• Beaten only by the cooless that is “The Terminator”, “Donnie Darko”, and “Resevoir Dogs”, Empire Magazine has named Clerks #4 in their list of the 50 Greatest Independent Films Of All Time…

Clerks (1994)

All told, the credit card bills and sundry expenses amounted to somewhere in the region of $25,000. That’s a lot of coin to pay back, but if Kevin Smith was ever worried about recouping his borrowed, begged but absolutely not stolen outlay for his first movie, then he didn’t really have time to show it. For Clerks was quickly picked up by Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein, who overlooked its dodgy production values, ropy acting and a story that resists the description ‘threadbare’ because he saw a raw vitality in its balls-out dialogue; a vitality and spirit and, more importantly, laugh out loud sense of humour that ensured that Clerks connected instantly with disenfranchised tweens and shop workers everywhere, and the rest is history for Smith, from Chasing Amy to the continuing adventures of Jay & Silent Bob, to Empire Awards and domination of the geek world. Or, as Wor Kev might say it, motherfucking cocksucking history.”

Clerks X was also honored at The 8th Annual DVD Awards, hosted by Leonard Maltin, for “BEST PC SUPPORT — INDEPENDENT RELEASE”. Check it, and all the winners, out HERE.

• One of the reviewers, Craggs, over at Film 411 cites “Jersey Girl” as a great first date film And considering all the girls we’ve watched the movie with or talked to about it, the dude’s right. Chicks dig the Jersey Girl. Seriously.

• Seems Google’s start page is another that offers RSS feeds (and the ability to add News Askew’s headlines right to it). Thanks Will.

• If you listen closely to this new unrated trailer for “My Big Fat Independent Movie”, you can hear Mewes’ voice on a tape recorder. The trailer itself is…well…bizarre. Looks pretty low budget, and they certainly mean well, but we’re just not too sure where this one’s gonna go. Looks like a love it or hate it kinda deal.
• And finally today, seems there’s so many movie sites out there, some just don’t get the message when projects change ‘eh? So August is over…Where was this film!?!? We wanna see it! Catch you next time.

• The newly-released region 2 Clerks X DVD is kicking butt in the UK. It’s clocking in at Number 5 on the HMV DVD charts. Number 8 in the Virgin Megastore DVD charts. For a 10 year old film that’s already been released for years, that’s not bad. Not bad at all. The release is getting really good displays in HMV and Virgin on Oxford Street, London. You can see them very clearly from the other side of the street.
• For the first time in history, Clerks will air UNCUT on basic cable. The familiarly-named “Secret Stash” is a program on Comedy Central that airs the uncut verison of films. On August 6th, Clerks is showing for the first time.

On that same Saturday, the edited version of Dogma is airing twice at 10:30 am and 6:30 pm EST.

• Jon Favreau had some kind words regarding Kev’s recent “Dinner For Five” guest hosting gig in an AICN interview:

• Some Kevin quotes and mentions in this New York Times article on John Pierson’s theater in Fiji and “Reel Paradise”:

By the way, we recommend Firefox and the BugMeNot plugin for sites that require passwords to read articles.

• An Ohio.com piece reveals Jason Lee’s reluctance to take on a TV role, and also hints that Kevin may come on board to direct an episode of “My Name Is Earl”. Some snips:

Read it all HERE. Again, BugMeNot if you have probs logging in.

• Finally this evening, Contact Music has again taken a quote from Kevin’s press and made a small piece of it. The fun part isn’t so much the quote, but his supposed nationality that had us chuckling. So here ya have it:

• Our very good friends at Rock 101 have given us a very nice exlusive to share with you fine readers today — Kevin was on the air for 45 minutes on Friday morning, schilling the Vancouver Q&A which is coming up FAST! The station was doing a remote braodcast from a local restaurant. The interview is not available for archived listening on their website, but we’re lucky enough to have the complete audio from their internal feed to present to you right here! All 6 files are in high quality MP3 format, and ready to roll for your listening enjoyment. We just got this in and wanted to get them to you right away, so we’ve yet to preview the entire broadcast, though of course if there’s anything newsworthy in there, we’ll let ya know. Enjoy!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

• We originally had announce dthat the episode of “Dinner for 5” hosted by Kevin would air this past Friday, May 27th. It didn’t. According to the IFC website, the Favreau-free episode with ?Lost? creator J.J. Abrams, Kevin Smith, Jason Lee, Stan Lee and Mark Hamill won?t be cablecast until the show gets back from a three-week hiatus on June 17th. Thanks also to Aint It Cool for the alert. Now that the major series have all wrapped for the season, this is a gem to look forward to in an otherwise TV-wasteland.

And hey, not only is Kevin doing special hosting gigs for IFC, but it seems he’s been given the honor to be one of the advisers for their new cinema center. AP reports:

This certainly sounds like a neat honor, and we’re excited to see Kevin will be involved. Of course, we’ll let you know if he’s attending any public events there, and hope this leads to more east coast screenings and events in the Big Apple.

• Just a quick note here to say thanks for all your concerns regarding the blog’s disappearance over the weekend — We’re now happy to report that the missing blog is only temporary, and those of you who wrote to tell us how much you enjoyed having that format, the RSS feed, and all that good stuff…Well, we think you’ll be quite pleased again in a short amount of time. Preparations are being made, so stay tuned, and don’t stray too far — Good things are coming. Thanks for your patience during this transition.

• We told you it’d be back — Didn’t we? Yes folks, your voices were heard…You wanted the blog back and now you’ve got it — Kevin’s “My Boring Ass Life” posts can now once again be read in a daily calendar format, at a brand new url: www.silentbobspeaks.com!

You’ll find the new domain contains all you knew and loved and a bit more — A photos section, fully functional RSS 2.0 and RSS .92 feeds (bug fixed, thanks to some speedy detective work from Ming), and more. You may notice that comments now link you back to “The Board”, as it’s easier to have all the chatter in one spot.

So, there you have it, folks. What a day, eh? Lucas closes out the prequel trilogy and the blog is BACK! Enjoy.

• For those of you that had been reading Kevin’s local blog here at News Askew, please note the link has changed — We’re now linking direct to the View Askew WWWBoard where the blog is posted and updated. As a result of the blog no longer running in this software, those RSS feed, for those of you who subscribed, will also be discontinued.

The left sidebar link will take you there, or you can just Update your bookmarks with this link. Please continue to visit and post on the diary entries, as the blog has NOT ceased production, it’s just going to be housed only in its original location hence forth. Thanks.

• For those of you that had been reading Kevin’s local blog here at News Askew, please note the link has changed — We’re now linking direct to the View Askew WWWBoard where the blog is posted and updated. As a result of the blog no longer running in this software, those RSS feed, for those of you who subscribed, will also be discontinued.

The left sidebar link will take you there, or you can just Update your bookmarks with this link. Please continue to visit and post on the diary entries, as the blog has NOT ceased production, it’s just going to be housed only in its original location hence forth. Thanks.

• We gotta say, it’s way cool to see how involved Kevin’s been with the new Star Wars flick…And certainly intriguing when you think that those TV series plans gotta be getting drawn up soon. Anyway, a special edition of TRL on MTV airs Friday, May 13th, from the Skywalker Ranch. Here’s a tidbit or two:

You can check out the full press article HERE.

• Word comes from on high that Kevin’s episode of “Dinner for Five”, which he guest-hosted (with Jason Lee, Stan Lee, Mark Hamill, and JJ Abrams as guests) will be airing on May 27th. IFC. Get it or make a friend who’s already got it. And be sure and watch our Upcoming Events for that and other great stuff on the way.
• If you look close, you’ll catch a VERY brief mention of Kevin’s Sith review in Jeannette Walls’ gossip column today.
• And finally, on this light news day, new castings for Joey’s movie! The Hollywood Reporter scoops that Laura Prepon, Tim Blake Nelson and three-time best supporting actress Oscar nominee Diane Ladd are joining the cast of Bold Films’ Come Early Morning, which started principal photography last week in Arkansas.

Written and directed by Joey Lauren Adams, the film centers on a woman in her 30s who is beginning to come to terms with her selfish and prickly relatives, her own self-worth, and her search for meaning.

• Chris is going to be running the show for about a full week starting Wednesday eve, as Brad’s off to the sun and sin of Las Vegas. So, starting then, be sure and send to SCOOPS or direct to Chris. We’ve got some more features on the back burner ready to roll out once we’re both back in the virtual office, though, so keep your eyes peeled for more goodies on the way.
• And, don’t forget: Regular updates to “My Boring-Ass Life” continue over on our local blog page. You can make additional comments and go back and read all of Kevin’s current and past diary entries right to the start in a tidy, calendar-like format. We’re aware the RSS feed over there’s been flaky, and are debugging that problem. More to come with that feature as well. As always, thanks for stopping in at News Askew today!