming closer to reality.

• Regular followers of this site already know that Kevin’s immediate plans in the world of film include a release of “Red State”, followed by “Hit Somebody”, as well as a potential return to the world of “Clerks” if he has something to say about life in his 40’s through the eyes of Dante and Randal. We follow pretty much everything said by or about Kevin here at News Askew, and these are indeed the only 3 film projects that Kevin has mentioned over the past few years, at all. So, it came of no surprise when we saw this quote that /Film pulled from a recent interview:

  “Red State is done. Next step is the hockey movie, Hit Somebody. Then I’m done. There’s possibly a Clerks 3. If I have something to say in my late 40s about being in my late 40s, I’ll think of [Clerks’] Dante and Randal. Shy of that, I don’t have any more movies I want to make.”

  Did we take this as a unofficial announcement of retirement from filmmaking? Not at all, really. Kevin has always said he wanted to get 10 films out there (he’s been saying this for a LONG time, dating all the way back to Dogma around 1999). So, to our loyal readers, this may not have seemed major news, though it seems some outlets picked this up as some sort of bombshell without even checking with the source. /Film, however, decided to contact Kevin directly about the quote, and he Kevin took the time to script a thoughtful, detailed response which we’ll share a few excerpts from here:

  … But THIS “retirement” crap? Not news so much as another sad example of how fucking lazy movie press has become: they cannibalize stories by other writers just to have something to post on their own blogs. Yours was the only website that bothered to go DIRECTLY to the source, Peter – other cats ran articles without even tossing a Tweet my way to check veracity. And I answer Tweets like I answer the dinner bell: often & much. While sweating. And already eating something else.

  I’ve always said (since CLERKS, even) that I’ve got about ten films in me (that info might even be on my Wikipedia page). And COP OUT notwithstanding (solely because I didn’t write it), HIT SOMEBODY is the 10th film I’ve got in me. At this moment in time, I’ve got no other flicks I wanna make. The musing about a possible return visit to the View Askewniverse with a third CLERKS is something I’ve been doing since CLERKS II, but I’ve always opened said musings with the disclaimer “If I ever wanna make a flick about being in my 40’s, I’ll think of Dante & Randal first.” There are no concrete plans for a CLERKS III.

  …

  …If you’ve GOTTA have some Kevin Smith news to hold you over? Here’s something that’s not so much news as my stated intentions for RED STATE: if it gets into Sundance, my plan is to pick the RED STATE distributor right there – IN THE ROOM – auction style. Might even bring up a professional auctioneer to make it fun and unintelligible. And if you’re a multi-millionaire who can’t make it to the first screening of RED STATE, fear not: maybe we’ll set up an eBay page for the post-screening bid-calling as well.

  Congrats to /Film for doing the diligence to check with Kevin, and for getting the facts straight. More news later, as we’ll be watching for the “Hit” news and anything else that drops, as well as catching up on some leftover holiday tidbits from the break. Stay tuned.

• A new, even cheaper and cooler way to experience the coolness that is SModcastle has arrived – SMODPASS! This pass allows you a 30 day rolling admittance to any and all SModcastle shows (except the already sold out Red State events). This means everything else, though, folks, including the movies, SModcast 3D, Jay & Silent Bob Get Old, Blow Hard, and all your other favorite special guests and shows. For the price of $100, that’s less than 10 bucks for a night of entertainment. You can’t do a feature film cheaper than that, and this shit’s LIVE.

  This offer was a 24 hour exclusive for SModcastle VIPs — Those who were the first to enter its doors. Now, remaining tickets of this extremely limited group are up for what we are sure is a VERY limited time. We highly recommend any fans within a reasonable distance of the SModcastle snatch these babies up, and take advantage of the incredible savings being passed on — Really makes us wanna pack bags and head to L.A. Be there!

• Quite some time in the planning and development phases, we’re pleased to announce today that the next generation of “News Askew” is not far off. With a new server in place, we’re finalizing the design aspects and features we plan to offer up. Our goal? The news will ALWAYS be front and center. This time, we’re basing it on a popular layout which will bring a more newspaper/magaine style feel to our front page. The news archive will continue to be browsable by page, month, ot year. In addition to the news, we’re also incorporating easy access to the new SModcast Network, Kevin’s frequent tweets, an improved event listing, and more.

  Rather than do a sloppy import, we’re taking our time and going back over each and every bit of data since we started, fixing broken links where possible, making sure things are spelled correctly, formatted nicely, and the like. The best we can, anyway. After all, there’s over 7,900 news stories in our back catalog. It’ll take some time. But we’re gonna do it. The end result will be a cleaner, faster site than ever before, and a beautiful back history of everything that’s happened in the News Askew world since we started close to 14 years ago.

  We of course realize that many of you enjoy your news via other platforms, such as your iPhone, iPad, other mobile phones, twitter, Facebook, RSS readers, and the like. We’ll of course continue to provide the same and, in many cases, updated versions of the site in all those venues, so you can follow with the latest from the world of Kevin Smith and View Askew no matter where you are or what electronic device is nearby.

  Our initial rollout plan will involve a more recent subset of the news database, with the back catalog to be filled in as time allows. This will give us the chance to test drive the new site with you, the users, while we make final tweaks and continue to add our vast library of news dating all the way back to April 1997.

  Happy holidays, and stay tuned, we’re excited to move to the next iteration of the site we’ve loved bringing you for over 13 years.

• Many shows for Jay & Silent Bob Get Old have quietly been placed on sale — You can now purchase your tix for shows as far out as May 2011. Visit the official site for all dates and shows. Don’t miss a rare chance to catch Smith and Mewes onstage together. At presstime, 8 dates in Spring 2011 are available, more could be added in the future. And don’t forget, Kevin does the solo tour with dates in December and April, with more on the way.
• “Chasing Amy” is cited in this article on “The Evolution of the Hollywood Gay Joke in Three Easy Stages”:

  “…And for all of the homophobic barbs that Jason Lee’s character unleashes upon the queer folks in Smith’s Chasing Amy, the movie is constantly telling us that it’s Lee’s character who’s got the issues and not his supposed targets. (The fact that Lee’s character is revealed to be gay himself at the end of Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back brings the whole point home.”

• And finally, here’s a fun one today — Video game developer Artificial Mind & Movement (A2M for short) changed their name to “Behaviour”, and the company’s CEO says “Clerks II” was to blame.

  “Behaviour CEO Remi Racine tells Eurogamer that initially, the team was unaware of any other meanings for the studio name, until the “issue became known to us five years ago. It was mentioned in a movie and it started to grow from 2005/2006.”

  The story links directly to a YouTube video from none other than “Clerks II”.

• As we predicted, seats sold out quickly after announcing the rare chance to be a part of the “Red State Club” and participate in 10 weeks of live shows at the SModcastle surrounding the film. If you can’t be there in person, though, the next best thing is listening FREE at the official site. Episode #2 is now live and includes audio of a scene from the film, the first anywhere and an exclusive. Producer Jon Gordon joins the crew as a special guest this week.

  iTunes users: You can also subscribe here free and follow along with one of the top rated entertainment podcasts in the world. The podcast will continue on a weekly basis, recorded every Monday night and debuted on the web later in the week.

• There’s a lot going on over on the west coast these days, with the key attraction being the great SModcastle — Missing shows has been tough enough, but with today’s announcement, Kevin once again breaks new ground in the world of film, and makes us jealous we can’t be a part of it. If you’re anywhere close, you’d be crazy not to take him up on this — “The Red State Club” invites a lucky group of 44 fans (first come, first served) the opportunity to spend every Monday night, for the next 10 weeks, at the SMOdcastle, where you’ll join Kevin and the cast/crew of “Red State”, for a weekly discussion, watch scenes and the movie itself before anyone else in the world gets to see it. All for the bargain price of a $100. We think they could charge a lot more, so this is a DEAL. If there are ANY slots left, you really want to surf over and JOIN RIGHT NOW as they’re just not going to last long.

  This is the first time we’ve ever known of a director have this close of a relationship with the fans — For such an extensive, involved time period, you can be involved before the film hits theaters, and potentially even have an impact on marketing and more. Plus, you’ll get to see “Red State” WAY early. You just can’t miss it.

  With the 10 week course, and a 2011 release date planned, is that hinting that the film might hit theaters sometime in February? No release date planned just yet, though we’re anxiously awaiting. That, and a hint that our Christmas present this year, December 25th, will be our first look at the teaser, has us with “Red State” fever. A nice, slow marketing campaign that’s really got anticipation levels high is the right way to go with this one.

  So, in short, be a part of movie history and join the “Red State Club” before the seats are gone. And if you’re not in the area, rumor is that Kevin will screen the teaser for fans attending the Boston Q&A at the House of Blues on Thursday, December 2nd.