Can’t wait to reveal rest of cast. A key piece of the puzzle just fell into place yesterday, and it’s a genius bit of casting.

This is gonna be fun…

We’ll keep you informed as the cast takes shape!

3. Clerks

Sure, it’s been done before. It’s been done well before. But it was done as a cartoon that existed as it’s own beast for the most part. A sitcom that begins more faithful to the source material could easily score big with fans of Kevin Smith’s flick as well as VH1-ers whose lives actually are complaining about their jobs and making snarky remarks about what’s happening in pop culture(which is not to say that there isn’t a helluva lot of overlap there). With this one, I’d especially want to start with a new cast and encourage everyone involved to really make it their own the way that the American version of The Office started being almost too faithful to its source material and then expanded itself to become so much more.

3. Clerks

I’d also like to see a show based on our favorite convenience store clerks, but unlike Ben I have no desire to see the roles recast. In fact, I’d like to See Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson reprise Dante and Randal and pick up the story after Clerks 2, with them running the Quik Stop. I’d want Elias in the show too, because he rules, and of course numerous cameos from Jay and Silent Bob. You’d need new characters as well, since Dante and Randal won’t want to spend all their time at the stores, and Randal deserves a love interest damnit! The one problem is Dante is married with a kid and there’s no way Rosario Dawson would do a TV show (I imagine), so we’d need to recast.

See ya soon – We’re hoping for a new SModcast tomorrow! Get that podcast downloading software ready…

AN INTERVIEW WITH AMY NOBLE

BY CHRIS GRAVES

CHRIS GRAVES: For those who do not know, what is your background and how were you introduced to the world of View Askew and Kevin Smith?

AMY NOBLE: Through Kim Loughran, Kevin’s former assistant. My brother was producing a music project of hers. I met her at a party and we hit it off really well. She told me that they were looking for a new receptionist and asked if I’d come in for an interview. Having always been a HUGE Kevin Smith fan, I jumped at the chance.

CG: Did you always want to be an actress and musician?

AN: I always wanted to be a dancer. I got into acting and singing through the dance shows I performed in.

CG: Can you tell me about the band DOG?

AN: DOG was a band created by my brother Michael and his good friend, Andres Karu in the late 80’s into the early 90’s. The music was very trippy…sort of Goth. It was just the two of them in the band…they thought it would be a great idea to have stage dancers to give the live shows a more visual effect. So, (my now sister-in-law) and I started choreographing dances and were part of the band for two years.

CG: You are now a part of pop culture history, having portrayed Silent Bob’s mother at the beginning of Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. How does that feel? Do you get recognized quite a bit in public? How did you get the part?

AN: Playing Silent Bob’s mom was one of THE coolest moments in my life. Being a huge fan of Kevin’s…it was absolutely amazing to be a part of one of his films…especially being linked to Silent Bob himself!!

I still get recognized sometimes! It was on the other night on FX, I believe? I walked into class the following morning (I’m currently in college) and a few kids asked if that was me in the film…very cool!

I worked for View Askew at that point for 2 years. Kevin knew I had a done some acting and offered me the part.

CG: Can you tell me about Transfusion M?

AN: Transfusion M was my brother’s band, formed in 2006. He asked me to be a part of the band as a stage dancer (once again). We were signed to an independent label and were asked to perform on the Warped Tour. It was so awesome!!! It was hotter than hell, but we had a killer tour bus…it was just like you’ve always heard about touring…it was a CRAZY time. He decided he wanted me to sing on the second part of the tour. I can’t even begin to describe how exciting that was. It was always a dream of mine to be in a band…not only was I playing out in clubs, but I was on stage at the WARPED TOUR!!! It was a great experience.

CG: Also, you appeared in Kevin’s Concert For New York City short film after the events of September 11th, 2001. What was that experience like?

AN: That film short came up suddenly. I went into his office to relay a message to him and he asked what I was doing on that upcoming Friday. I was like, “Uh, working for you??” So he asked if I’d go into the city instead, to be in his short for 9/11. I played a NYC hairdresser. It was such a great thing to be a part of. The concert benefited the families of 9/11. I was honored that he asked me. I took a train into the city…we rehearsed the scene a few times and then we filmed it and it was over. I didn’t tell a lot of my family or friends that I was going to be in it (because I knew they were all watching it and knew there was also a small chance that my part would get cut). I got a TON of calls that night!!!!!

CG: Are you still acting and performing?

AN: I took a bit of a break to go to school. I plan on getting back into it once I can find the time to do both…

CG: What is your favorite View Askew / Kevin Smith flick (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back excluded)?

AN: Chasing Amy. I love that movie!!

CG: Do you have any new projects coming up?

AN: Not right now. Transfusion M has since broken up. I’m concentrating on getting a degree in Social Work. My goal is to become a Licensed Counselor and work in an eating disorders clinic one day.

CG: And finally, do you still keep in contact with anyone related to the world of View Askew? Would you return as Silent Bob’s Mommy?

AN: I still talk to Bryan Johnson and Brian Quinn. Every so often I hear from Ming too… I would absolutely return as Silent Bob’s mommy!!!!

Kevin Smith became a cult hero to minimum wage slaves everywhere when he turned $27,000 into a glorified student movie with a dirty mouth and one hilarious scene after the next. It is ‘Clerks’ that truly schooled many a teen in the birds, bees, necrophilia, hermaphroditic porn and the significance of number 37.

Kevin Smith’s A-List Troupe

Writer-director Kevin Smith can add two stars to his A-list troupe of actors: “Knocked Up” star Seth Rogen, left, and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” star Elizabeth Banks. With some comic successes in both of their pasts, Rogen and Banks have signed onto Smith’s new comedy, “Zack & Miri Make a Porno.” The two star as childhood friends who decided to give the porn business a shot and recruit their friends to help make a porno.

In Smith’s past seven films, beginning with 1994’s “Clerks,” a string of all-stars have taken starring roles, or cameos in the writer-director’s films. How will the latest additions hold up to Smith’s A-list troupe?

MTV Movies runs a more detailed piece today, citing a quote from Rogen calling the film “very raunchy” but also “sweet”. We’re running the full story right ahead, as this is, so far, the most we have seen Kevin and Seth talk about the film for an article. Kevin discusses casting the two leads, fan preconceptions of the movie, and the interesting offers of help that have come in so far. Read on!

Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks Are Ideal ‘Porno’ Stars, Says Kevin Smith

‘It’s very, very raunchy but with a sweet twist to it,’ Rogen says of Smith’s upcoming ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno.’

By Shawn Adler

The recent announcement that Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks are set to join Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” may give us at MTV one more reason to count our blessings — just one week after we named Rogen the actor we’re most thankful for in 2007.

OK, make that two reasons.

“You might see my ass again,” Rogen joked of his role as Zack in the upcoming Smith comedy, which centers on a pair of twentysomethings who decide to shoot an amateur porn film to make money. “Am I working up to [frontal nudity]? I don’t know.”

“We definitely have a shot [like that] in this movie,” Smith laughed. “It’s not his, but if he wants to try to upstage what we’ll see onscreen, that’d be awesome!”

It’s all laughs these days for Smith now that he’s landed two fast-rising stars for the roles of Zack and Miri. Rogen’s casting in particular is especially gratifying, the director admitted, considering he wrote the titular role specifically for the “Knocked Up” star — and then spent an entire summer worried he wouldn’t get him.

“After ‘Knocked Up’ came out, I was like, ‘Ugh, he’s on to bigger and better things,’ ” Smith said of Rogen’s rise to fame. “I figured we were kind of dead in the water, but patience and perseverance prevailed, and he came onboard. It was stunning but wonderful.

“From the moment that dude started talking in ’40-Year-Old Virgin’ about watching a horse show, I was like, ‘Oh, this guy’s fantastic,’ ” Smith continued, gushing. “I just loved his delivery. [I thought] he would fit in the world of what we do very well.”

For Rogen, fresh off his very successful summer, entering Smith’s View Askewniverse seemed a natural transition.

“I feel like my strengths were always kind of ripping off a Kevin Smith movie anyway. It’s not a far departure,” Rogen said. “I read it and I loved it. It’s very, very raunchy but with a sweet twist to it. It’s very much in the style of the movies we’ve been doing but brought to a whole new level of filth. It’s just a really great script.”

While Smith hounded Rogen, Banks (another “40-Year-Old Virgin” scene-stealer) came to the project only after Rosario Dawson, for whom the director originally wrote the role of Miri, backed out of the project to film “Eagle Eye” for producer Steven Spielberg. But Smith couldn’t be happier with how the casting turned out.

“If Rosario had stayed in, I wouldn’t have thought past her, but when she took the Spielberg movie, suddenly it was like, ‘All right, where do we go?’ ” Smith recalled of what led him to Banks. “That kind of left us wide open and, oddly enough, casting Banks turned out to be this insanely genius move. I haven’t seen one negative reaction to it. Online, people are going, ‘Yes, finally she’s getting a role like this.’ “

According to Smith, it’s not hard to see why.

“If you see her stuff with David Wain and the ‘Stella’ guys, if you’ve seen her in ‘Wet Hot American Summer,’ you know she’s f—ing funny,” Smith said. “It’s not very often that you find a woman who’s as pretty as Elizabeth who can also be funny and just kind of take the piss out of herself.”

As a lecturer, blogger and frequent interview subject, Smith is known for being remarkably candid and open about his upcoming projects. But now that he’s got his two principal stars for “Zack and Miri,” the director told MTV News that he’s ready to clam up a little, momentarily falling short of fan expectations — so he can subvert them later.

“What’s kind of daunting about the flick is because of the title, people know more about it already than they have about most of the stuff I’ve done in the past — or at least think they do,” Smith said. “They have a movie in their head, but the one in my head is probably different than theirs. I mean, can you believe there’s not one fluffer joke in the entire movie?”

One of the additional burdens of including “Make a Porno” in the title of a movie, Smith laughed, is the characters who suddenly come to his aid, claiming expertise.

“There have been a lot of people who have come out of the woodwork from the adult-film industry to offer their help,” Smith said. “But the movie’s not really about the adult-film industry. Yes, the word ‘porno’ is in the title and, yes, they are trying to make a porno — but these are rank amateurs.”

“I did my research for that with ‘Clerks,’ ” Smith added, so don’t expect him to do any additional studying.

“When you’re married, you don’t take that call,” he deadpanned. “You’re already pushing it when you tell your wife it’s called ‘Zack and Miri Make a Porno.’ “

Smith, Rogen and Banks start making their “Porno” January 16.

News Askew will continue to be your biggest and best source for all the latest news on “Zack & Miri Make a Porno” — Stick with us all winter long as the production starts to kick into gear.

Ones again, say hallo to my stupid sense of humor.

Because of all the gay jokes, I was wondering what the Clerks guys would behave and look like if they were gay and walking in a Gay Pride Parade or something like that, and I could just see them doing, well, this 🙂

I was going to have Leonardo, Plug, Steve-Dave and Fanboy in there too, but Leonardo is gay so that wouldn’t be funny. Steve-Dave and Fanboy was supposed to be yelling at some straight people in the background, accuseing them for being homophobes, but I just couldn’t get them right. At all.

Oh, and Randal is pushing Dante.

Kevin Smith Hopes To Make Jay And Silent Bob Animated Film

Randall and Dante, the sad sack titular clerks at the heart of Kevin Smith’s breakthrough first film, may have sold their last pack of Nails cigarettes – for a little while anyway – with the long-rumored straight-to-DVD animated film “Clerks: Sell Out” deader than poor Julie Dwyer, regretted Smith.

“The Clerks cartoon movie we’re talking about doing is kinda held up by the fact that Disney owned the ‘Clerks’ cartoon,” Smith said of the series, which aired for only two episodes on ABC way back in 2000. “And I don’t think they get along with the Weinstein team very much anymore. So we would have to do it without them, and that’s really not an option. So I kinda don’t foresee that happening.”

But with one potential animated film down, Smith may turn his attention to another, he revealed. After all, Randall and Dante aren’t the only reason to visit a Quik Stop.

“I own the characters Jay and Silent Bob so, conceivably, we could do it straight-to-DVD animated Bluntman and Chronic or something like that,” he enthused. “I would write it, turn it over to guys that do animation. I wouldn’t be against that at all.”

To us, this sounds like one of those little thoughts that just came out and might be taken TOO seriously by those who read it — Still, it’s nice to hear an update on the animated View Askew world, and to know that Kevin hasn’t completely put such a project off the radar completely. We just think it’ll be a while with things focusing on the live-action realm in 2008, first.