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!

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?

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?