• Wizard Magazine announced its nominations for the annual Wizard Fan Awards. Kevin Smith is nominated for “Favorite Writer”, “Jay and Silent Bob’s Chasing Dogma” as “Favourite mini-series/one shot” category, while Daredevil is nominated in almost all the other categories (apart from “Favorite comic merchandise”, “Favorite Heroine”, and “Favorite Comic TV or Movie Project” catergories). Here’s a full list:

Congrats to EVERYONE nominated, there’s some really deserving folks who worked hard on those books in the past year, and we wish you all the best of luck! You need to buy the latest issue of Wizard to vote, so get out there and do it!

• ZENtertainment reports that Ethan Supplee has joined the cast of Ted Demme‘s cocaine epic, “BLOW”.
• Dogma is no stranger to controversy, and now it’s popping up in Australia! The Rev. Fred Nile (who raised hell about Marilyn Manson joining a music festival) is playing hell about Dogma now. He says, “Dogma portrays God as a woman, which is offensive to Catholic and Christian beliefs. Jesus said you have to pray to our Father, not our Mother.”
• Today’s most popular submission. The Internet Movie Database selected Chasing Amy as their movie of the day on Friday. Here’s the blurb:

• Tonight, the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles is showing a Clerks/Dogma double feature starting at 7:00 PM. Tickets are just 6 bucks.
• Dogma’s Thailand release has been, as we’d imagined, delayed a week to February 11th.
• “Tail Lights Fade”, the followup to the rarely seen View Askew production “Drawing Flies”, is getting some festival time up north. It’s playing at a small town film festival today, called the Brandon Film Festival. You’ll find Brandon in Manitoba, Canada. The flick also hits video here in the US very soon, and has already seen release overseas.

• Wow, 2 days in a row! Just like the ‘ol Dogma days. Speaking of that, we’re not sure when the next update will be after today’s, since tomorrow “Scream 3” opens, and ya know ya just GOTTA catch that on the first day before it gets ruined. Hopefully it’ll be as good as some early reviews are saying. Also, it’s been too long already, and by some miracle we’ve both actually got a free Friday night, so we’re going to sit down with the flick and play our Dogma drinking game tomorrow night. We’re even toying with the idea of playing it with the Molson XXX that was brought down for me from Canada. Could be ugly. At any rate, we’ll be back with another (probably hung over) update after that, along with the damage that the game does to ya. Pray for us!

• As Dogma continues to make its way around the world, it’s always interesting to take a look at some of the press and reactions that the film has in other countries and cultures. This week, we’ve been receiving quite a bit of Australian press and scoops. Take a look:

• Garth from Dark Horizons ran his review on Dogma. It’s definitely mixed between positive and negative. Read it HERE.
• Here’s an Australian website that’s got their own review, and some clips from the flick HERE.
• This Sydney website has posted a favorable review of the flick. You can read it HERE.
• Finally, Imovie has posted a summary & review HERE.

In addition to all the press, we’ve gotten several reports stating that the flick is being received quite well, with lots of laughter, applause, and full audiences. Glad to hear it.

By the way, Dogma is also hitting a couple more foreign markets this month — It’s been announced that the flick premieres in Spain next Friday, February 11th. Thailand’s release WAS scheduled for tomorrow, but now we hear the date may have been pushed back a couple of weeks. Press is light over there, but a source may be sending us some interesting promotional material soon. Stay tuned.

• Clerks gets mentioned as having “Decent Potential” by USA Today…ummm…today:

The article mostly lists shows with dark futures ahead, and gives props to only a few, so this is certainly positive buzz.

• MTV is planning to air a new special on Wednesday, February 16th at 10 PM, titled “True Life: I’m a Star as Sundance”. No word if this show will feature any footage of Kev’s gig at the festival.
• “Chasing Dogma” is starting to ship from the Stash and other locations. It’s also available from some comic and book websites, though we’re not sure what their supply is like. Keep in mind it’s a very limited run and when they’re gone, that’s it! We’ll have a closer look at the book for ya very soon.
• Finally today, just a short note for all the Britsih fans in the North-east of England. Newcastle’s Tyneside cinema is showing a Clerks and Chasing Amy Double Bill on Friday the 18th of February. The show begins at 11:00 PM and lasts until the ungodly hour of 3:00 AM. Tickets will run ya £6.00 / £4.50 students.

• Wow, where the heck did February come from? Well, that only means that we’re one month closer to spring and, judging from the weather around here lately, it can show up anytime it wants. The groundhog did NOT see his shadow today, signaling 6 more weeks of winter…But our friend Jeff, whose birthday is today, predicts himself every year, and usually does better than the hog. Jeff saw his shadow and says we can expect an early spring. So there ya go, take it as you will.

As you know, we’ve got a couple projects in the works behind the scenes and have been quite tight-lipped about them. You may also notice that it’s been very business-as-usual around here lately. Just some basic updates and that’s it. Again, this mostly comes from the fact that we’ve been so entrenched in the major project as well as everyday life (fun things such as snow shoveling) that make it difficult to make the site extra lively. Well, the GOOD news is that we’ve decided it’s been long enough and fast-tracked a couple smaller projects and announcements, which we hope to make sometime this week. Watch for them. It’s still not the major announcement we’ve got in the coming months, but it’s some really cool stuff all the same.

Now, on to today. We held off on the news yesterday cuz it was a VERY slow day, and there ain’t much going on today, either. We’re gonna throw them all into newsbites and leave it at that. We’ve also got a quick update on what we know about the Dogma DVD. Also, check out the late poll topic for the week – Vote fast, ‘cuz we think this one’s only gonna hang around until Sunday. Let’s roll:

• The most popular subject in e-mails to this site continues to be the flicks on DVD. Well, we know Dogma and Chasing Amy will come out sometime this year (though Amy’s original release of May seems a bit questionable now that Criterion doesn’t have it officially on the schedule). But what about the details? Well, several sites have speculated over who, what, where and when this Dogma DVD is going to surface. Here’s what we know, at least, last time we talked about it:

• The disc is going to street on May 2, 2000.
• Several websites are already taking preorders for the flick. Reel.Com has it for $14.99, which seems to be the lowest price going. If you want to wait until release, the Stash will likely sell signed copies.
• The disc will have Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio and be 16:9 enhanced (for widescreen TVs).
• The disc will contain a commentary track, though those speaking on it have yet to be announced. We’d say to expect at LEAST Kevin, Mewes, Vincent, & Scott, and more than likely a LOT more of the flick’s cast.
• Over an hour of deleted material is planned for inclusion, more than the packed Mallrats disc, even. This should include all of the famous sequences you’ve read about and heard about. The flick originally ran well over 3 hours long and was released at 2 hours and change.
• Vincent speculated that the disc MAY use branching technology to allow the Sundance version of the film to be watched in addition to the theatrical version. Sundance’s version did not have ALL the aforementioned deleted stuff, but ran about 20 minutes longer. Chances of this are slim due to the timeframe to put something like that together, but it may happen.

Other items, such as a possible documentary (wouldn’t that be sweet?), stills, and the like have yet to be announced, but we can tell you this – Dogma’s going to be a tough DVD to beat. In fact, we think it’ll be the best disc released this year, if not ever. And with just 3 months to go, you better start saving your pennies for that DVD player!

• Early reports indicate another appearance for Kevin on the horizon: Emory University on February the 15th. We’ll report a more major news item as soon as we can confirm and get some details for ya.
• In the latest issue of Wizard Magazine (March 2000, Issue #102), there’s a “Make Your Own Video” contest on pages 98/99. Basically you make a short video and submit it, and if you’re the grand prize winner (or one of 5 runner ups) you get a letter of critique from…none other than KEVIN SMITH himself. Ya want Kev to check out your short? Here’s how:

Deadline for entry is April 30th, 2000. Keep in mind Kev will only critique the 6 winners, he’s not gonna look at EVERY entry. We don’t have an address or any more details. Go buy the latest issue for all of that. Good luck to ya. Why not make a News Askew video? Nah, that’s right, you want to WIN.

• Swag ahoy! Diamond Distributors has announced that the Chasing Dogma limited edition hardcover and the Mooby Cow Plush Doll will be released to specialty stores today. Expect them soon at the Stash!
• The MSN Entertainment page gave some very kind props to Kev, citing the fun appearance he made on the Sundance show:

• ZENtertainment reports that Joe Quesada has announced Brian Michael Bendis (Jinx) will write a three-episode story arc running through DAREDEVIL #16-18, which will be fully painted by David Mack. Still so sign on when Kev will come back for a second round.

• Got a ton of folks writing in to correct us on the UMASS appearance – Apparently, they have different campuses, and Kev’s not coming to the one most thought (Boston) — Instead, he’ll be at the AMHERST campus. Sorry for any confusion.

• Graphitti Designs does it AGAIN! Cover your ass this millennium with the new Buddy Christ Dashboard Statue. Inspired by the statue seen in Kevin Smith’s Dogma, Buddy Christ stands over 5 inches tall, comes fully-painted and is ready for action. Whether mounted on your dash or used at home in the Christ the Computer Companion mode, let Jesus watch over and guide you 24-hours a day. Doesn’t it just….pop? And at $12.95, it’s a steal. Coming soon from Diamond Distributors and, we assume for sure, the Stash.
• Wanna win some Dogma Religious Paraphernalia courtesy of iF magazine? Click HERE to enter.
• Dogma just crossed the big $30,000,000 mark! According to Yahoo, the flick ranked 43rd this weekend, earning another $125K to bring it to a tally of $30,130,285.

• Some nice work done by a scooper on a couple other “what if?” posters — You’ve all seen the Jay & Bob “The Prophets” poster, now check out his concept of a Buddy Christ and Azrael one-sheet (our favorite). Nice work. Click to enlarge these guys.
• Finally today, thanks to Nextplanetoverfor the plug today regarding the Scream 3 cameo for Jay & Bob. We appreciate it.

• Whew. That’s all we gotta say. First of all, our Flyers disappointed a bit, they were looking tired on Sunday and got blanked by the Caps 2-0. Then we walk out of the MCI Center to an ICE STORM! After driving 5 hours in HORRIBLE weather from DC to Harrisburg, we made it back around 10 PM last night by some miracle, missing the entire Superbowl in the process (but hey, at least The Sorpranos started at 10!). On the upside, we spent Saturday night out on the town and had a total blast — Had some AMAZING chili at a joint called the Hard Times Cafe, then hit a jumpin’ Irish joint called Murphy’s. Afine time was had by all. And that DC metro system is very, very nice.

So, that being said, a few things to report on today, including of course the pair of Clerks TCS ads that aired last night, some news from the land of Sundance, and a couple other tidbits. Most of the stuff’s in the form of NewsBites, but trust us, read ‘em, there’s some important info there.

• Kevin stopped by the web board before the big game last night (as we drove through the muck) to let everyone know when the ads were gonna air. One aired during pregame, around 5:45, the other, after it was all in the books. The ad introduces all the characters, then jokes a bit regarding when the show’s actually hitting the air. It was quite well received.

So hey, ya wanna see it? Do ya? Huh huh? Ming hooks us up with several flavors of the trailer right HERE at the official View Askew site. Surf over, watch, enjoy.