JULY
July became one of the most exciting months of the year as far as events, especially on the west coast, where several signings and public appearances would become highlights of the year. Early in the month, we confirmed a major cast and creators signing for the new “Spaced” DVD based on the hit BBC series, happening at Stash West & Lazer Blazer. Days later, Kevin would appear at several live events at the San Diego Comic Con.
In tech news, Apple presented their new version of the popular iPhone, the 3G, on Friday July 11th. To celebrate, we rolled out an iPhone-exclusive version of News Askew, which presents a stripped down, iPhone-optimized version of the site made just for owners of the device. When we’re on the road and need to check the site, we use this version ourselves.
Also this month, Brian O’Halloran, a longtime friend of this website, kicked into full promotional mode for his horror comedy “Brutal Massacre”, visiting several local radio stations and continuing down the convention circuit. Later in the month, we gave some DVDs and posters from the film away to lucky readers.
Then, on July 19th, the news we’d been circling was confirmed - The MPAA officially revealed a current NC-17 rating for “Zack and Make a Porno”, yet confirmed that rating was currently “under appeal”. For the third time, Kevin would be taking his case before the mythical ratings board.
As the month came to a close, the “Spaced” signing at the Stash was a major success, with fans lining up around the block to meet Kevin Smith and the “Spaced” crew - Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, and Jessica Hynes. Days later, Kevin was entertaining audiences at the San Diego convention panels, and, in true San Diego fashion, treated us to a major announcement - Along with Walt Flanagan, he’d be making a return to the world of comics with a new “Batman” book.
“Batman: Cacophony” would arrive in the fall as a 3-issue miniseries featuring the caped crusader battling the villain of Kevin’s own creation, Onomatopoeia.
Other panels in San Diego featured Kevin sharing the stage with directorial icons Judd Apatow and Zack Snyder, as well as the entire cast of the great “Battlestar: Galactica”. And, of course, the stars of “Zack And Miri Make a Porno”, onstage together for the first time.
The press ate all of this up, with videos and stories from across the country taking over the web at the end of July — Once again, in 2008, Kevin Smith and everything he touched became a San Diego Con highlight.
AUGUST
While the kudos from San Diego continued, another milestone was taking place relating to the comic world - Wizard Magazine celebrated its 10th anniversary with a major issue, featuring tons of coverage from Kevin’s past and future comic efforts, including his breakthrough “Guardian Devil” Daredevil series, one of the flagship offerings in the Marvel Knights line.
For the first time, in an interview, Kevin confirmed that he’d be taking “Zack and Miri” before the MPAA appeals board, after trimming out footage he felt he’d be willing to lose, still finding the film slapped with that dreaded NC-17. Focus remained on that film, with funding for “Red State” not yet obtained — However, “Red State” would still remain on the radar as the next film project, hopefully for 2009.
Mere days later, Kevin once again spoke on the rating — As an R. His appeal before the board was victorious, having an MPAA rating overturned without cuts for a record third time.
That following weekend, a victorious Smith made his way back to New Jersey to receive a lifetime achievement award at the Downbeach Film Festival. Later in the month, he’d also be presented with the Vision Award from the Director’s Guild of America.
The big news continued to roll with the announcement that “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” was selected as one of the films to host its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. The screening immediately became one of the hottest, most sought-after tickets in town.
Kevin’s lucky streak continued when he found himself getting quite a bit of press after revealing he’d seen “Watchmen”, one of the most highly anticipated films of 2009, and one of the most long-awaited comic book adaptations of all time. By the end of 2009, a Fox lawsuit would have the film’s planned March 2009 release in jeopardy, making Kevin’s early look all the more enticing.
In other comics news, the first issue of “Batman Cacophony” now had a release date - November 12th, 2008. Fans across the world immediately put their orders in, anticipating a fast sell on the book and its rare variant covers.
With tickets going on sale, Toronto area fans were scooping up their rare chances to be among the first to see “Porno”. Fans in the Texas area rejoiced when it was announced the film would arrive at another festival, “Fantastic Fest”, in Austin one week later. Words on a rumored New York area benefit also gave a handful of lucky fans a shot at joining the festival crowds for a chance to see the flick almost two months early.
And as fans across the country were excited to get their first look at the movie, the first of that seemingly unavoidable View Askew controversy was about to begin…
SEPTEMBER
After the longest drought for footage in View Askew history, just like that, it was over — On the afternoon of September 2nd, the R-rated, web only trailer for “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” hit our sites, giving us all our first look at real jokes and scenes from the film. It was easily the most hilarious trailer we’d ever seen in View Askew history. Excitement reached a fever pitch among fans and newcomers. The R-rated trailer, unfortunately, would not make it in time to screen in theaters. A “green band” all audiences trailer would soon follow.

Shortly after, rumblings of what would soon become a much larger concern - The official poster for the movie, which showed the two leads opposite one another with the tops of their heads at a suggestive location below the waist, was deemed unacceptable for US theaters. In Canada, the poster went forward and planned. Was it the word “Porno” causing the issue? Investigations into a similar, yet more suggestive poster for “Good Luck Chuck” proved that other studios had gotten away with much worse in recent years.
With the Toronto screening, the world at large was, for the first time, witness to “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”, and the response was even greater than we’d hoped. The widely-respected “Variety” lauded the film, praising its humor and the chemistry between the two leads. Many more reviews from leading websites, publications, and fans followed, with an overwhemingly positive response, the most universal we’d ever seen. Top film critic Roger Ebert couldn’t contain his excitement for the film after seeing it in Toronto, posting glowing comments for it months in advance of his official review.
With the starting line now in sight for “Porno”, interviews with Kevin started focusing on what might come next. As of September, the upcoming slate would be “Red State”, if funding came through, followed by an untitled space comedy, we were told.
October 31st was the date circled on fans’ calendars, then an announcement had us circling another one close by — On October 21st, just 10 days before “Porno” hit theaters, Kevin’s third Q&A DVD outing, “Threevening”, would become available in the US. The program was filmed completely at Kevin’s 37th birthday celebration show in August of 2007.
Hoping to put a stop to the controversy, a new one-sheet theatrical poster was revealed on the 12th of September. The poster took a simplistic approach by using stick figures to represent the leads, along with the statement “Seth Rogen & Elizabeth Banks made a movie so titillating that we can only show you this drawing”. Would it be enough to appease those who would attack the film? Time would tell.
The Austin, Texas “Fantastic Fest” screening the following week proved that the Toronto screening wasn’t a fluke - Once again universal praise on the film from audience members, a tough group including fans on some of the most critical sites on the web. This “Porno” was a true crowd pleaser, there was no doubt about it.
As September came to a close, with just a little over a month to go until the theatrical release, television spots for “Zack and Miri” started to appear in strategic time slots across the major networks. The press blitz had begun…
OCTOBER
Release month had arrived, and the talk of the View Askew world was the soon to be unleashed “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”. Kevin started the month appearing at a few select, special screenings of the film, including a major event in Woodstock, NY, where he was also presented with an award, the “Maverick Award”.
As we waited for the oddly MIA “Money Shots” web shorts to promote “Porno”, word came that a full length documentary was created by experts Zak Knutson and Joey Figueraa, tentatively titled “Perversion for Profit”. This would follow the tradition of their acclaimed “Snowball Effect” documentary which appeared on the Clerks X DVD, a true highlight. “Money Shots”, however, was tied up in MPAA negotiations. Much like the previous made for the net promotional materials, the videos were forced to have an MPAA stamp of approval and thus, some edits were needed. In the many years of creating web exclusive content to promote View Askew films, it was the first time this had happened. “Money Shots” would finally premiere on October 7th, with a rush of shorts appearing online almost daily leading up to the movie’s release.
Kevin continued to promote “Porno” with several new interviews and screenings. After taking the film to Pittsburgh, he revealed in a new interview that the game plan to come was still “Red State” followed by a space-themed comedy, though he had not had a lot of time to pursue funding for the former. At the earliest, a March 2009 start date was planned.

Around halfway through the month, the controversy curse once again revealed its ugly head, as activists in Boston and Philadelphia began to protest the use of the word “Porno” as well as the cartoon drawings being used to market the film, claiming it aimed itself at children. We found it ironic that the marketing images were becoming an issue, considering they would not have looked as they did (cartoonish) were there not prior intervention. As a result, billboards, posters, and even ads for the movie were pulled from public locations and some television broadcasts. Some ads would later even go as far to promote the film as simply “Zack and Miri”, causing a bit of confusion due to the dual title.
While Kevin was busy on the promotional circuit, another major Secret Stash West event was kicking off - On October 21st, Laser Blazer held a major release party in Los Angeles, celebrating the arrival of the long-awaited “Threevening” DVD. Like the two that came before, the disc once again earned glowing reviews for its humor and honesty.
“Zack And Miri” fever began to take over the web, as the first full-length clips from the movie were carefully revealed, showcasing just a few of the movie’s nonstop jokes and sequences. Meanwhile, fan reviews from the various screenings continued to indicate unanimous love for the newest child of View Askew.
And then, on October 31st, 2008 - Halloween - “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” opened across North America to positive reviews from sources such as the New York Times, Time Magazine, Roger Ebert, the Chicago Tribune, Rolling Stone, and more.
NOVEMBER
With reviews from fans and critics at the highest levels ever seen for one of Kevin’s films, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” was a critical success for sure, but what would the box office numbers say? When the dust settled, at the end of the weekend, the movie had grossed a lower than expected $10,065,630. Speculation up to release weekend had projected a higher gross, so experts were quite surprised. It was later revealed that the box office has traditionally had extremely slow weekends when Halloween has falled on a Friday, a stat that no one had thought to look up previously. Plus, confusion over the film’s multiple titles and last minute changes to marketing tactics had the public a bit confused. Unfortunately, a perfect storm of problems for a movie that the industry had projected would fare much better.
Despite lower than expected returns, “Porno” would ironically go on to become the highest grossing View Askew film of all time by the end of 2008, with a domestic take of $31,205,876.
Following the release of the film, Kevin bravely made a trek to the east coast for a long-awaited return to Red Bank’s Count Basie theater, where he opened the show by discussing his thoughts on opening weekend, then went on to spend a few hours in a freeform Q&A discussion, free of planned set story pieces. It was an old school approach to the original Q&A sessions of almost 10 years ago. The following day, Kevin and artist Walt Flanagan held a signing at the historic Stash East, promoting the just-released issue #1 of “Batman Cacophony”.
As November rolled on, the “Batman” book, following in the footsteps of Kevin’s past scripting work, was acclaimed by fans and critics, continuing his track record of breaking sales records and pleasing fans in the comics world.
As he was shocking audiences by baring it all onscreen in “Porno”, Jason Mewes was in the news for two new projects coming into 2009 — Final post-production was happening on his “Silent But Deadly” where he’d play a killer, and news of a role in a high profile studio film “K-11″ starring Nikki Reed and Kristen Stewart.
The Cartoon Network dug up a diamond in the rough by re-airing the classic “Clerks” animated series this month, reminding us just how ahead of its time the show was, causing us to long for new episodes.
DECEMBER
The final month of 2008 started with a glimmer of hope for the M.I.A. “Chasing Amy X” DVD, with word that Criterion was considering releasing a new Bluray version of “Chasing Amy” with all of the new extra material. The new disc would contain all the previous special edition material, along with the new documentary, reuinion Q&A, and more. Criterion has not yet commented.
With “Zack and Miri” winding down in theaters, new appearances in 2009 were announced, including a return to Toronto, Canada — Historically, one of the most popular places on the planet to see Kevin do the live show. After a record time sellout, a second show was added to the agenda.
The WB’s acclaimed “Reaper” program, which Kevin continues to exec-produce, revealed it would return to the airwaves with 13 new episodes, back to back, starting on March 17th.
With the theater to window shrinking with each passing year, a rumored February 10th, 2009 release date for “Zack and Miri Make a Porno” started to make the rounds.
On December 16th, after a 2 month silence, Scott Mosier and Kevin Smith returned to the podcast airwaves with SModcast. In a forthcoming episode series titled “The Talking Cure”, the duo discussed their experiences, highs and lows, with “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”’s release.
As 2008 comes to a close, it’s now time to look ahead to a new year for News Askew and View Askew Productions. Will we see “Red State” or another project go before cameras? What extra goodies and surprises will “Zack And Miri” bring us on DVD in February? Will the success of “Batman: Cacophony” cause Kevin to continue writing comics in the new year? All that, plus rumors of some returns behind TV cameras in the director’s chair, and so much more from Kevin Smith and the entire cast and crew from View Askew Productions.
Here’s to the start of another 12 months of View Askew goodness. A very happy new year 2009 to you all. And thanks for another memorable year.