• Now here’s a DEAL on the Dogma DVD that you won’t want to pass up! Reel.Com has already stuck it in their computers at the low low preorder price of $14.99! We order from these guys ALL the time, and find their service to be speedy and reliable. Plus, the retail is bound to go up on this thing, so here’s a chance to get in early and order this thing at an insanely low price. Click here to reserve your copies today!

• More behind the scenes pics from Dogma, anyone? You bet!!! Here’s some more shots right out of the FX shop that have been released for the first time, including some of Ben’s fake head & body as well as the Noman casting. Enjoy!
• Finally today, a quote from Kevin in the latest issue of Daily Variety, regarding his favorite movie moment of 1999:

See ya next time!

• Time flies. Over halfway into January already. Where does it all go? A very quiet weekend on the Askew front, but don’t let that fool ya, we’ve got some fantastic newsbites that you don’t want to miss. Also, a new poll topic with a familiar sound to it, though now that you’ve all had a chance to see Dogma for the most part, it’ll be interesting to see how this one turns out. Thanks to BenE for the suggestion.

Tonight marks the debut (finally) of the second season of The Sopranos on HBO. We’ve been tuning in since the first episode, and now that the show has become the darling of critics everywhere, it seems that even those of you without HBO have been getting hit with press on the show from all over the place. At any rate, believe the critics, it’s THAT good, and with the strong following the show’s come to enjoy, we can only imagine how good this season’s gonna be. We’ll be glued to our sets every Sunday night at 9 for the next few months, you can count on that. And we’ll be TAPING the X-Files.

We’ve also got a few things to say about the milestone we hit this weekend, so read on…

• Well, it seemed to happen a lot quicker this time. We celebrated out one millionth hit just this past summer, and here it is Winter and we’ve already DOUBLED that number. TWO MILLION HITS. Amazing. Truly amazing. Thanks to all of you who sent in the congratulatory messages on the milestone. Without you, it just wouldn’t be possible, and we’ll never forget that it’s the View Askew fans and scoopers, people like YOU, that allow this site to continue. So again, with News Askew now being 2,000,000 clicks strong, we again want to say thanks to all of you for the amazing support over these past 2 1/2 years. We hope to be around for a lot more. And trust us when we say, though it’s taking some time, we’ve got some great surprises in store for 2000. Thanks again to all of you for making News Askew what it is today. We appreciate it.

• Kevin stopped by the board to give us all a quick hello and to let us know how things were going. And…THANK THE MAKER…He answered that age-old question of WHEN we’ll see Amy on DVD. THANK YOU!!!!! Hopefully the questions will FINALLY stop now. At any rate, read on for that announcement, some great news about the Dogma DVD & The Clerks series, & more:

Man, that is fantastic news. So we’ll basically see Kevin’s remaining 2 flicks released on DVD within a MONTH of one another, both loaded with special edition content, PLUS Vincent Pereira’s “A Better Place” DVD as well. Man, it’s gonna be a GREAT Spring. Hopefully we’ll get a few rainy days early on to spend some time with those suckers.

As for Amy, the Criterion laser IS wonderful, so those of you that missed it will definitely enjoy the commentary and all of the deleted scenes that were restored (there’s a ton of them). We fear this means Criterion may be foregoing a new 16:9 transfer for the film, though. We’re going to try and contact them about that (unless someone from Criterion is reading, if so, PLEASE drop us a line). If not, it may be time to start another of our famous e-mail campaigns…

As for the Dogma DVD, we’re sure it will contain another in the series of the BEST commentaries on home video (Kevin & crew ALWAYS put on a show that everyone loves in their commentary tracks) along with a TON of deleted stuff (we saw it a couple of years ago, and man, those of you that loved the flick are REALLY gonna like it now). We can’t wait.

As for the Clerks series, it goes without saying that we’re stoked about it. They’re keeping it well under wraps right now, we’ve yet to see a frame ourselves, but we’re sure the official site will have tons and we’ll also do our best to try and squeeze some stills out of somebody as soon as possible.

• Synapse has teamed with online retailer DVD Express to give you a fantastic deal on a kick ass DVD. Check this out:

Order yours before they’re gone! You’ll get a great movie, a LOADED DVD, and a nice price to boot. We can’t wait to own this one ourselves.

• Let the good news continue! Looks like someone had the time and energy to create a transcript of Mallrats and place it online, complete with shots from the film. The format’s strange, but, it’s there.
• In this month’s issue of the British Magazine UNCUT, there’s an excellent story/review featuring Dogma, along with some way cool pics. Send us a transcript or scans if you’ve got ‘em!

• Yet more references to the Jersey Trilogy are popping up in comics. In “Gen13: Magical Drama Queen Roxy,” Grunge, Bobby, and Rainmaker discuss her being a lesbian and then go off on a discussion of Kev’s flicks. Click the 2 thumbs above for a better look.

• A profile of Oni Press, found at the POP Image website, confirms that the “Vulgarities” magazine is still in the works, with Paul Lewis at the helm. We assume it’ll be a View Askew fanzine of some sort, kind of like this website in digest form, though we’re not involved with the project ourselves. Read more about Oni HERE.
• Dogma got a mention on that new MTV gameshow that we’ve never watched called WebRiot. The question was during the video for “Angel Of Mine” by Monica, and the read “In what 1999 movie do Ben Affleck and Matt Damon play a pair of fallen angels?”. All four contestants got it right, and host Ahmet Zappa then said “Dogma also features Salma Hayek and a monster made of poo. Academy voters, are you watching?”
• The Internet Movie Database reports Dogma’s Alan Rickman has been nominated for a Golden Satellite Award in the category of “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Comedy or Musical”. Congrats!!!
• The Free Comics website is running a contest with the grand prize being a signed copy of Clerks #1. All ya gotta do is surf over and enter.
• The Dr. Drew website is hosting a new interview with Kevin Smith. It’s online in its entirety. You can read it HERE.
• The latest Premiere Magazine with Affleck on the cover is hitting stands and features an article written by good ‘ol Ben himself. Towards the end, he states, “I like quiet and the idea of rest, but can’t seem to stop moving. I like people (as someone once said), but I hate gatherings.” Sounds like a familiar Clerk you all know and love, doesn’t it? Stop by your local newsstand and pick up a copy.

• Things have definitely been slowing down again lately. With most of Dogma’s major release markets taken care of, and the crew spending most of their time quietly getting the first batch of Clerks TAS episodes ready for air this march, the general Askew news is going to be a bit slow for the next month or so, which is nice, because it allows us to catch up on some other stuff that we’ve been meaning to.

While we’re here, by the way, PLEASE stop writing us to ask about a Chasing Amy DVD release. We’re thinking about putting a new little slogan at the top of the page saying “We don’t know when Chasing Amy will be out on DVD!”. And we honestly don’t. Yes, we want it as much as you do, especially so the e-mails on it stop, but at this point no official announcements have been made. Also, we haven’t begun to cover Clerks 2 yet because there just isn’t anything to cover. Once pre-production starts on the flick, which we don’t expect until at least after The Animated Series debuts, we’ll have full coverage, and we’re sure Kevin will clue us in as to what’s going on.

We also notice that we’re quickly approaching our big 2 millionth hit. Man, that went fast. A lot of you are wondering if we’ve got a big celebration in store, but there just hasn’t been time to plan anything. Someday we’ll be able to explain all of these delays, but just know we’re REALLY busy working on stuff at the moment. At any rate, if you hit the big number, or come close, drop us a line and let us know. We’re excited and pleased as hell that we made it this far.

Alright, all of that being said, we’ve got some news & mostly newsbites to get to today:

• Congratulations are in order for Kevin today — Dogma has been nonimated for “Best Screenplay” in the Independent Spirit Awards. Nominations were announced last night in Los Angeles. The flick’s got a great chance of winning, we gotta say, in fact, we think Dogma’s got it in the bag. We’ll be watching this one closely.

• Mr. Brian O’Halloran himself took a moment to check in over at the board, just to say hi and how much he’s enjoying work on the Clerks Animated Series. Here’s Brian: