“The Office’s” Craig Robinson and former porn star Traci Lords have joined Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks and Jason Mewes in Kevin Smith’s “Zack & Miri Make a Porno.”

Ricky Mabe (ABC Family’s “Beautiful People”), Jeff Anderson (”Clerks II”) and Katie Morgan (HBO’s “Katie Morgan: A Porn Star Revealed”) have also joined the film, which is being produced through The Weinstein Co. and Dimension Films. Production is set to begin Wednesday.

The story centers around two lifelong friends — Zack and Miri — who after finding themselves deep in debt enlist their friends to make a pornographic movie with the goal of earning some quick cash.

Michael Cole and Carla Gardini are overseeing the project for TWC and Dimension Films.

The film marks the latest collaboration between Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Smith and producer Scott Mosier. Their previous projects include “Clerks,” “Clerks II,” “Chasing Amy” and “Dogma.”

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Saturday, May 27, 2006
By Roger Friedman

Bestiality Film: 8 Minute Cannes Ovation

Maybe you remember Clerks, the hilarious indie film that put director Kevin Smith on the map more than a decade ago. Since then, he’s brought us some good ones (”Chasing Amy”), some that are controversial (”Dogma”), and some that are only for the faithful (”Jersey Girl,” “Jay and Silent Bob”).

Last night Smith returned to form in a post-midnight premiere of “Clerks 2,” the long awaited sequel that reunites the still unknown stars of the first film and adds the delightful Rosario Dawson to the mix. The result was a huge eight minute standing ovation in the Claude DeBussy Theater in the Palais at 2 am Saturday.

And this was despite the fact that the film – hilarious, moving and shocking – is simultaneously a meditation on friendship, aging, and bestiality. Yes, you read that correctly. Much is made of a well dressed donkey that is forced into interspecies commingling with its owner as part of an after hours going away party in a fast food restaurant called Mooby’s. The movie has an R rating, and the donkey may be featured in a For Your Consideration ad in Variety next winter.

Besides the donkey, Clerks 2 also features extended cameos by Jason Lee and Wanda Sykes, a walk on from Ben Affleck, and of course Smith himself as his long running character Silent Bob with partner Jason Mewes as Jay. The clerks of the title are still played by Smith’s longtime pals Jeff Anderson as Randall and Brian O’Halloran as Dante; Smith’s real life wife, Jennifer, is featured as Dante’s clueless fiancée Emma.

This is good news for The Weinstein Company, which will have a huge summer hit Smith is one of their franchise players, coming from the original—real—Miramax.

The premise of Clerks 2 is pretty simple. The Quick Stop where Randall and Dante have been clerks since we last saw them in 1994 burns down, and the pair—now in their 30s—move over to Mooby’s where Dante has had a one night stand on the prep table with the manager (Dawson). Before finding out that she’s pregnant, Dante makes plans to move away with Emma. Silent Bob and Jay move their dope peddling from the Quick Stop to Mooby’s as well, and Randall plans the Donkey Show for Dante. It’s that simple, and no, it’s no Da Vinci Code, that’s for sure.

But fans of Smith—who are legion—as well as teens in general and the college crowd, are going to adore Clerks 2, which was originally titled “The Passion of the Clerks.” In the middle of all this nuttiness, and Animal House inspired moments (the poor donkey is certainly the cinematic descendant of the dead horse in the dean’s office), Smith has crafted a nifty little tale of friends who love each other—as they say over and over, not in the gay way—but realize their extended adolescence must finally come to an end.

What’s really amazing about Clerks 2 is that it works at all. The first Clerks was a cult hit, and unlike with say John Sayles’s “The Return of the Secaucus Seven,” the actors never went on to anything other than recurring in Smith’s world. To find them not only picking up where they left off, but also making the whole thing work again, is quite an achievement. A lot of it has to do with Dawson, who is so natural, appealing, and evolved as Becky that she pulls the whole enterprise together.

Special mention, by the way, has to go to Jason Mewes. Unlike his cohorts, he’s managed to get some other roles in the recent past in some great unseen B or C movies that are either already on DVD or simply can’t be sold. In Bottom’s Up, his biggest one, he co-stars with our friend Paris Hilton, whose own “House of Wax” and “Pledge This” would have benefited from having a donkey as well.

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NEW YORK — There may be no bigger comics fan in Hollywood than “Clerks” director Kevin Smith — after all, he’s the only director known for actually writing comic books.

So when not-so-Silent Bob showed up to speak for two hours at the inaugural New York Comic-Con this past weekend at the Jacob K. Javits Center, he was treated more like a god than a geek, and he rewarded the audience with candid insight into his creative process, as well as a lot of dirty jokes.

For instance, the reason Smith doesn’t want to direct a comic book movie, as he was once in line to do with “Green Hornet”? He thinks shooting action is boring, and it’s better suited to those who love it. “Sam Raimi does more cool sh– in two minutes in ‘Spider-Man’ than I’ve done in seven movies,” he conceded.

Smith’s version of a superhero movie would feature something “simple and straightforward” like this: Green Hornet and his sidekick, Kato, are leaning against the Black Beauty in a two-shot, standing around asking each other about what they did the night before and going off on tangents such as, “The funny thing about ‘Star Wars’ and sex is …” Then Kato would hear some trouble and they’d walk out of the frame, while the shot would hold on the car. Then, after some sound effects, they’d walk back in the frame, wipe themselves off, and go back to leaning and say something like, “So, yes, I did get some [action] last night.”

“Nobody wants to give you $70 million to make that,” Smith said.

Plus, Smith would want to dispense with the metaphors of some superheroes and their sidekicks, most notably the gay subtext of “Batman” and “X-Men,” and just bring it out full-force, something that mainstream America might not be ready to accept, he pointed out. “The whole movie is an allegory of what it’s like to be gay,” he said. “You take the word ‘mutant’ out and stick ‘gay’ in there and the movie still works. I dig that, it’s taking a mainstream movie and putting a positive message in it, a message of tolerance. It’s ‘Brokeback Mutant.’ I just want to go up to kids and say, ‘You like Wolverine? That means you’re gay.’ ”

And since Bryan Singer, the man behind “X-Men,” is directing the new “Superman,” Smith said, it’ll be more of the same. “Never mind Lois Lane and Clark Kent,” he said. “I’m looking at the relationship between Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen. Lois says, ‘I love you,’ and Clark says, ‘That’s great. So, Jimmy …’ ”

There’s another kind of film Smith doesn’t plan on making anytime soon — one about religion. Smith said he’d love to do a “Dogma 2,” but you can’t do that without talking about Islam these days, “and after watching what happened with the cartoons, I want to say nothing about Muhammad except that’s he’s really cool guy. … And I don’t have a picture or drawing of him.”

So, Smith said, he’s going to keep telling the same kinds of stories he always does, “and put Jay and Bob in them” (see “Kevin Smith Vows ‘Clerks 2′ Language, Content Ups The Ante Of The Original ‘A Hundredfold’ “).

“I’ve learned absolutely nothing, except not to make any more movies with Bennifer,” he said. “I think I’ve learned to tell a better visual story, but I haven’t really walked away with that much insight over the past 12 years. But I’ve stayed true to telling the kinds of stories me and my friends would get. And I’m lucky to be getting away with it.”

“Clerks 2″ is also not going to reference Smith’s previous films that heavily. “It’s not rife with references to everything that’s come before in the View Askew-verse,” Smith said. “Dante’s not walking around saying, ‘I’m still not even supposed to be here today,’ or anything like that.”

Meanwhile, Smith has detached himself from another project, a “Brave and the Bold” film for DC Comics. “I’ve decided, based on my inability to produce a script on time, that I should never go near a comic book again,” he joked.

As for the convention, Smith did have one complaint: Too many guys and not enough girls attend comic book gatherings, making it difficult to exploit his celebrity status. “Ben Affleck tells me stories about girls who come up to him in restaurants, ‘Take me home with you.’ That never happens to me. It’s always a bunch of guys going, ‘Are you doing “Green Hornet” or not?’ or ‘Where’s “Spider-Man/Black Cat”? You got to issue three and you stopped because you were doing “Jersey Girl,” and then that came out and it bombed and you stopped! That’s irresponsible to take a job and not finish it! How hard is it to write a comic book? Give it to me and I’ll write it. I’ll draw it too. Where’s “Spider-Man/Black Cat”?’ ”

“I had to finish the series just to walk out on a Comic-Con floor,” Smith said. “I was proud of myself. I thought I was safe to walk around, but now it’s all, ‘Where’s “Daredevil: Target”?’ It’ll never end.”

“You know what, Kevin? I’d [go home with] you,” one female fan said in response during the marathon Q&A session. “But I just finished ‘Spider-Man/Black Cat,’ and that’s the best ‘Spider-Man’ ever, and I’m just wondering … where is ‘Daredevil: Target’?”

“Isn’t that just like a girl?” Smith laughed.

Visit Movies on MTV.com for more from Hollywood, including news, interviews, trailers and more.

— Jennifer Vineyard

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PARK CITY, UTAH — Loyalists swear by the movement he spearheaded with the help of his foot soldiers; others wonder why he still has a job. His common-man persona and disarming grin might be masking a brilliant mind, or he might be as simplistic as his detractors insist. Now, he has returned for a second term that’s shaping up as even more controversial than the first.

No, Kevin Smith isn’t the president — although the polarizing figures have more in common than one might think. As the famously indie writer/director made the rounds at the Sundance Film Festival to support “Small Town Gay Bar,” a documentary he executive produced, Smith admitted with some trepidation that his next mission could go disastrously wrong if he’s rushing into a battle that can’t be won.

Still, in the form of the upcoming sequel to his breakthrough 1994 comedy he claimed to have substantial weapons of crass production at his disposal.

” ‘Clerks 2′ came out phenomenally, and I couldn’t be happier with it,” the bearded, not-so-silent Bob said. “We were really hoping to come to Sundance with it this year, which would have been great because it’s the 25th anniversary of Sundance, and it would have been the only sequel to a Sundance film to ever play at Sundance. Then Harvey Weinstein — the chairman of The Weinstein Company, who we produced the movie with — said, ‘No, we want to go to Cannes instead.’ ”

“The movie itself is kind of a look at what happens when the angry young man enters his thirties. The movie is primarily set in a fast-food joint, but it has so little to do with working in a fast-food joint.”

“Brian O’Halloran and Jeff Anderson, who played Dante and Randall in ‘Clerks,’ are back and Jason Mewes and I play Jay and Silent Bob,” Smith continued. “Ben Affleck showed up for a day. Jason Lee came in for a day. Wanda Sykes came in for a day. There’s a guy named Earthquake, this really funny comedian, and Kevin Wiseman, who plays Marshall on ‘Alias,’ he came in.”

“There’s this kid in the movie, Trevor Fehrman, who’s really funny,” Smith said. “I think he’s gonna pop in a really big way off this film. Rosario Dawson’s in the movie; she’s one of the main characters. My wife, Jennifer Schwalbach, is in the movie,” he laughed. “So for a movie that’s about two dudes, it’s got a really well-rounded cast.”

Although some vocal fans and film purists have expressed their displeasure with the revisiting of, arguably, a classic, Smith insists that by moving Dante and Randal to the fast-food industry, he simultaneously moved his own game to the next level.

“It’s my favorite of all the movies I’ve ever done,” Smith said of the sequel. “It used to be that ‘Chasing Amy’ was my favorite, but this has supplanted ‘Chasing Amy.’ ‘Clerks’ was what it felt like to be in my twenties, but ‘Clerks 2′ is what it feels like to be in my thirties. A portrait of that. It’s about how people have to struggle to grow out of a role that they’ve filled for the better part of their adult life. It’s really poignant, but it’s insanely funny.”

As with previous flicks, such as “Clerks,” “Dogma” and “Amy,” the New Jersey auteur intends to balance the aforementioned seriousness with his bread-and-butter: “di– and fart jokes.”

“We’re not even going to rate it — we’re going to go out unrated,” Smith declared defiantly. “If we put it in front of the ratings board they’d be like, ‘You’re insane. We have to create a new rating for that.’ ”

Even more noteworthy, however, is that the boundary-busting film is devoid of the nudity or graphic violence that typically pushes the NC-17 envelope. Instead, when these clerks say “I assure you, we’re open” this summer, the phrase will likely be peppered with even more four-letter words than the original.

“I’ve never been a nudity dude,” Smith insisted. “We did nudity once, in ‘Mallrats,’ and it was just such an uncomfortable thing to shoot. Anybody can get somebody to take their clothes off. ‘Clerks’ was a movie that the MPAA gave an NC-17 for language and content alone. This movie ups the ante by a hundred-fold, and there’s just no way it gets an R.”

As for everybody’s favorite drug-selling, adventure-seeking, bootchie-snoochin’ duo, Smith says that they’ve grown up — so much so, in fact, that they’ve gone from grade-school humor to something closer to junior high.

“Jay and Silent Bob in ‘Clerks 2′ have about as much, if not less, screen time than they had in ‘Clerks,” Smith revealed, “but it’s a different Jay and Silent Bob, a slightly more mature Jay and Silent Bob.”

“Slightly,” he laughed, after a moment. “Ever so slightly.”

Don’t miss a moment, a story, a photo or a premiere from Park City. Click right here to check out all of our Sundance coverage over the whole wild week.

And be sure to visit Movies on MTV.com for Hollywood news, interviews, trailers and more.

— Larry Carroll

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Fans line up to get star’s autograph

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 11/21/05

BY ALEX BIESE
AND DAN KAPLAN
STAFF WRITERS
RED BANK — Joe McLane began waiting in line at 5:15 a.m Sunday for a chance to meet one of Monmouth County’s biggest celebrities who doesn’t play the guitar.

The Hazlet resident was the first of an estimated 500 people who lined up to meet filmmaker and Highlands native Kevin Smith. He was in Red Bank Sunday to sign copies of a new DVD featuring appearances by him and comedic sidekick and actor Jason Mewes in three episodes of the critically acclaimed Canadian dramatic teen series “Degrassi: The Next Generation.”

Judging from the line that extended from Smith’s Broad Street store — Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash — and wrapped north around Mechanic Street, rocker Bruce Springsteen may have some competition for the Shore’s biggest draw. By 4:30 p.m., the line still was going strong.

“I think that Kevin Smith is a genius,” said Angela Kemper, 20, who drove five hours from the Boston suburb of Weymouth, Mass., to attend the autograph signing. “It’s kind of pathetic, but he’s my idol. I started writing because of him.”

Even Smith couldn’t explain his and his movies’ popularity.

“I don’t know what it is, man,” Smith said. “Since it’s all based locally, I guess that’s a big factor when you’re here, because you get a lot of Monmouth County folks showing up. But I don’t know, I guess it connects with them on some level, thank God.”

Not everyone was there to see Smith, though. He was joined at a table in the back of the store by Mewes and “Degrassi” stars Jake Epstein and Stacey Farber, both 18 of Toronto. The cable series, based at a high school, deals with important teen issues, such as pregnancy and AIDS, and has generated a loyal fan base in America.

“It’s different than other shows,” Mallory Szymczak, 16, of Toms River said. “It deals with real issues.”

Mewes and Smith’s DVD titled “Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi: The Next Generation” is a recording of their three-episode guest appearance on the show.

Smith admitted he was taken aback by having “Degrassi” fans in his comic book store.

“There’s mostly 16-year-old girls in the store,” said Smith, who is used to seeing young male adults at his appearances. “That’s not normal at all.”

Smith, whose last Red Bank autograph signing session lasted until 5 a.m. following an appearance at the Count Basie Theatre last April, said it is a thrill getting to meet the fans.

“It’s always nice,” Smith said. “It’s always a pleasure, but it’s kind of nerve-racking because we’re like, “God, I hope we get to everybody.’ But still it feels fantastic.”

Despite his massive popularity, Smith said he has never encountered a negative kind of fanaticism, thanks at least in part to the large amount of time he spends with fans.

“I don’t really have crazy fans,” Smith said. “I think a lot of that has to do with accessibility. We do things like this all the time, always hanging out on our Web site, posting and stuff like that.”

Smith has been in the area filming the sequel to his low-budget — it cost $28,000 to make — but wildly popular 1994 cult classic independent film “Clerks.” The sequel tentatively is being called “The Passion of the Clerks.”

Katie Martinez, 15, of Holmdel, who was in Red Bank with friends waiting in line for more than four hours, said Smith’s movies “are so funny. They’re the movies you never get sick of.”

Elliot Berard left his Rhode Island home with his friends around midnight, and arrived in Red Bank just before 6 a.m.

“This is the first time that I’ve ever been to a signing, and we just figured the line was going to be wicked long, so we left around midnight, wound up getting lost a couple of times, arrived here, and we ended up beating the crowd by a lot more than I thought we would,” Berard said.

Chuck Ruggiero of Middletown summed up the appeal of Smith’s films: “They’re just really funny. I don’t want to say they’re an escape necessarily, but it’s just a good time. All his movies are really good.”

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by Casey Tay

RED BANK, NJ - Fans waited from as early as 4:30 am at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash in Red Bank, NJ for the DVD release of Jay & Silent Bob do Degrassi. Degrassi is a television show shot in Canada about a group of teens and their struggles with school, relationships, and other teen issues. Not only were Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes at the release, but Stacey Farber and Jake Epstein from Degrassi were there as well. This DVD is 3 episodes long and stars the whole Degrassi cast and features Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes.

Jake Epstein, Stacey Farber, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith sign autographs for fans.

You might be wondering, “What are Jay and Silent Bob doing in Canada, and why are they at Degrassi Community School?” Well Kevin and Jason head north to make Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, eh? which is being filmed at Degrassi. “I was a big fan of the original Degrassi High, and I always wanted to be a part of it,” said Kevin Smith. Some of Kevin’s other directing and acting credits include Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and Dogma. “It took a couple of years to make the whole Degrassi thing happen, but we finally did it, and it was amazing,” noted Kevin.

Samara Jordan wept as she described meeting her role model.

While a lot of fans were at the release November 20 to meet Kevin and Jason, a number of them were there to meet Degrassi cast members Stacey Farber and Jake Epstein. “Degrassi is an amazing show that helps kids deal with issues,” says 15-year-old Maddie Woods. Maddie is a very dedicated fan that traveled from Maryland to meet Stacey and Jake. “My friends and I have been waiting here since 7:30 in the morning, but it’ll be worth it when we meet Jake Epstein!” Another fan was very emotional about meeting Stacey Farber. “Her character and I have had a lot of the same problems, and she has helped me deal with them,” says 13-year-old Samara Jordan from Long Island, NY. “She’s my role model. Not just because she’s a celebrity, but because she has helped me in so many ways. It was such an honor to meet her.”

Casey Tay interviewed the Degrassi stars at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.

This reporter had a chance to talk to Stacey and Jake and found them to be two typical teenagers who just happened to be the stars of one of the hottest teen television shows on air. “Both of us are complete Kevin Smith fans and we were freaking out when we found out he was going to be on,” says Jake Epstein. Jake’s character Craig Manning is a bipolar musician who was abused by his father as a child. “Yeah, it was great shooting with Kevin and Jason. They’re both so funny!” Stacey Farber explained. Stacey’s character Ellie Nash cut herself because of her mother’s addiction to alcohol. Now that Degrassi is finished shooting, both Stacey and Jake plan on attending college in Toronto where the show was shot. Both of them also plan on continuing with their acting career. “I could really relate to Degrassi because it’s all about problems that every teen has to deal with,” Jake said.

Kevin Smith talked briefly about his experience as a student at Henry Hudson Regional School in Highlands.

Jake Epstein, Stacey Farber and Jason Mewes pose for a photo before the signing.

Catch Jay and Silent Bob do Degrassi on DVD in stores now.

And watch Degrassi on the N on Fridays at 10:00 p.m.

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by Hannibal Tabu, Staff Writer

This year’s panel with Kevin Smith started alarmingly late, and that tardiness was largely forgiven when longtime confidante Jason Mewes showed up at the front row (being given a row-blocking seat after two attractive young women were booted from a similar position). Fans rushed him for photos (”Ya gotta hit the button, sir,” he suggested to one man having a problem getting a shot of his female friend with Mewes) and autographs, and one even paid him ten dollars for a cup of water from the stage. Seriously. Of course, Mewes tried to encourage several female fans to doff their tops, which was further egged on by rowdy audience members and the writer of this article.

Smith finally emerged, and was weirded out by Mewes in the front row, but soldiered on. “Was there a titty show going on, sir?” Smith asked. “I heard you tried.”

“She’s a teacher, she won’t fuck,” Mewes responded, disgusted.

She said something that was difficult to hear, which made Smith respond, “You wouldn’t show your tits but you would fuck. Interesting.” He turned back to Mewes and said, “I was backstage and I heard somebody say ‘fill the cup.’ And it was like nobody reacted,” eliciting laughs from the capacity crowd.

Apparently, the lateness was caused in part by a late night poker game, involving not only Smith and Mewes, but other notable names, with Smith as the over all winner with a pot of seven hundred dollars. “We played poker last night until about 5 in the morning,” he said, rubbing his eyes. “Me and Mewes, [Wizard’s] Gareb Shamus, we took his money. Which is really your money. Jim Lee. Now he’s broke.”

Wasting no time, he leapt into taking questions, forcing questioners to stand on their chair while the question was answered (which was a marathon affair for some). The first one was about his experience as an actor on the new film “Catch and Release,” which led him to discuss first the difference from his normal work (”I walked away with a lot more respect for actors than I normally had. I used to be like ‘aw they’re fucking puppets. stick my hand up their ass and they say what I want.’ The acting is free, they’re paid to sit and wait. Like one day, I got to watch ‘Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2,’ back to back. It was weird to be on the sideline. It was weird, because I’d show up and have an idea how I’d do things, and she’d do something completely different. Like move the camera. Just set it up here, I’ll say ’snoogans’ and we’re done. I’m the bad kid on the set, because I’m chronically late.”). He talked about getting chastized for blogging, and realized he’d become his friend Jason Mewes — set scapegoat.

He was asked if he got tired of having his movies quoted at him, or being called Silent Bob, and he shook his head. “It’s annoying when people come up to me and say ‘I love your movies, Michael Moore.’ Or they’ll come up and ask, ‘You know who you look like?’ I don’t respond to the fishing expedition question. I was having dinner, and this woman comes up to me and says, ‘I love your work, could I have your autograph.’ So I give it to her and she was like ‘this doesn’t look like an M.’ I said, ‘My name starts with a K, not a silent M.” She’s like, ‘Aren’t you Michael Moore?’ I was like no, I’m the other fat bearded director So she asks, ‘Peter Jackson?’ I’m like, ‘Keep going,’ She finally asks, ‘who are you?’ I was like ‘Kevin Smith,’ and she was like ‘oh I’m so sorry.’ It’s weird for me to answer that question when it’s open ended, it’s so braggy. ‘Well, I am Kevin Smih.’ People ask you, and then they just punch you in the face. It’s happened to Mewes, this girl talked to him, and her boyfriend saw it, so his friends are like ‘He’s totally macking your girl, man!’ Going to bars, your chance of getting punched in the face goes up 75%. In places like this, my only fear is people like ‘Hi, I love your films’ [mocks a handshake], I totally fucking stink bombed you!”

The fan who paid Mewes for the water was next, and he asked for another cup of water. People shouted out what had happened, and Smith responded, “Who was in here before? Frank Miller and Jim Lee? Jim Lee spit in that water!” The fan shrugged, and Smith said, “Only at a comics convention. People are like ‘Jim Lee spit in the water,’ and they’re like …” Smith mimicked pouring water all over himself and writhing in sexual ecstasy.

Smith gave a follow up to the Prince story he’s told at numerous conventions, about being hired to do a documentary on the Purple One and things going famously wrong. “I got a call two years after the DVD came out, [Prince’s] producer calls, and she was like ‘I can’t believe you named me, by name!’ I was like, ‘Did you get in trouble?’ She said ‘I left there, but I was getting frantic calls, and I had to go in to meet him. He was like ‘where was his non-disclosure agreement?’ They had given me one to sign, but I put it down like ‘I’ll get to it later. I forgot, and thankfully I didn’t sign it. He was really fuckin’ mad about it. ‘He wanted to sue you, but he found out you didn’t sign the agreement,’ so I was like ‘right on, good for me.’ It went around Paisley Park for a year, from employee to employee, like ‘you need to see this, he fuckin’ nailed him.’ Then I heard he was on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, when Musicology came out, and the author of the piece called me up. ‘’Prince talked about Jersey Girl.’ And I’m still like a fan, like ‘Prince talked about me? Did he love it?’ No. ‘He went out of his way to talk about it. He said he saw Jersey Girl, and he just didn’t like it. He said, ‘I guess that’s what happens when the potty mouth don’t work for you no mo,’ that’s what he said. There’s another DVD, ‘Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder’ where I talk about him again.”

When asked about his favorite character, Smith replied, “The most simple pleasure, because I was so happy no one else thought of it first, was Cock Knocker. Oh, I love the simplicity of it. Duchovny had called me for ‘Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back,’ and I’m like I don’t have a part for you. He’s like, ‘Just let me read the script.’ So I sent it, and he calls me, Duchovny’s like ‘I must play Cock Knocker!’ I was like, ‘why?’ He said, ‘do you know how brilliant that is?’ You could build a whole movie around that guy. But Holden McNeil is my favorite character.”

One fan wondered if Smith overexerted himself with too many projects running simultaneously. “I don’t even exert,” Smith countered. “I do over commit, to a lot of projects. Half happen, half never happen. It is a flaw of mine, just learning to say no. That’s a fat mentality. This inability to say, ‘hey that stuff might be there tomorrow.’ I’ll go to the grocery store, and buy three boxes of cereal. And eat them all in, like, one sitting. Those apple jacks ain’t going no where. That’s part of the reason why I put the kibosh on ‘Fletch.’ They wanted to do something more like the Chevy Chase movie, and I wanted to do something more like the book. So I was like, ‘either let me do this my way, or we’ll just part ways, no hard feelings.’ I finished up that Spider-Man/Black Cat mini series, that’ll be out in November. When I turned it in, Axel was like ‘what do you wanna do next?’ I was like, ‘are you retarded?’ I took three years to write three comic books. He was like ‘do you wanna take over Spider-Man?’”

Clerks fans got good news with the next answer, about “Clerks 2: The Passion of the Clerks.” “We start shooting September 19th. There’s a chick I want to play the female lead who’s gonna read on Tuesday. She’s not super famous, but to me she’s super incredible. I don’t wanna talk about it in case she doesn’t do it. We’re ready, can’t wait. ‘Clerks 2′ is Randall’s movie. We’re done by the end of October. By the beginning to middle of ‘06 we’ll be out.”

Smith was asked of he prioritizes family over career. “Do I feel that way?” he wondered. “Yeah, but only because I can afford to feel that way. I get up, try to fuck my wife, wind up jerking off, go on the board, answer emails, play Ultimate Poker online, eat nine meals. My life is in pockets, work on a movie for three months. After the ending of ‘Jersey Girl,’ he’s totally in his bedroom like, ‘I’m a fucking garbageman! I hate that little cunt!’ I should film a ‘Jersey Girl’ continuation with him calling the kid cunt, killing ‘em.”

How about Green Hornet? “I’m not doing it anymore,” Smith said. “I was going to, and then as I got closer to it, I just was like I don’t wanna make a big budget movie. When you’re making a movie for seventy million, you have to make it appeal to everybody. I make movies that don’t appeal to anybody, they’re for me. $70 million is tough to recoup, there were a lot of factors where I was like ‘nah, this ain’t for me.’ I was excited to be tapped, they made the announcement, the dust settled, and then i was like, ‘I don’t wanna do this.’ It feels great to be chosen, but then when you have to do it, it sucks, it’s like ‘what now?’ I have no interest in making a movie about Green Hornet that everybody would be interested in. I’d have Green Hornet and Kato, leaning on Black Beauty, their super car that can do anything, and be like ‘did you fuck her in the ass.’ Then you hear some noise, they go out of sight and stuff happens off panel. Then they come back and they’re like ‘I totally fucked her in the ass.’ If I’m going to do a big budget movie, it’d be something I create, like Ranger Danger. That I can take the risk on. They’d be like ‘Smith blows it again.’ if I’m gonna take that shot and shoot for the fences, it’s gonna be me.”

Further following that theme, Smith said, “I feel like I shouldn’t apologize. This shit makes me happy. If I can make a living off it, I should do what’s fulfilling to me. I like putting on that coat. Makes me look thin. If I put [Mewes] in a movie and he gets paid, that’s less money he has to borrow from me in the real world. I am where I am today because I followed the same path, make movies that you like, and if people go along with it great. But you can’t call me a hack. The definition of hack is somebody who’d direct a movie for a paycheck, and I’ve never done that. You can call me untalented. I’d agree with some people on that. Then I’d hit ‘em with a fuckin’ chair.”

The panel ran over by more than an hour, even past the closing of the convention floor, but the fans stayed faithfully and never wavered, down to the last words.

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It’s been three years in the making, but Kevin Smith confirmed today at the Marvel Knights panel at Wizard World Chicago, that he has completed the scripts for issues 4-6 of his acclaimed mini-series. The issues are scheduled for release this November, but first a Marvel must-have collecting the first three issues and including an 8-page preview of issue 4 will be release next month.

When questioned at both this panel and at the Cup Of Joe Earlier, Marvel EEK Joe Quesada denied reports that the final issues had been written, despite the fact that Kevin himself posted as much on his own web site days earlier. The ruse was set-up for the grand cameo made by Smith who walked in near the end of the presentation to answer questions and confirm the completion. Amidst a slew of expletives (a Smith trademark) he apologized for the delay and left the room in stitches as he tried to explain the cause. One heckler got a particularly funny remark when he asked Smith about Daredevil: Target.

“I don’t even get to celebrate for five ****ing minutes,” Smith shouted back.

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By MIKE LENGYEL
News Askew Writer

SAN DIEGO, California (NA) – July 16, 2005

“I do make movies… but I was wondering on how to get them in the hands of someone like you?” asks a young, aspiring indie filmmaker to writer/director, Kevin Smith. His query is quickly met by a barrage of collective sighs and beleaguered “boos” stemming from a mob of 6,500 displeased fans, who are more eager to hear Smith make with the funny, rather than cater to answer one’s own self-serving desperate plea at getting his foot in the door.

But rather than chastise the young man, Smith instead decides to take what appears to be the high road and quickly jumps to his defense, addressing the crowd. “Don’t ‘boo’ him. This dude’s got a dream.”

As the chorus of “boos” quickly subsides, Smith focuses his attention back onto the filmmaker and asks, “Are you willing to suck cock for your dream, sir?”

The room quickly erupts into laughter as the filmmaker is left standing at the microphone, face now slightly red with embarrassment and left looking somewhat disheartened, not quite sure of what to make from his hero’s response.

“We all got to start somewhere. You can start on your knees.” continues Smith.

And on that note, this year’s appearance proved to be a welcome return to form for Smith, whose humor and askewed look on life, love and pop culture tends to lend a refreshing breath of air in the midst of the mass-marketing, promotional synergy that is Comic-Con. After taking a year off from 2004’s Con, Smith continues to show that he’s a juggernaut of a performance artist whose comedic reign is one not to be reckoned with - especially when he’s fielding audience questions and answering them with hilarious results.

This year was no exception. Running a bit fashionably behind, Smith quickly opened up the floor to questions, often urging the audience not too waste precious time by clapping after each response.

During one point of the Q & A, Smith was discussing his opinions of Mel Gibson’s ‘PASSION OF THE CHRIST’ and his displeasure at watching a 2-hour long film depicting what he considers to be the least interesting part of Christ’s life and noting that he much more prefers Martin Scorsese’s ‘THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST’ instead. During this point, one dismayed audience member protested Smith’s views by shouting a verbal reminder to Smith that “Jesus died for our sins” several times over, all the while continuing to disrupt the Q & A in attempting to get his point across. At first Smith had difficulty making out his statement.

“Dude, I can’t hear you. Yell it out again.” Smith responded.

“He died for your sins!” the man cried out.

“He died for my sins…? Oh, I totally know that! I’m gonna die for his one day to pay him back!” Smith quickly shot back.

As the man continued his protest, Smith appeared slightly more agitated, however never losing his cool, or his audience.

“Dude, don’t testify. I love Jesus! I love him like… I love him more than you motherfucker!” Smith proudly boasted as he tried to get his point across, which was praised over with laughter from the crowd.

As Smith continued to explain, “My feeling is ‘I love Jesus,’ why would I want to watch a movie in which he gets beat up for 2 hours? Like I would like to watch something more about Christ’s life, you know, what he said and what he did up to that point.”

Later, in switching gears, when asked about the upcoming ‘CLERKS’ sequel, tentatively entitled, ‘THE PASSION OF THE CLERKS’, Smith revealed that a principal photography date of September 12th was set and the shooting would continue through mid-October with hopes that it will be out beginning early next year. Smith also then later went on to reveal that he will indeed be directing the ‘DEGRASSI’ feature next year after he completes ‘THE PASSION OF THE CLERKS’. And while his three episode ‘DEGRASSI – The Next Generation’ story arc is set to air in the states in August, Smith also stated that there will be a ‘JAY and SILENT BOB DO DEGRASSI’ DVD to be released in the fall (October/November) of which will include the three episodes, commentaries and extras alike.

In closing, Smith took the time to introduce fellow writer/director and friend, Richard Kelly, out onstage to discuss his much anticipated follow up to his cult hit, ‘DONNIE DARKO’, entitled ‘SOUTHLAND TALES’, with Smith adding, “which stars a bunch of fuckin’ people like… BUFFY, THE SCORPION KING and… SILENT BOB.” Smith also notes that in conjunction prior to the release of ‘SOUTHLAND TALES’, both he and fellow partner in crime, Bob Chapman of Graffiti Designs, have teamed up with Kelly to produce and publish a six book graphic novel that will serve as a prequel of sorts leading up to the film, which Kelly will also write, with all six books scheduled to be released later this year.

While tight-lipped about the film, Kelly did manage to mention that Smith’s involvement in the film will be playing a wheelchair-bound Iraqi war-vet named Simon Theory, while also stating that filming is scheduled to begin in four-weeks with other casting announcements to be made very soon. Smith also expressed excitement in the film by declaring Kelly’s screenplay in as much as “brilliant” and placing the script’s brilliance in the same league as that of ‘PULP FICTION’.

Kelly meanwhile also acknowledged that the DVD for ‘TALES’ is also in the works and promises “one big, massive, over-priced DVD” which should include a 2-hour documentary on the making of the film by the same team who produced the mock-‘DONNIE DARKO’ documentary which can be found on the recent Director’s Cut of the film on DVD.

Smith, ever being the ringmaster of his own three-ring-circus, made quick last words exiting the stage to remind fans that he has three upcoming DVD’s scheduled for release: ‘MALLRATS: 10th Anniversary’, ‘JAY AND SILENT BOB DO DEGRASSI’ and ‘AN EVENING WITH KEVIN SMITH 2: EVENING HARDER’ all of which are due to be released just in time for the holidays.

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Smith and actor Jason Mewes (Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back) play themselves in all three episodes of the three-part season finale. Alanis Morissette joins the duo in the second of the three half-hour episodes. Morissette plays the Canadian principal who accepts Jay and Silent Bob so they may graduate. The finale will roll out for three consecutive Friday nights — August 12, August 19 and August 26 at 8:00 pm (ET).
In the Degrassi season finale, Smith travels to Canada to film a fictional sequel to the cult-hit Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. For the ‘sequel’ titled, Jay and Silent Bob Go Canadian, Eh!, director Kevin Smith has chosen Degrassi as the perfect Canadian high school for the shoot. In the Degrassi / J&SB storyline, Jay and Silent Bob (played by Mewes and Smith) come to Canada to get a high school diploma since no high school in the United States will take them. Smith said, “The plot of the movie within the show is so funny, it almost makes me want to shoot the flick for real.”

To his legions of fans on both sides of the border and around the world, Kevin Smith has surpassed cult hero status with a body of work that includes titles Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Dogma, the “Jersey Trilogy” of Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy and his most recent title, Jersey Girl.

The three-episode finale is as follows:

• “West End Girls”- Premieres Friday, August 12, 8:00 & 10:00 p.m. (ET) -With a common ex-boyfriend, competing Spirit Squad leadership ambitions, and Manny’s public revelation of Paige and Matt’s affair, Paige and Manny cannot stand each other. And none of this is helped by their shared desire to be Prom Queen. But with the claws bared and the fur flying, these “mean girls” take their war too far. Meanwhile, a chance at stardom could spell the end for Craig and Ashley.

• “Goin’ Down The Road” Part 1- Premieres August 19, 8:00 & 10:00 p.m. (ET) – Alanis Morissette makes a cameo appearance as she plays the Canadian principal who accepts Jay and Silent Bob so they may graduate. Kevin Smith is filming his hot new movie at Degrassi, and while Craig’s thrilled to be helping out, he’s destroyed over the fact that Ashley is going to England without him. Now he needs to figure out what’s really important to him, his health or his love? And Ashley may have another take on things altogether. Meanwhile, Caitlin’s been spending a lot of time with Kevin Smith, and she’s beginning to once again doubt her relationship with Joey.

• “Goin’ Down The Road” Part 2-Premieres August 26, 8:00 & 10:00 p.m. (ET) - Without his medication, Craig’s life seems to be falling apart: he’s fighting with Joey, he’s leaving home again, and when he’s kicked off Kevin Smith’s set after a huge blow-up, Craig has nowhere to run. Meanwhile, Caitlin is no closer to figuring out her situation with Joey and Kevin Smith, but running away from it all is sure looking good to her, too.

Smith recounted how he first encountered Degrassi in a November, 1996 article he wrote for Details Magazine, entitled ‘Obsession Confession’. In the piece, Smith confesses: “I used to work at this convenience store, and on Sunday mornings the only thing that kept me from gutting the customers in a sleepy rage was Degrassi Junior High. See, I had to put the papers together, and I did it while watching double episodes of Degrassi on PBS …” Shortly thereafter, Smith went on to create Clerks (1994), his first “Jersey” Trilogy title and even named one if its characters Caitlin, after his favorite Degrassi character.

Smith and series producer Linda Schuyler kept in touch ever since and the mutual admiration was obvious. Smith is renowned for making references to Degrassi in his movies Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy. In Chasing Amy, Jason Lee and Ben Affleck discuss their plans for the evening. Ben’s plans include clubbing. Jason, on the other hand, opts for a pizza and watching Degrassi Junior High, an option that intrigues his co-star.

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