VisionFest is the annual signature event from Filmmakers Alliance, the dynamic Los Angeles-based filmmaking collective. The event begins with the presentation of the Vision Award to filmmaker Kevin Smith and the Nilsson Award to the award’s namesake, filmmaker Rob Nilsson. Those awards will be preceded by a special Community Vision Award to LA Film Forum and the endowment of the Los Angeles Short Filmmaking Grant. It is followed by a screening of the best short films produced through Filmmakers Alliance in the past year and finishes with a spectacular celebration catered by some of LA’s best restaurants.

For more information, go to the official website or call 310-568-0633, or email visionfest@filmmakersalliance.org.

Tickets to attend this event are now on sale but will sell out FAST FAST FAST as they cost a mere $20. This gets you general admisison to the entire event, including the awards, the flicks, and more. A true bargain for film fans in the area.

FILMMAKERS ALLIANCE is a community of film artists dedicated ro realizing the full creative potential of cinema and to the advancement of true independent film through community action. Please join them in honoring their filmmaking heroes and celebrating the work of a new generation of emerging filmmakers.

Q: Next you’re going to be seen in Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make A Porno, which is having problems getting an R-rating due to explicit sexuality.

A: Looking back on filming, it was sort of romantic. But there is definitely some sex, and I know it’s gotten a reputation as a filthy movie. We live in a world where you can disembowel someone in a youth hostel in Romania but you can’t show people having sex. I think it’s weird. I honestly don’t think it deserves an NC-17 rating. Maybe we should have taken ‘porno’ out of the title. That kind of freaks people out, even though it is like the number one industry in the universe.

Yeah, but we just don’t think “Zack & Miri Make a Movie” would have the same ring, ya know?

Capone: The clip from ZACK AND MIRI that Kevin just showed are the first scenes I’ve seen from it. Tell me a little bit about Miri. What kind of person is she?

EB: Well, that clip was from our 10-year high school reunion. She’s an orphan, an aimless loser orphan. She works at a kiosk in the mall. She doesn’t have a lot of ambition. She and Zack are kind of stoners, and they just hang out. They don’t aspire to have anything and they don’t have anything, because they don’t now what they’re missing, or they do but it’s too depressing to think about it. She’s a really regular, small-town person, and that’s all she ever needed to be. She basically just wants to get through life. And she’s in love with Zack, and he doesn’t know it.

Capone: This film smells a bit like a romance under all this flesh peddling.

EB: It’s very romantic. I mean, it’s uber-romantic, this movie. It’s what sold me on the movie. It’s why I can’t believe the MPAA is giving us so much shit, because really the movie has so much heart. Meanwhile SAW 2 is about people cutting off each other’s limbs and blood gushing everywhere is an R. We make this big, heartfelt movie where people happen to fuck each other, and we get an NC-17. I mean, we don’t even show dick. We’re not really showing any penis.

Want more? Hit up Aint It Cool for the entire interview with Capone.

The fantastic G4 TV Feed caught wind of the news as well and used it in their daily wrap up segment yesterday.

Definitely cool to see the AP story we ran picked up by Variety as well, where it was a top item in their daily e-mailing.

Just to clarify, while we stated that there were no FURTHER cuts, it was never implied that the earlier cuts made were for ratings reasons. Kevin typically makes time-related cuts to his films after watching them with an audience, and this was no exception. The first and only rating the film received when submitted was an NC-17, but this was after Kevin had already trimmed the film on his own. There were NO CUTS made in an effort to reduce the rating, so the “R” rated film we’ll see will be the same that Kevin intended, and the same one that was originally hit with that NC-17. Hope that makes sense.

How does it feel to be receiving a lifetime achievement award at the Downbeach Film Festival?

It makes me feel like I’m closer to the end than the beginning — that’s weird. It’s nice though, always nice to get an award in Jersey.

And how does that feel for you, as a writer and a director, to be branching out into different genres?

It’ll be kind of interesting, thrilling on some level, where it’s like, “Wow, I’m working without a net on this one,” because at least with the other flicks, I can always fall back into the comedy, but this one not so much. It’ll be an eye-opener for me, that’s for sure. Maybe I’ll walk out of it going, “Oh my God, I can’t direct horror to save my life.”

You can read the whole interview at their site, though keep in mind it pre-dates the “Zack And Miri” appeal screening, so some stuff in there is a bit dated.

Some gems from “Clerks II” arrive this week, including screen used posters, a beer bottle that’s very classic and visible, and a few more awesome cardboard Mooby props. These are running out, folks, so if you want a piece of Mooby’s history off the walls, bid soon. Also, another chance to grab one of the few remaining “Dogma” cast shirts — A true classic so rare that we never even got our grubby hands on one.

As always, bid carefully, as the stuff that shows up is almost always the only item of its kind. Don’t let that piece of View Askew history get away. We always love seeing true fans and News Askew readers owning this stuff – So get on over to Auctions Askew and stake your claim!

Lionsgate Entertainment has struck a deal with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment to release several of Disney’s TV titles on DVD, starting this Fall. Among their first few releases will be Reaper – Season 1. It arrives in stores on November 4th, as a 5-DVD set with 18 episodes, plus exclusive bonus material. Total running time on this release, timed to debut near the second season broadcast start on The CW Network, is listed as 800 minutes, with a price of $39.98 SRP. The show stars Bret Harrison (The Loop), Ray Wise (Twin Peaks) and Missy Peregrym (Heroes). Package art isn’t available yet, nor details on the bonus material, but stay tuned and we’ll keep you updated!

If we hear more details, we’ll let ya know, of course.

Smith wins appeal for R rating for ‘Porno’

LOS ANGELES – Filmmaker Kevin Smith has won an appeal to lower the adults-only NC-17 rating for his comedy “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” to an R rating.


Motion Picture Association of America spokeswoman Elizabeth Kaltman said Tuesday the rating was revised after the group’s appeals board viewed the movie.

The NC-17 rating would have prohibited anyone younger than 17 from seeing the movie. With an R rating, those under 17 can see it in the company of an adult.

“Zack and Miri,” due out Oct. 31 from the Weinstein Co., stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as best friends and roommates who try to make a homemade porn flick to dig themselves out of debt.

Congrats to Kevin, Scott, and the rest of the cast and crew on this victory — From what we’ve heard, the moments that they wanted to keep were great ones, and it’s fantastic news to hear that they’ll remain when the movie hits screens this October. Word has it that in appeal screenings, precedent can be cited, using similar “R”-rated movies as examples. No word yet on the tactics the guys employed to plead their case, but whatever the method, it’s the outcome we were all hoping to hear. “Zack And Miri Make a Porno”, rated R, in theaters everywhere October 31, 2008!

Capone: Talk about working with Elizabeth again. She’s such an underrated comic actress.

SR: I think so too. I think Kevin originally wrote the part of Rosario Dawson, and then she couldn’t do it for one reason or another. And I was kind of thrilled as soon as I heard that, and I said, “Hey, put Elizabeth Banks in it; she’s fucking hilarious.” No one has every put her in the big role in a big comedy, you know? And I thought that would be perfect for her. We’ve known each other for years, and there’s a lot of very awkward situations in the movie, and that’s very helpful when you really know the people. I know her husband; that helps [laughs].

Capone: It might not help him.

SR: Exactly. [laughs] But I think it turned out great. And there’s no one I would have rather done it with.

Capone: In just reading the one-line summary of what’s going on with ZACK AND MIRI, it combines two things that are very relevant and timely right now…

SR: Porn?

Capone: Amateur porn, for sure. And just people being broke. People are more broke than usual these days.

SR: Yeah, it’s true. Times are tough, gas prices, shit like that, especially…we were shooting in Pittsburgh, which economically is not doing that fantastically right now, and you could really see it. And it was cold as shit, so you think, “Wow, it sucks to be broke in L.A., I can imagine what it’s like in fucking Pittsburgh. It’s way worse. I knew eventually I would do a movie involving porn. [laughs]

Capone: This might be a stupid question, but is there a lot of nudity in it?

SR: Yeah, there’s nudity in it. Katie Morgan is in it. She doesn’t own clothes [laughs].

Check it out in full form over at Ain’t It Cool News! And of course, see Rogen on the big screen TOMORROW (Wednesday) in “Pineapple Express”. This interview covers everything from that film, to “Zack And Miri”, and well beyond.

SModcast 60: The Clone War


In which our heroes marvel over Pillow Babies, thwart an attack by Stalin’s man-apes, and face off over the love of a human Xerox.

Don’t miss SModcast, some of the very best entertainment the web has to offer, courtesy of View Askew Productions and our friends at cool stuff website ThinkGeek.

“Like Kevin Smith’s Clerks, Spaced captures perfectly where I was when I was in my mid-20s.”

The blog goes into detail on “Spaced” and its origins, and even reveals how a 3rd series of the popular program might have started. Worth reading, and of course DEFINITELY worth picking up a copy of from Laser Blazer online!