Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “It’s a wrap on Kevin Smith’s ‘Porno’”

“…On shooting here: “It went so swimmingly, it was crazy,” said the director, who finished two days early.

“We were fighting weather issues at the beginning because we tried to do most of our exteriors up front,” Smith said, as Rogen added, “The weather was too nice.” But some of the real snow allowed Rogen to fishtail as he drove, lending authenticity to the wintry setting and man-made white stuff.

On navigating the city: Rogen got lost a lot at the beginning but said, “I slowly narrowed down where I go to a few places. Now I get to the Waterfront easy,” to go to the movies, eat at Red Robin and — like all the out-of-towners — shop like mad at Target.

Off-set diversions: Smith favored NHL 08 (he also went to a couple of New Jersey Devils games at Mellon Arena, clad in his home-team colors) while Rogen is a “pretty mean drummer” on Rock Band and pretty good at Guitar Hero. “I’m like your utilitarian game player.”

Sneak preview: Smith has been editing as he’s shooting and recently hosted an early rough cut for cast and crew in the Strip District. “We set up two big monitors, two big flat screens, and I think 80 people came over and watched 80 percent, 85 percent of the movie. … It’s pretty watchable.”

When studio chief Harvey Weinstein visited the set, he asked Smith if he was shooting “TV coverage as well,” which would allow the movie to air on television or in other tame outlets. “I was, like, dude, I’m having a hard time shooting an R-rated movie, let alone a PG-13- rated version of the movie.”



---

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Director waxes philosophic on his ‘dirty, dirty movie’”

“…Smith said he knows he’s taking a risk with the word ‘Porno’ in the film’s title.

But love trumps sex, he said. Like his other films — “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy” — there’s an old-fashioned romantic sensibility beneath the raunch.

“It’s a dirty, dirty movie,” said Smith with perfect deadpan. But then, he added, “I hope the balance is there. It’s a really touching love story, no pun intended. In terms of the stuff I’ve done in the past, it’s probably closest to ‘Chasing Amy.’ ”



---

Variety: “Seth Rogen: Half The Work For Twice The Pay”

“It’s one of the first movies that I’ve just acted in, and it definitely feels like I’m doing half as much,” he says from the film’s location at Pittsburgh’s Monroeville Mall.

Working with Smith is a big deal for Rogen. “‘Clerks,’ when I saw that, was one of the defining moments of my career,” he says of Smith’s early success. “It’s the first movie I saw where the characters were talking like me and my friends talk to each other — about ‘Star Wars’ and blowjobs and what have you. That was tremendously influential in my writing. And then Kevin Smith told me he wrote a movie for me and I’m in. Thank God I really liked it,” he says of “Zack and Miri.” “It was a very simple process. Usually you have to put a gun to my head to make me finish a script, and I read ‘Zack and Miri’ in one sitting.”

Among other things we’ve learned, Kevin anticipates the movie will show up on screens in November 2008, along with (hopefully) an R-rating despite some rather graphic sex scenes.