Via @FiendishDrWu “Any chance of Mewescast being resurrected?” He’s shooting two gigs, so no time. But I’ve still got 2 more pods coming…

Via @KIRedford “saw #COPOUT but i didnt see Morgan funny “hand-twitch” as mentioned in SMod. Why?” Scene was shortened. Deleted scene now.

Consider for a moment that both Bryan & Walt, and Malcolm & his Mom both saw their podcasts debut at #20 in iTunes. Out of what? 2million?

Via @DaveHarper1888 “DUBLIN shows. WHEN?” We’re looking at Sept/Oct/Nov at the moment. That’d be London, Glasgow, Dublin again, + new stops.

Via @billlehecka “$9.1mil weekend. #CopOut looks profitable. Better: profitable or have critical acclaim?” The former means you work again.

Don’t forget — Kevin exclusively offers a dirt cheap swag item each day via his Twitter feed , but only to the first 37 twitter users who buy it. Then, it’s gone. That, and the daily laughs, are but two of the many reasons you gotta be following @ThatKevinSmith if you’re not already. While you’re at it, don’t forget, @NewsAskew is on there too.

“Brian Fiete, who co-founded the company along with Jason Kapalka and me, was our primary coder in those days (he’s still our chief tech guru). Right after we made the decision to offer a ‘deluxe’ version of Bejeweled for $19.95, Brian devised a little ‘applet’ that would cause a “cha-ching!” old school cash register sound every time someone actually ponied up $20 for the game. At first it was great fun to hear it go off… on one occasion the three of us were sitting around watching the film “Clerks” and one of the characters said something like “dude, you’ll never get rich sitting around on your ass all day” – and the “cha-ching” sounded and we just fell over laughing… after a couple of days that damned “cha-ching” was going off every minute or two and it was driving us nuts… but that was when we realized we might actually have a hit on our hands.”

Congrats to Kevin and all the cast and crew of “Cop Out” for getting the job done. Box office analysts are calling the film a win as well, citing that it’s one of Willis’ best openings in years. This weekend’s numbers also tell us that word of mouth is good, and that audiences are continuining to check out the movie despite some other big releases looking to push it out of the way. With many international releases still on the way, and the eventual DVD/Bluray versions, we’re expecting continued kudos to Kevin, and crossing our fingers for good news on the “Hit Somebody” and “Red State” projects here in 2010. Stick around, it’s gonna get even more interesting around here. More news later today.

Kevin Smith’s 40th Birthday
Presented by: Count Basie Theatre

Monday, August 2, 2010 – 7pm

Join writer, producer, director, actor and Monmouth County native Kevin Smith on his 40th birthday for a no-holds-barred evening of questions and answers. Clever, but profane and spiked with pop-culture references, Smith’s scripts have been described as, “David Mamet meets Howard Stern.” A limited number of Gold Circle tickets to benefit the Count Basie Theatre’s restoration will be sold, including a post-event meet-and-greet with Kevin.

Tickets: $500, $79.50, $69.50, $49.50, $29.50

(The $500 ticket price includes a post-show meet-and-greet with Kevin and will benefit the Count Basie Theatre’s restoration)

Reserve your seats today. The Basie is not a general admission type venue, so you’ll be able to pick the best, most specific seats RIGHT NOW. As you can see, there’s a large range of prices, and for those of you with deeper pockets, a rare chance to have some face time with Kevin following the show. See you there!

Today, our SModcast Podcast Network (home of SMODCAST, as well as TELL ‘EM STEVE-DAVE) has to extend the belt one more notch as we grow. If you’ve been a SModcast listener, or if you’ve only listened to SModcast108, then you’re familiar w/ true (North) original @MalcolmIngram. Today, like Bry & Walt, @MalcolmIngram gets his very own podcast. And for a regular co-host, he chose Oedipally: his Mom, Gloria Ingram. So without further ado, SModcast network proudly presents… THE TORONTO, ONTARIO ‘MO & GLO(ria) SHOW! http://smodcast.com/moandglo/

The complete SModcast scheudle will be a new SModcast every Sunday, Mo & Glo on Wednesday, and Tell ‘Em Steve-Dave on Fridays. Eventually, Kevin would like the network to have a regular Monday-Friday schedule, with a total of 5 programs, one new each weekday, with the weekends off.

This kinda snuck up on me: my GREEN HORNET book with Dynamite Comics IS IN STORES TOMORROW! This books is the movie that might’ve been.

I’ve seen the whole GREEN HORNET book and Jonathan Lau did a wicked job capturing the script. Thanks, also, to Phil Hester for layouts!



Peep the many HORNET covers by ALEX ROSS, JOHN CASSADAY, J.SCOTT CAMPBELL and STEPHEN SEGOVIA: http://tinyurl.com/myfailedhornetstingsagain



Free 5 page preview of my GREEN HORNET comic: http://tinyurl.com/ygce4b3 The comic adaptation of my unmade GREEN script. In stores tomorrow.

Hop on over to the links Kevin mentioned or check ‘em out above. We can’t wait to see the rest. Remember, in this series, a major character will die! Get in on the ground floor with what’s sure to be one of the most talked about comics of 2010. Your local comic shop should have a pile tomorrow, and we’ll of course let you know when the Stash can ship you a signed copy if that’s your preference, as well. There’s a lot of cover versions out there, so you collectors, buy carefully.

Yes, the Rogen-led “Green Hornet” movie is still coming this summer, but this comic series/story has nothing to do with the story or tone of the film version.

Kevin Smith on the media’s coverage of ‘Fatgate’: ‘They’re really pathetic’

“We all took pay cuts to keep it R-rated, which with me meant I gave up 80% of my salary, but it was worth it,” he says, explaining that, thanks to some tax rebates, the movie cost roughly $37 million to make. He certainly wasn’t worried about his actors having good chemistry, always a key ingredient with a buddy picture. “Tracy just oozes chemistry,” he says with a hearty laugh. “He could have chemistry with a ceramic ashtray. Bruce loved him. He kept calling him kid, even though Tracy’s over 40, so there’s not really that big an age difference. But I think calling him kid meant Bruce liked him.”

Smith insists that he didn’t have any problems communicating with Willis, at least once he realized that Willis wasn’t going to do anything that he felt was out of his comfort zone. Smith illustrates the issue with an unbelievably raunchy metaphor involving a detailed description of oral sex, then teasingly said, “Try and get that into your old-media story.” I asked him if he could offer a PG-13 version of the story.

“Put it this way,” he said. “On the first day of shooting, I started to mess with Bruce, trying to get him to do something crazy, and he took out his gun and went bang — and shot me in the head. His point was pretty obvious. He’s done this part so many times that he knows what works and what doesn’t. He’s the caretaker of the Bruce Willis persona. He’s been a star for 25 years while most of his peers have fallen by the wayside, so he knows what works for his image. Basically, we all tried to make him laugh, figuring if we got Bruce just to smile once we’ve have something to tell our kids about.”

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Kevin Smith: I almost wanted to “curl up in an asylum” when Southwest controversy was brewing

Q: So does that mean we can expect you to do another movie with them?

KS: It was easy this time. I don’t know what it would be like if I went in with something I wrote, or let’s say something I didn’t write but wanted to write. They were talking about “Hit Somebody,” the hockey movie I wanted to make based on the Warren Zevon song. And I said, “I know you like me right now. But I sweat blood for this. If you say you’re committing to it then you’re saying you’re greenlighting this movie.” So we said we’ll talk.

Q: What’s “Hit Somebody” actually about?

KS: It’s not a movie about the NHL. It’s a movie about the game, and it’s a movie about Canada. I look at it and keep describing as what I’m going for as the “Forrest Gump” of hockey movies. Not flat-out funny stuff I’ve always done. It’s a more serious comedy.

Q: If you get that one going, does that preclude you from coming on to direct another studio comedy that already has a script written?

KS: There are about five scripts that Warner Bros. has handed me that they’re interested in. One of them is with Tracy [Morgan]. The romantic in me wants to paint it as a “Platoon”-like battle for one soul, a battle between Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe. But it’ll come down to what happens next. If best-case scenario, I’m shooting “Hit Somebody” by the end of the year, then what am I going to do between now and then? Maybe nothing. Or I can multi-task and spin another plate while waiting for it to come together. And there’s also “Red State” [a dark political drama he's written]. There’s some very interested money that wasn’t interested a week ago, before “Cop Out” came out.

Frame’s wide releases, Warner Bros.’ buddy comedy “Cop Out,” starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, as well as Overture’s horror-thriller pic “The Crazies,” turned in solid estimates with $18.6 million and $16.5 million, respectively.

Kevin also mentions that the WB was very pleased with the weekend’s take, especially the rise in ticket sales on Saturday, which is always an excellent sign that a movie was well-received:

Thanks for all the well-wishes. Got called by happy WB big guns. 35% spike on Saturday means good things. Thanks for the support! #CopOut

Let’s hope one of those “good things” is a chance for “Hit Somebody” to become a reality with the WB. Of course, competition always gets tougher when new movies hit theaters next weekend, but that doesn’t mean you can’t see the film again, or spread the word to your friends and co-workers this week. When you’re having trouble getting into work mode on Monday, let folks know you saw “Cop Out” and that it’s hilarious. Let’s just see if we can’t rake in a few more bucks. If bad weather kept you indoors over the weekend, treat yourself to a movie this week as a reward to yourself for all that digging. “Cop Out” is now playing all over the place.