Kevin Smith @ Batman: Cacophony Signing

On Saturday, November 8, I drove out to Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash in Red Bank, NJ for the Batman: Cacophony signing with writer Kevin Smith and artist Walt Flanagan.  First of all, I had a blast despite the fact that it rained most of the afternoon.  Many of the other attendees were members of Smith's infamous message board (shout outs to the guys I stood in line with!) and had attended his Q&A the night before.

The line extended around the block, although the people I was standing with told me it seemed like a pretty short line compared to the previous signings they'd been to at the Stash.  I got to meet a bunch of really cool people from Smith's board, including two dudes who take the Askewniverse very seriously:

Apparently at the Q&A the night before, Kevin tried to convince a couple in the audience to head to the hotel after the night was over and get to fuckin'.  They arrived at the signing late in the afternoon, pulling up as if they were celebrities.  I'm telling you right now that goofy lookin dude didn't get laid the night before, but the two of them ate up the attention. Here's the supposed seductress competing with our devoted duo:

While in line I also had the chance to meet Cohee Lundin, the fingercuffs guy himself, John Willyung who was running the door all afternoon. In a somewhat hilarious turn of events, I also got to witness John try and turn the VP of DC Comics away from the store.

Smith was extremely gracious to his fans who waited all day in line, giving each person a few minutes of his time for conversation and book signings. He seemed quite disappointed with the Zack and Miri box office, but hopeful that it would have a strong life in theaters.

It was a great day all in all.  I recommend you take the time to head out to his store as Red Bank is a beautiful little town, and the store really is quite awesome. Leave some comments!

Cinematical is watching the Watchmen

Erik Davis over at cinematical got a chance to peep twelve minutes of Watchmen at a special screening set up by Snyder last night. Dave Gibbons, the artist on the book, was also in attendance. Check out the article to hear about the footage (which sounds amazing) and the Q&A that followed.

Interesting to note: Kevin Smith was quoted as saying there were two changes in the film, one major and one minor. In the footage described there is an opening montage that gets the audience acquainted with the revised history of the US according to the events in the comic. There is also the scene where Nite Owl and Silk Spectre break Rorschach out of prison, and this has apparently been changed to include a fight scene, rather than just a horn that immobilizes the guards. Could these be the two changes that Smith was talking about? They both seem rather minor to me, so perhaps there's another one lurking within the film somewhere? I'm not opposed to these changes, in fact I think the idea behind both of these rather sound like improvements, or at least welcome adaptive changes. Only time will tell I suppose, but the more I hear about this the more excited I get. Here's hoping the film lives up to the footage Erik got to see last night!

New Watchmen Video Journal! Doc Manhattan!

Its a doc about the Doc, and its exclusive over at sci-fi.  I haven't had the time to watch it yet, but I'm so absurdly amped for this movie that I decided to post it right away.  Check it out and let me know what you think.  These video journals have gotten better with each one.  

In other video journal news, it sounds like Kevin Smith is having trouble with the MPAA over the Money Shots making of shorts he was going to release in advance of Zack and Miri.  Here's hoping they get through without much editing, and in time to be useful promotion for the film.

Banned Zack and Miri poster!

Apparantly this will only be appearing in Canada, as it was banned by the MPAA (jerks, I can't believe they control the advertising too. But I guess in todays world someone was bound to be controlling it). I think this is just hilarious. Look at Rogen's face.

And really, only astute viewer's would catch the ludeness. I also don't think children would figure out what was going on here. I see no reason why this was banned. If anything should cause this poster to be banned, it should be the word Porno, because I can see kids asking their parents what that word means. However, I'm so glad the MPAA has allowed them to pass with that as the title, because it is perfect and hilarious.

Is it me, or does Rogen only do movies with obvious, self-referential titles (or are all titles technically self-referential?)? 40 year-old Virgin, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Zack and Miri make a Porno, even Superbad (sorta). Indie film-makers, this is your chance. Write a movie called "Asshole" and make the main character a complete dick. Seth will be sure to do it, and we'll get to see him take a turn as a bit of a different character for once.

New Red Band Zack and Miri Trailer!

I'm wicked excited for this folks, and I'd like to thank Peter over at /film for tweeting this.

I think the first scene in the trailer made me laugh the hardest.  "Is that like a sequel?" could only be delivered so humorously by Seth Rogen.  Oh wait nevermind, Craig Robinson talking about not being happy with his wife might be funnier.  That dude is a fuckin scene stealer.  I was already wicked pumped for this one (huge Kev nerd) and this has only fueled the fire.  Here's hoping we don't get too much spoilerish stuff before the movie comes out, as Smith tends to do (or at least he did on Clerks 2). 

I'd also like to point out that when Peter tweeted this, he called it the "Red Bank" trailer.  Very clever Mr. Sciretta.  Very clever, indeed.

Did this make anyone else laugh out loud?

Summer is Over

And damn can you tell. Movie news is getting more and more boring by the day. Remember the days leading up to TDK? Pineapple Express even? Man... those were some good times. What's left to be excited about? The only thing I can think of that the fall has in store for us is Zack and Miri, which I'm uber-pumped for. What's on everyone's radar?

Slow Friday

Nothing much interesting to talk about today.  Except that Kevin Smith, perhaps my favorite filmmaker, saw Watchmen, the son of a bitch.  And what say Silent Bob?  "It's fucking astounding."  And more importantly "Even Alan Moore might be surprised at how close the movie is to the book.  March can't come soon enough."  You said it man.  Does anyone really think this will turn Moore though?  I have this feeling that even if it were perfect, Moore would still stubbornly stand by his belief that it only works as a book.  It'd be fucking mind-blowing if he did turn and support the movie though.  I think I'd blow Snyder.

If I wasn't excited enough for this fuckin movie, Kev's gotta go and get me real hyped.  Thanks a lot, friend.  Oh yeah, and it comes out the day before my birthday.  It's like Zach Snyder's personal gift to me.  Thanks a lot, friend.

Anyone else pumped?

Someone fly me to Toronto!

Cause their festival is gonnabe kick-ass this year! They're getting Synecdoche, New York, The Brothers Bloom, The Wrestler, AND Zach and Miri Make a Porno.

Let's go through the list (in the order mentioned above). You've got Charlie Kaufmann's directorial debut starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener, so um, fuckin duh. Then you've got Rian Johnson's follow-up to Brick, which as I said the other day was one of my favorite films of 2005, and if you haven't seen the trailer for this, you've got to check it out. It's got an interesting cast and could be a real winner.

Then there's Aranofsky's latest, and while I said the other day that the new photos that dropped really didn't leave me yearning to get to the theater, he hasn't disappointed me yet, and I really love his visual sense. I suppose I'm kind of excited to see how that translates with this kind of material. And then there's the movie I'm probably most excited to see this year, and it's only cause I'm a fucking huge Kevin Smith fanboy. Oh and also cause I'm a huge Rogen fanboy, and I think working of a Smith script is going to be like the perfect comedy storm.

Also of note are Danny Boyle and Richard Linklater's latest, Slumdog Millionare and Me and Orsen Welles respectively. I know nothing about either of these, but both are exciting filmmakers who I really enjoy, so I'm gonna include them anyhow. If you have any info, send it our way! Anyone else excited about any of these?

Bing: Reloaded

I mentioned it already in my first post, but I can't give enough love to the /Filmcast. On Monday nights they broadcast live at 10pm, and these guys have a really entertaining show that I recommend jumping in the live chat for. It's a lot of fun. Just this past Monday they had "Bing!" Ned Ryerson, Stephen Tobolowsky on as a guest (some of you may know him better as Bob Bishop on NBC's Heroes). If you're not familiar with this guys work, hit his imdb and make some random selections, this guy is great in just about everything.

The point of all this ass kissing is to point you 14:30 into the podcast where Stephen acts out the Matrix: Reloaded. It is hilarious and made me want to go back and rewatch the movie, using my incredible imaginative powers to envision Stephen Tobolowsky as Neo (Wachowski's, you can both thank me later when The Matrix: Revisions puts your careers back on track). I actually happen not to hate Reloaded. I thought it was at least watchable, although I suppose it didn't do too much for me as I never saw the third (although I still plan to).

Let me know what you think of Tobolowsky's take on the film, and please do drop by /film to check out their podcast. They had Kevin Smith on as a guest a couple weeks ago to review The Dark Knight, and it was great.