“As we first reported in December, Sony announced it would bow the controversial religious satire ‘Dogma’ on March 11, though initial specs were sparce. Now the full details are in, and typical of a Smith disc release, the Blu-ray will come loaded with making-of material and deleted footage.

Porting over many (but not all) of the features from Sony’s previous two-disc DVD edition, the Blu-ray version of ‘Dogma’ will contain two audio commentaries (the first with Smith and cast members, the second a technical track), 100 minutes of deleted scenes (with intros), and a “Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash” mock commercial.

Tech specs boast 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 video and uncompressed PCM 5.1 Surround audio in English and French.

Suggested retail for the Blu-ray has been set at $28.99.”

“I wish I could have made his version,” Smith said. “The parameters that we had in our version of ‘Green Hornet’ - he’s not suffering from the same parameters At the time they were like ‘We want to make a big straight-forward action movie” - the wrong approach for the character, Smith insisted.

“You can’t really compete with Spiderman and Batman and stuff like that with Green Hornet,” the director contended. “So it’s best to take a different approach to it all-together.”

Which, according to Smith, is what Rogen is finally getting a real chance to do.

“He’s Seth Rogan, the man of the moment. He can do anything he wants with that project,” Smith said. “It’s not a comedy what he’s doing, but he gets to do his with a better sense of humor than we would have been allowed to. He’s in a great free place to do something fresh with that material.”

Q: With its fascist interior design, we never think of the Death Star as having restaurants, happy hours, luxury flats and recreation areas.

A: We start from the point that not everyone on board was a villain. As Kevin Smith pointed out in Clerks, someone had to be the plumber. That’s where we’re coming from. There’s got to be bars, places to eat.

The book, which focuses on the life as an everyday worker on the space station, sounds like a fun read.

Jason Reitman, the 30-year-old director of “Juno,” added that the youth brigade was something of an old story. “I feel like I am just following in the footsteps of Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, Wes Anderson, the list goes on,” he said.

Kevin Smith’s uber-grungy Clerks captured the low-key, agreeable vibe of smartass go-nowhere buddies hanging out and talking shit. It was cinematic democracy in action, a triumph of proletariat ingenuity over technical wizards with film-school degrees and elaborate storyboards.

6. Silent Bob
Sidekick to: Jay
Even though Bob is usually overshadowed by the nonsensical shit-talking of his weed-dealing counterpart, he has the uncanny ability to dole out sage advice that Confucius would quote on his MySpace page. Plus, he has that sweet utility belt and is friends with a monkey. Snoochey boochey.

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.

Will’s always good enough to do these captures, and never even asks us for a plug, but we’re giving him one anyway, darn it — RadioAskew is now back with some new programming, so be sure to take a listen to his professional podcast at the official site - All the latest pop culture stuff with an Askew slant to it.

…actor and director commentaries and the exclusive high definition BD-Java multi-level strategy game “Black Hat Intercept!”


“Black Hat Intercept!” begins with a warning from ‘The Warlock’ (cult-classic writer, producer and director Kevin Smith) that a computer virus has been placed inside an unwitting Internet company’s mainframe by the infamous cyber-terrorist, Thomas Gabriel. As the team leader from inside the surveillance van, players must guide an agent into the building, outwit the building’s security systems and personnel without being detected and then wipe the hard drive clean before the virus destroys the U.S.


Additionally, the BD debut of the “Die Hard Trilogy” comes locked and loaded with numerous bonus features including deleted scenes, featurettes, actor and director commentaries, visual effect breakdowns, alternate endings, side-by-side comparisons and much, much more.

We were hopeful for an edgier cut of the film as well, after the whole R vs. PG-13 debate, though it looks to not be the case here — We’ll see that stuff as extra scenes. No word on Kevin’s involvement with the DVD commentary due to his cameo role, though the guy never met a DVD track he didn’t like — We’re hopeful that the man’s involved as much as possible on this one. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more.

And by the way — The disc will also support the new D-Box chair which, believe it or not, rumbles and moves in sync with the film. Basically, it turns your living room into a ride! Pretty nifty, though at over $10,000 for the system, not an accessory we’ll be able to afford anytime soon. Ah, technology.

If this is an indication of his skills, I’d like to see more from Affleck. He has pace, shots, and construction down.

And then we have something we’re quite excited to see, as we haven’t seen it before - Marvel’s “Then and Now” Q&A with Stan Lee and Joe Quesada, hosted by Kevin Smith, is now available for purchase! The disc contains of course the full program along with heaps of extras, including bonus interviews, behind-the-scenes, and more. You can purchase your copy via the Then And Now site, with proceeds benefitting the awesome Hero organizataion. This one’s another must-have for your View Askew DVD collection.

Watch for more in-depth coverage on both of these discs here at News Askew next week.