• Kevin and Scott’s weekly podcast, SModcast, made this week’s MUST LIST in Entertainment Weekly magazine. Make sure you subscribe today so you don’t miss any episodes!

• We love this ad for the Screen Actor’s Guild’s “Sagindie” branch, which appeared recently in MovieMaker Magazine. Click the pic for a closer look. Not only a funny ad, but we’re happy to see that Kevin and View Askew’s influence continues to promote the indie spirit. Yeah!
• AZCentral posts a short new interview with Kevin, the main topic of which is “Zack and Miri Make A Porno” — However, due to the Rosario involvement in the piece, it may have been conducted a few weeks back. Here’s a snippet or two:
  Q: You’ve taken supporting roles in other people’s films - “Catch and Release,” “Live Free or Die Hard.” Is that like a vacation for you?

  A: It is kind of a vacation. It’s fun to do. It’s certainly nothing that I would make my primary job. But if stuff comes along and I’ve got the time - and it doesn’t require heavy lifting, because I’m certainly nobody’s actor - I’m all game for it.

  Q: “Clerks II” proved there’s still juice left in Jay and Silent Bob (characters played by Jason Mewes and Smith, respectively). Do you think these guys could do a movie in their 50s?

  A: I dunno, man. That’d be tough. I always thought it’d interesting somewhere down the road to see how they aged. But I think I’ll just kind of reserve that for if we ever do another “Clerks” look-in on Dante and Randal. Like, people have asked, “Are you going to do ‘Clerks III’?” I’m like, “Maybe not until I’m in my 40s.” Because it would be nice to peek in on those two characters every decade and see how they progress. “Clerks” was in my 20s and “Clerks II” was in my 30s, so maybe “Clerks III” would be in my 40s. Even then, I’m like, “How do you handle Jay and Bob in their 40s?”

• Big news for you Hollywood Stock Exchange addicts: The stock for “Zack and Miri Make A Porno” went IPO today at a price of $20. Happy trading!
• Don’t forget, DVD completists and Kevin fans, TMNT is now available for purchase and rental on DVD, featuring a fun cameo from the voice of Kevin Smith himself. Check your local shelves, rental shop, or NetflixM type joint to snag yourself a copy.

• Mystery Science Theater 3000’s Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy, have released their RiffTrax for The Bourne Identity! Rifftrax continue the MST3K tradition of mocking movies as you watch, through the use of MP3 downloadable files that you sync up with a film’s DVD. Watch a hilarious sample HERE. With the Damon Askew connection and all these MSTie alums on board, this one’s sure to be an instant classic.
• A scooper caught the brand new, recut Mallrats X verison airing on pay channel “IndiePlex”, one of those ancillary Encore networks you get when you subscribe to premium services. Pretty cool stuff! A quick search over at the Encore site did confirm many upcoming airings of Mallrats on their various stations, but none confirm the version. If anyone knows more, let us know — For those of you who were silly enough to skip buying the extended disc, this could be a great chance to preview all that you’re missing. We’ll let you know if we hear of Mallrats Extended airing anywhere, though encourage you to buy the amazing DVD from the Stash — One of the greatest that View Askew ever produced.

• For the interested or intrigued, here’s those lego version of Jay and Bob that were spotted on Facebook earlier this week. For some added weekend fun, make your own Lego creations for free online! See ya — Thanks for stopping by News Askew today.

• Major congrats to Genius Products and all involved with the “Clerks II” DVD, which took home two honors at today’s Home Entertainment Awards, part of the Entertainment Merchants Assn.’s Home Media Expo 2007, which runs through Thursday at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino.
  “The titles recognized by the Home Entertainment Awards speak to the breadth of great entertainment that is available on home video and remind us why home video retains its hold on the public,” EMA president Bo Andersen said. “EMA is proud to acknowledge the outstanding attributes of these wonderful videos.”

  DVDs released from April 1, 2006-March 31 were eligible.

  The awards Clerks II Took: DVD Extras of the Year From an Independent Studio AND Marketing Campaign of the Year From an Independent Studio. Nice job and well deserved.

• Keivn popped by the always entertaining View Askew WWWBoard with some great news — Five diverse lists who cited Clerks II among the best flicks of the year. Here’s his post and some links:

Of course, these are just a few of the voices of praise that was heard for Clerks II throughout the year — It’s one of the best reviewed movies in View Askew history (possibly the BEST reviewed) and scored incredibly well with audiences everywhere. The DVD sales records for the flick speak for themselves — Clerks II was a winner for 2006, and we’re proud that the gang not only got to make the movie they wanted, but celebrated great success with it as well. We can’t wait to see what’s next on the list.

• The excellent DVD review website DVD Verdict sings high praises of the awesome Clerks II DVD. Check out a snippet or two to see what we mean:

Read the entire review over at their site.

• The Hollywood Reporter has the fantastic news that DVD sales for Clerks II are off to a HUGE start, holding their own against major players such as “Superman Returns”, “Ice Ace 2″, and “Cars”. Yep, number FOUR on both the sales AND rental charts against all those big-budgeters! Many thanks to all of you who rented or bought the film, continuing to show the amazing track record of Kevin and View Askew when it comes to home video and DVD. Here’s the blurb from the HR article:

And Kev’s two cents (and news on some display changes at the beautiful Secret Stash shops):

• We ran some hints on Easter Eggs located on the new Clerks II DVD in our review earlier this month. But in case you were too lazy to track them down yourself, here’s a list of what’s been discovered so far. Of course, if you’ve got more to add, let us know:

• We’re pleased to report the highly anticipated arrival of THREE View Askew related titles on DVD today. First up, the latest in Kevin’s Askewniverse series, Clerks II, which many (including Kevin) say is the likely end to the View Askewniverse as we know it. You’ll certainly want to complete your collection with this one, and read our review of the disc set as well.

Next up — Kevin goes international with 2 Q&A sessions from Canada and the U.K. in “Evening with Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder”. Another two disc set chronicles Kevin’s hilarious Q&As and anecdotes, as Kevin entertains packed houses like no one else can. Look for tons of laughs and unexpectected surprises in these no-holds-barred sessions. Now everywhere on DVD (finally caught up with you Australia!).

And finally, Jeff Anderson’s directorial debut, “Now You Know” — Not originally produced by View Askew, but now presented by Kevin Smith as it earns a place in Askew myth in its own right, due to discovering Trevor Fehrman who steals many a scene in “Clerks II”.

As we speak, fans everywhere are converging on Stash Westwood for a big signing of DVDs today with Smith, Mewes, Anderson and Fehrman. If you’re in line, we hope you’re having a blast, and look forward to your tales and photos.

For the rest of us, here’s hoping you’ve got your pre-orders in with the Stash, as it’s still the only spot to get personally signed copies of all these discs to put under your tree. In the meantime, here’s some other info on today’s releases and what special goodies you can find at various outlets:

• Suncoast Pictures are carrying the Clerks II DVD packed with the bonus DVD. The disc contains a music video contest winner, the VH-1 Special and 5 BONUS Train Wrecks.
• Many Best Buy stores are in short suppy of the Mooby’s Meal Box set. If you want one, we suggest you run and grab one as soon as you can!
• The free comic in the Circuit City version, we’re being told, is only coming packed with the Full Screen version of the film, NOT the widescreen. Be careful.

• One vigilant scooper from the North travelled down to a New York Best Buy last night and happened upon one of those limited edition Mooby Meal boxes, out EARLY! So thanks to him, we have some new high res shots of the contents of this beauty. We’ll be at our local Best Buy to pick these suckers up tomorrow, you can bet on that.

Of Canadian interest: Not as impressive as the Best Buy USA exclusive, Canadians get a free original ‘98 Clerks Comic book with the purchase of Clerks II on DVD. None of the other stores seem to have any deals of any sort.

• It took longer than expected to compile this one, because we think this disc set’s got more content packed into it than ever before! THREE commentary tracks. An amazing new 90 minute documentary. Over an hour of deleted scenes and outtakes. Train Wrecks. Easter Eggs. And the fantastic film itself, which just begs a couple of immediate re-watches. Yes, the Special 2-disc edition of Clerks II is almost here on DVD (November 28th everywhere) and we were lucky enough to have an early look at its contents. Thanks to Zak, Joey, and the gang at Genius Products for the hookup. We’re happy to present our in-depth coverage of the contents of this disc, with exclusive screenshots and details that you just won’t find anywhere else. We proudly bring you: The News Askew Clerks II DVD Review!

• The good folks at Genius Products, as well as our pals Zak & Joey, brought two bundles of joy to the News Askew offices late last week - First up, Zak and Joey sent us a personal copy of their exciting new documentary, “Back To The Well”, for an early preview. The next day, we got hooked up with, you guessed it, the Clerks II DVD itself, in all its glory! So, there’s a busy Sunday ahead, as we delve into all the nooks that we love about View Askew’s DVD releases, and write up a complete review and rundown of the disc and all its goodies. In fact, as soon as this update’s posted up, it’s couch time!

In the meantime, you can check out a VERY POSITIVE review of the disc over at Aint It Cool News! We’ll have a complete review of each area of the disc, screenshots, and much more up in the first half of this week. We’re gonna spend this rainy Sunday spinning up the disc and checking out all the bonus features, commentaries, and of course that highly anticipated documentary! Watch for our full CLERKS II DVD COVERAGE soon! And thanks again to Zak, Joey & Genius Products.