The date discussed previously (Jan 5th) is the date of said extravaganza. Confirmed. Solid.

The 48 hour period where we will be taking ticket orders will be announced ONE WEEK before the ticket selling will begin. It will be posted on every board, it will be mentioned on the soon to be completed website, it will be discussed lots.

260 tickets will be sold, with a small chance we can squeeze a few more in on top of that.

A deal is being forged with the local Marriott over the next week whereby anyone coming for the fest and staying overnight will get a discount on their bill. Details to come if and when it happens.

Merchandise will be sold at the event and special ‘event-related’ merchandise is being considered.

Madd Malcolm Ingram, of Drawing Flies and the soon to be Tailights Fade, will be there which hopefully means Matt ‘The Hat’ Gissing shall be too.

Ethan Suplee has been rumored to be coming, though confirmation is sketchy.

Vincent, being the everpresent ear-licker, will definitely be there.

And who knows? Lee Bendick just might even turn up, if we’re lucky…

Get your credit cards ready. And if you weren’t going to go… are you NUTSO!?

Remember that rumor that Smith may be asked back by Jon Peters. Smith’s answer to the CA rumor appeared on his View Askew site: “While I doubt this rumor has any validity, I don’t think I’d be let near the project again, regardless.” [Corona]

On Saturday, Nov. 16, 1997, Kevin Smith had a Q&A session at The College of New Jersey (aka Trenton State College). The show started at 6 PM with a showing of Chasing Amy. I got myself a nice seat right in front of where Kevin was going to be speaking.

I must say, after seeing Chasing Amy for a second time, I really love this film. It’s funny as hell and some of the scenes between Ben Affleck and Jeoy Lauren Adams are incredible, especially the one in the rain. After Chasing Amy was over, we were treated to some waiting and some refreshments. At about 8:15, the lights dimmed and Kevin was announced. He came out to a tremendous ovation from myself and everyone else. He opened with a very witty line, which I wish I could remember and then he says something to the effect of, “Well, I never like to travel in Jersey alone, so I brought a friend with me.” So Kevin waved someone in from the side, and the place went nuts! It was Jason Mewes! I was thrilled because we were not told he was going to be there. Jay came out wearing sweats and a ‘Clerks’ t-shirt, eating gumballs from a carton, and gave a big “Snootchie-bootchies” to the crowd. It kicked ass.

Anyway, he sat down in a chair next to the podium that Kevin was standing at. Kevin decided to open up the floor for questions. I think he was kind of annoyed that the spot light was shining directly in his face so he couldn’t see anyone in the crowd, so they turned it down.

Now I can’t remember every question, but I’ll give you some of the highlights. One guy stole my question and asked about the Superman script. Kevin gave us a great story about how he kept getting asked to come in and he kept telling them that their script sucked. Eventually, he was asked to write it and he waited till the last week to write it. Then, after Tim Burton got hired on, Kevin’s script was dropped. I must say that Kevin Smith is one of the funniest and best story tellers I have ever heard. Now I see where all these great movies come from.

Another question was asked about how Kevin and Jay met. Kevin said that at first he didn’t like Jason and then one day at a rec center that Kevin worked at, Jay came in and proceeded to “felate everything that looked somewhat fallic for 15 minutes”. After that, Kevin knew he liked him. He also talked about the Fashion Show incident with Jack Nicholson which is a great story and is best told on the View Askew homepage. Probably one of the funniest things said was when Kevin was talking about how one guy from the Washington Post wrote up a really bad review for one of his movies (I can’t remember which). Kevin said something to the effect of, “I can’t blame him for hating my movies, after all, I fucked his mom”. It was really damn funny.

Another really funny moment came when one guy stands up and says, “Remember that scene in Mallrats where Brody and T.S. are talking about farting in front of girls and Brody says that he farted when a girl went down on him……that was great.” That was it. He sat down. So Kevin says, “Wow, if every question was like that, we would be outta here a lot quicker, huh?” Kevin is a damn witty guy.

So after a little more than an hour of questions, Kevin decided to show some cut scenes from Chasing Amy which are going to be on the Laserdisc. The first was the scene of Steve-Dave and the other guy playing a Magic: The Gathering type game and ragging on Benky and Holden about their comic. I won’t ruin the scene for those who haven’t seen it, but it’s pretty funny.

Another scene was a scene with the lawyer in the office of the cartoon making guys (O’Halloran and Damon), another funny scene. Then, Kevin showed some yet unseen outtakes from Chasing Amy which were real funny. One was the scene at the Comicon where Hooper is talking about his comic, etc. Well, the camera is focused on Ben Affleck and Jason Lee and Jason Lee can not stop laughing. Ben Affleck tries to regain his composure several times, but everytime he looks at Jason, he starts laughing.

Another scene was where Ben says “Ahh, that’s a bunch of horseshit!” but instead he is trying to say “That’s a bunch of hogwash!” and he can’t seem to get it right.

The last scene he showed was where Alyssa comes to Holden’s door and is talking about how he left the night before and Holden can’t seem to remember his line.

Afterwards, Kevin took some more questions for about a half-hour. One very funny story was told about the monkey in Mallrats, it is one you have to hear for yourself.

After the show, there was an autograph session that I regret to say I could not attend. Overall, the entire night was awesome. If Kevin ever reads this, I just want to say that you kick ass!!!

Today, I was a guest on ‘The Michael Moore Show’ – a pilot for Fox. It’s hosted by… some guy, and is basically a cross between ‘TV Nation’ and ‘Letterman’. It was a long, long taping (three hours, with three more to go tomorrow). Trooper Mewes sat in the Green Room with me the whole day, eating the free food. It was nice.

Thanks to all the folks who were at the Trenton State screening last night. We had a good time (my night was made by the huge greeting Mewes got).

November 12, 1997… Our wonderful SuperSpy flies brings us up to speed after spending some time by himself at his Computer of Solitude. Wesley Strick’s script has apprently been trashed and Avika Goldsman (screenwriter of Batman and Robin and Lost in Space) was brought in to revise Smith’s original storyline. Goldsman’s script was trashed, and production was halted and was not slated to begin until around April or May of next year. After pressure from the big execs (who were fretting about their 1998 summer tentpole film absence and upcoming competition from the Star Wars prequel, Jon Peters is reconsidering Kevin Smith’s original draft and the possibility of releasing the film by late 1998. Again, there are schedules that conflict with this plan, including Nicolas Cage’s upcoming Iron Man duties. So far, our spy reports that only Cage has been confirmed in the casting pool. Great news for fans of Smith’s treatment — we’re hoping Kevin or someone from View Askew can confirm the scoop. As for Mr. Peters and the other studio execs out You think every theatre-goer will want to see the SW all summer long? In today’s day and age?? Trust us — we’ll see other films besides Mr. Lucas’ contribution (the three or sixteen times that we do see it…) If you make a faithful and fun new Superman film, one that both the fans and the new generation of kids will both enjoy, it’ll be successful. [Scoop sent by the ‘Superspy’ — the two cents of our position came from out of own pocket.]