KEVIN SMITH

Started by cowboykurtis, April 04, 2003, 09:56:02 PM

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Pubrick

highlight of the highlights: 2000
under the paving stones.

bluejaytwist

fat guys really need to stop wearing pant/shorts
its not helping the cause
cigarettes & red vines - pt anderson definitive resource
http://cigsandredvines.blogspot.com

fortyfps productions
http://www.fortyfps.com

pete

is there a pattern for fat directors to want to instigate publicity-related confrontations?  I can only think of Michael Moore and Kevin Smith, and to a lesser exten, Ratner (he's only just a bit overweight), but we get a list going?
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

MacGuffin

More on Kevin Smith's Horror Flick
Source: Cinematical

The other day, rumors were swirling regarding Kevin Smith's next project. Apparently, Smith was asked about this during a Q&A session (one of about 5,000 the dude does each year) and his answer surprised a lot of people: Silent Bob was planning on directing a horror film. Say what? Horror? Kevin Smith? Of course, with little info to go by, folks immediately began speculating as to what type of horror film Smith would take on.

Well, since news travels real fast, the question was once again raised when Smith and the gang recently returned to Red Bank, New Jersey to screen the original Clerks, as part of that whole Netflix Rolling Roadshow thing. This time, fans zeroed in on the horror film, forcing Smith to go into a bit more detail. He revealed his next project will indeed be a horror film, though admitted it was at least two years away from hitting theaters. When pressed to explain what type of horror flick, the writer-director insisted it would be "straight horror" and not some Jay and Silent Bob Return from the Dead sort of thing. According to Smith via a tipster (who is paraphrasing), "Its gonna have all of the horror you'd expect, blood and guts...and tits. No, no, no, not that, I'm talkin' about man tits. What? What's so bad about man tits? I have tits! They're sexy! And hairy ... but, yeah, I'm doin' a horror movie."

Smith also claimed to be shooting the entire thing in Los Angeles, meaning he would finally be leaving New Jersey ... though, I'm not so sure that's a good thing. After all, New Jersey needs a great horror film -- I've often found myself scared to death while driving through some parts of the state. I mean, have you ever tried to make a left turn in Jersey? Talk about hanging on for dear life -- there's a horror flick just dying to be unleashed.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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modage

if his de-evolution as a filmmaker continues, and this manages to be somehow worse than clerks 2, this will go straight to video (if it ever gets made). 
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

MacGuffin

Interview : Kevin Smith
Source: MovieHole

Writer/director Kevin Smith doesn't even attempt to come up with an interesting answer for what inspired a sequel to his 1994 hit, "Clerks". Quite simply, says the infamously amusing filmmaker, he "ran out of ideas".

After the colossal failure of his Ben Affleck/Jennifer Lopez starring rom-com "Jersey Girl" – based on Smith's own relationship with his daughter - Smith – best known for his slightly more edgier, significantly more infantile comedies like "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" and "Dogma" – decided to return to where it all started: At a convenience-mart with sirs Dante and Randall.

Smith doesn't see it as a step-back, and he's not returning to his comfort zone because his last film tanked.

"Some people think that since Jersey Girl didn't work I went back to this, but that's only partially true", explains Smith. "Yes, Jersey Girl played a role, just not in the way people think. About half way through filming that one I decided I didn't want to work with famous people [anymore]. It's not because of Ben and Jen, but all the weird baggage that comes with working with famous people.

"Whenever we were talking about the movie, the press only wanted to talk about the big pink diamond ring [that Ben had bought Jen]. They kept asking what it's like to be with them. I was like 'Ask them'! I don't know the inner workings of their bodies or their minds. They'd ask me because they can't get in touch with them.

"I spent two years working on a story I wanted to tell and people were more interested in the back story than the story itself. Maybe that's because Jersey Girl didn't work, but maybe it's because those people were way more famous and it was a fairly conventional story. I decided next time that I want to work with unknown people because then people will concentrate on the movie itself. That turned into Clerks, which was a happy medium because unless these guys start screwing each other they aren't going to be in US Weekly. If they were, it might be good for the movie in a post-Brokeback era.

Granted, Ben Affleck does have a role in "Clerks II" – but it's very small, and initially, it was going to be even smaller.

"He wanted to be part of it, so he asked if he could be a background extra, but he wanted to get paid for it. I told him Gigli must have tanked harder than I thought", Smith, who constantly takes the piss out of his friend Affleck, laughs. "I told him to come on out, but I knew he would want some dialogue. He came out and shot his scene, which was just him reacting in the background and we shot it twice and got it right and then he came up to me and said it felt like he should say something. I said, "Of course you do, here's a line of dialogue for you."

Smith, who says Matt Damon was also asked to appear in the film but had to decline the offer to do a role in a De Niro film he was doing, explains that the film would only have made sense if it were again headlined by the original stars, Brian O'Halloran and Jeff Anderson as the slacker cashiers of the original film.

"I thought since Clerks is a story about what it's like to be in my twenties, why not use Dante and Randall as the way-in again? It's nice. There is a built-in poignancy of showing those guys 10 years later, especially if you open up your head, why not use the dudes who helped you the first time around, the characters particularly.

A slightly more familiar face, actress Rosario Dawson, joins the cast of the sequel. Smith says he never expected someone of Dawson's - she's starred in everything from "Men in Black 2" to "Rent" – calibre to even consider appearing in his rather immature comedy. It was a mutual love of everything 'nerdy' that had the attractive actress chomping at the bit to do the movie, though.

"Very few women know about comic books and no one who looks like Rosario knows black and white independent comic books. Even though she's a goddess she makes you feel like she's normal. The first conversation I had with her was about anal bleaching", laughs Smith.

Obviously, considering his brand of humour, Smith hasn't grown up too much – and he likes it no other way. He's not at all pretentious, he says, and regularly questions whether he's advanced at all in his storytelling skills.

"I was trying to figure out when and if I ever crossed the threshold to adulthood. I work in a business that affords you a very extended adolescence. I make pretend for a living. It's not a real job like a mail man or a doctor. I had the first movie picked up when I was 23 so I'm not sure if I ever became an adult. I have a wife and kid and house, but I'm not sure I'm an adult. I realized I became an adult when I did Clerks. Becoming a man isn't at a bar mitzvah, it's when you make that decision to do that thing that you wouldn't have done 10 minutes ago or 10 years ago, that changes your life forever. I wanted to give these characters that opportunity. I feel a great debt to Dante and Randall because they made my career. That's why the movie is like it is. They see they've grown up. It sneaks up on you and happens."

As a thanks to the many fans who have stuck with him through thick and thin – and "Jersey Girl" – Smith got to give a little something back this time, offering the viewers a chance to be involved in his film. Kinda.

"It was weird, we did this thing for the myspace people, where the first 10,000 people that signed up for the page got in the end credits for the movie – which is really cool, because when the movie ends, there's this crawl with all the names, but it goes bloody fast. It looks like you're looking at the Matrix code. The strange thing, as of the Saturday morning [after the release of the film], there were 10,000 new IMDB pages", he laughs.

And is this the last Clerks? "For now it is, but I'll never say never again after Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. If we somehow open huge and Harvey Weinstein wants Clerks 3 right away I would tell him I have nothing now, but if I hit my forties and have something to say I might consider it. I feel like these two are nice bookends now. Maybe one day, but I'm not ready yet. I have to get better as a filmmaker before I take something like that on."

One of Smith's big interests is comic books, and though he'd love to make a comic book movie one day – he was initially attached to write the film version of "The Green Hornet" – he says he doesn't feel as if he's talented enough to pull it off.

"I'm just not wired that way. I didn't get into films to make comic book movies. I love comic books and watching those movies, but I had the opportunity to do the Green Hornet thing and I just couldn't do it. I knew I would fail so why should I start? It would be like someone asking me to play a guy with a 10-inch dick. I'm not equipped to do that!", he laughs.

"I was so flattered to be asked to do Green Hornet, but it's like asking me to do Schindler's List. I just can't do it and I took a lot of shit on the internet about that. Green Hornet was a radio show and then later a TV show in the 60s so there is no built-in audience under 80 for that. The show was horrible too. It was really an uphill battle. People wanted Kato to be a girl, but Kato is not a girl. I met with the toy people and they showed me the toys they designed already and it didn't look right at all.

Next up, the director appears in the comedy "Catch and Release". "That's with Jennifer Garner and Timothy Olyphant. I'm just acting in it, I didn't write it or direct it, or anything like that. So if you've heard it's fabulous, that's why – I didn't direct it".
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

Smith on his upcoming horror movie
Source: Moviehole

Filmmaker Kevin Smith touched down in Australia this week to promote the bejesus out of his comedy "Clerks 2". Moviehole's Mark Bennett - an out and out horror buff – was so keen to find out about Smith's upcoming horror film (announced it a couple of weeks back), that he decided to tie him to a chair, and threatened to play his scenes from "Vulgar" on loop, if he didn't give up the goods.

"Next up I want to do a horror movie. I just think it would be kinda interesting – for me at least – to go left. I've made seven comedies, or variation thereof, and some people would argue that none of them are funny. But it would be nice to make a horror movie. An intentional horror movie, not like Jersey Girl. [much laughter]. It's a genre that I grew up watching on VHS and on cable when I was a kid", said Smith.

"No jokes and stuff, not like Scary Movie 4. There are people that do that really well, like Edgar Wright with Shaun of the Dead, but I don't want to make a comedic one, I want to make a straight-forward horror movie.

"It'll be a bit of slasher, but I'm kinda looking more at ... you remember that movie Race With The Devil? It's more kind of in that vein. Or Wicker Man. Something in that vein where it's creepy and unsettling more than gore."

Smith says some of his favourite horror movies include "The Shining, Halloween. I'll pretty much for anything that I came of age watching. You know, the '70s-'80s slasher genre. The current crop of horror movies not nearly as much. There seems to be a lot of remakes and whatnot. A lot of "Let's do Texas Chainsaw. Again. And let's do The Hills Have Eyes again." I'm sure there's probably ripe material out there. A lot of things are more horrible than a dude in a mask trying to stab you. [inaudible – something like, You can look it up in the newspaper and pull it out of there]. So I'm kinda going for that. The one thing I'm happy about is the idea that I have, I haven't seen it done before."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

Will Kevin Smith Direct Again? Filmmaker Talks Sequels And Nudity
'Some people will tell you I peaked with "Chasing Amy," ' co-star of this month's 'Catch and Release' says.
Source: MTV

Kevin Smith loves to make references to the number 37 in his movies, but the New Jersey filmmaker had his busiest year ever at age 36.

From writing and directing "Clerks II" to co-starring in this month's "Catch and Release," Smith said 2006 left him "bushed." Given the chance, though, the man they call Silent Bob loves to talk. Smith recently spoke with MTV News about his new life as someone else's sidekick, the future of the View Askewniverse and what he just won't do with his shirt off.

MTV: What was it like performing a script that wasn't yours?

Kevin Smith: It's heaven on earth, sir. No responsibilities except for your performance. You're never worrying about where the camera is, you're never worrying about [when to] cut. But sitting around, waiting to act sucks. 'Cause when I'm working on my stuff, I'm on set all the time. But being an actor, you shoot a master and then you're off camera pretty much all day. Or you go back to your trailer when they're setting up shots. There's a lot of downtime. I wound up watching a lot of f---ing movies on "Catch and Release."

MTV: Would you say experiencing that downtime is something that'll change you as a director?

Smith: Absolutely. We went into "Clerks II" maybe three or four months after we finished "Catch and Release." I took that lesson with me — I'll never let the actors sit around. If they're not shooting, they're home. They don't need to be sitting around the set. I tried to work them harder and quicker, so I could get them out of there earlier. Other than that, I'd been doing this, what, 11 years at that point. So there wasn't much to learn that I hadn't [already] learned. Although, I sat there on "Catch and Release" and was just like, "God, [director] Susannah [Grant], first-time filmmaker, better visual director than I am already, 11 years in." She really knows what to do with the camera.

MTV: You talk about the film as if the whole thing was made easy for you. Was there an aspect that was most challenging?

Smith: Squeezing into those f---ing tie-dyed shirts without layers. I'm a layers guy, man. I'm always wearing a top on top of a top, or an overcoat just to hide everything. It was a rather naked performance for me.

MTV: Interesting, because on IMDb it says you picked out your own wardrobe. So that's not true?

Smith: Not really. There were one or two times I asked them, "Could I wear a jersey over one of these shirts?" But other than that, no. You concede to whoever's in charge. I mean there are some times where you'll kinda draw a line in the sand, where you're just like, "Look, this is going to make me way more comfortable in the performance if you allow me this." Like Susannah in the massage scene was like, "I'm gonna need you to take your shirt off." I told Susannah that I don't take my shirt off for my wife, and we've been married almost eight years. You think I'm going to do it here on camera? Forget it, man. I'll never live it down on the Internet. That sh-- lives forever.

MTV: That scene is hysterical, can you talk a little about it?

Smith: Juliette Lewis, one of the best f---ing actresses on the planet, it's real easy to just sink into a scene with her. She was just sitting around, talking on set and then all of a sudden she'd say something not apropos to the conversation and I'd realize we were in the middle of a scene. She's just so natural. She can take anything on the page and make it sound like it's coming from the top of her head.

You know what's really weird about [the scene] too, she's crawling on my back and I just can't help but think, you know, this is the chick from "Cape Fear." I saw that movie in theaters years ago, before I was ever a filmmaker. Never once in a million years did I think, "One day that broad is going to be kneeling on my back."

MTV: You still have moments like that?

Smith: Oh, all the time, sir. Those moments never go away. They go away with the people that you came up with. Like, I'm never standing opposite Ben Affleck and going, "I can't believe I'm talking to the 'Bounce' guy." I've known that dude for a while. But the people I watched before becoming a filmmaker, you still feel kinda weird. There's still this "You're famous" thing going on.

MTV: You recently did work on "Live Free or Die Hard" and directed a sequel yourself this year. Is there pressure to always make the follow-up film better?

Smith: No, no, because I think that sets you up for a big fall. Some others will tell you different, that you should try to always strive to be better. With "Clerks II," I just wanted it to be an excellent companion piece to the first movie, 'cause you'll never be better than that first movie. Me, I just wanted to bookend that series very nicely. I wanted you to be able to sit down, watch "Clerks" and then "Clerks II" and, aside from the obvious color difference, not be like, "Oh man, one was made by a dude who lived in his parents' house, one was made by a dude who lived in Ben Affleck's house."

MTV: It almost sounds like you're saying that you peaked with "Clerks."

Smith: Some people will tell you that, sir. I mean, jump on the Internet. Some people will tell you I peaked with "Chasing Amy," then there's a small portion who'll tell you I peaked with "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back." I don't feel like I peaked with "Clerks," but that movie was significant and special. There are movies that are more special to me, and I can understand why they're more special to the audience.

There's a big identity factor working in "Clerks" ' favor. Because you look at that flick and you say, "Sh--, I could make that movie." You root for it a little bit. You get that the first time out. You don't get that again.

MTV: How much does fear play a part in your creative process?

Smith: Big time, absolutely. You're always kind of second guessing yourself to some degree. Like, making "Clerks" — it was an absolutely fearless place to make a movie from, same with "Chasing Amy." I find it's always best to make a flick after you're coming off an unsuccessful flick. Like "Clerks II" was so f---ing liberating because we came off of "Jersey Girl," and there was no place to go but up. I think the failures are just as useful. It absolutely blows and feels horrible and hurts your feelings, but something good always comes out of it. I tend to be a lot more fearless coming off something that not everyone liked.

MTV: And, of course, "Clerks II" was a big success.

Smith: I think that's what might be daunting about doing another movie. Do you do more of the same?

MTV: And yet you've created this universe very much like "Star Wars" mastermind George Lucas ...

Smith: Although not nearly as lucrative. It's provided me a healthy living, but George Lucas is insanely wealthy and created something from scratch. Really, all I did was just hold up a mirror to my own universe. This dude created Wookiees and sh--.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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Mikey B

Quote from: MacGuffin on January 19, 2007, 12:07:12 PM
MTV: How much does fear play a part in your creative process?

Smith: Big time, absolutely.
Kevin Smith, a film maker you can believe in. Ok, bad joke. I overall a majority of his work, really I do.
I Stole SiliasRuby's DVD Collection

Pubrick

Quote from: Mikey B on January 19, 2007, 02:44:02 PM
I overall a majority of his work, really I do.
you didn't actually say anything there, silias.

if you're gonna make a new identity you should at least try to make it less stupid than your last one. otherwise what's the point? you wanted to be ridiculed under a different name?
under the paving stones.

meatwad


MacGuffin

Smith deals with the devil for 'Reaper' pilot
Source: Production Weekly

Kevin Smith is set to direct the CW pilot "Reaper," a comedic drama about Sam Oliver, a 21-year-old slacker who learns that at birth his parents sold his soul to the devil and now has to pay the debt by becoming the Satan's bounty hunter, retrieving souls escaped from hell. Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters wrote the project; that will film for two weeks in Vancouver, beginning March 12th.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

Selected Readings From "My Boring Ass Life"
Sunday, March 11, 2007 Update by Kevin Smith

That's right! We finally secured funding for the sixth film in the Jersey Trilogy, tentatively titled "Derogatory Term For Slacker Twentysomethings: Funny Word After Colon." We're currently tinkering with the tag line - I suggested "Just because they do something doesn't mean they have to do something," but corporate's pushing for "Punchy, two-sentence sarcastic comment. Balls." After fighting all this time for just for permission to do the project I'm inclined to let them win the battle, but we'll see what the future brings.

Of course, when you're dealing with the suits there's bound to be some bad news. I'm sad to announce that, at this point, only 85 or so of the actors from my previous movies have signed on to be a part of "Derogatory Term". I really hope that number rises - coaching newcomers to talk for five minutes straight without breathing can be a chore - and nobody's saying that's not going to happen. I just know it takes a true friend to rail my supermodel wife on camera. If it weren't for them, well, I don't know what I'd do. Sometimes I honestly feel like Darth Vader walking through Mordor while Magneto's trying to give him a handjob. I'm lucky in that my friends are constantly around to show me love and support, even when times are tight and I can only afford to buy them one new car a month.

I'm getting too mushy here so I'll sign off. I just wanted to share the good news with my true fans, you readers. Until next time...
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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MacGuffin

Kevin Smith Reveals Horror Project
Source: ComingSoon

The long-discussed "Kevin Smith horror project" has been given an identity for his fans to latch on to. During a conversation with a UK-correspondent from Rotten Tomatoes, Smith - who last helmed Clerks II - says that once he has completed a comedy that's currently keeping him busy, he'll be moving on to Red State with the intention to begin filming somewhere in middle America (a "true red state") later this year. Although Smith has touted the film as something horrifying, he insists others, in the end, may not agree.

Red State, according to Smith, takes its inspiration from Fred Phelps, a Kansas preacher of the Westboro Baptist Church who recently became the center of a documentary because of his, and his congregation's, eyebrow-raising belief system. "The notion of using a Phelps-like character as a villain, as horrifying and scary as that guy can be, there's even something more insidious than him that lurks out there in as much as a public or a government that allows it and that's the other thing that I'm trying to examine in a big, big way," Smith tells the site.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


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meatwad

Quote from: MacGuffin on March 11, 2007, 04:22:53 PM
I just know it takes a true friend to rail my supermodel wife on camera.

who's going to break it to him that his wife is not hot at all