Posted by ViewAskew408 at proxyout.goosecreek.cisd.esc4.net on November 09, 2000 at 11:41:34:
For the lazy,
"I saw Kevin Smith last night at Emporia State University, Kansas, and got an awful lot of info on upcoming projects.
His involvement with Superman at this time is over. He was first asked to critique a script which he called crap, and was eventually asked to write his own. However, he had to work around a producer (the same who produced Batman, though I can't remember his name) who wanted three unfortunate things: no silly blue suit, no flying, and a fight with a giant spider (because they are the "kings of the insect world"). A funny tie in Kevin mentioned was that this producer was later involved with Wild Wild West.
Even worse, this producer's first choice for the lead was Sean Penn, because his eyes made him look like a "caged killer" in Dead Man Walking. He had obviously never read a single Superman Comic in his life. Anyway, he finally got a script in, they chose Tim Burton as director, and Tim preempted Smith for his own writers and his script was finally shot dead. The death of the Superman movie finally came after they had signed Nick Cage and the budget went over $200 million. One could probably draw a conclusion as to why it was scrapped. Smith has not been asked nor expects to be asked for future commitment.
As far as View Askew 5 is concerned, he let a little slip. The regulars are in as well as Alanis Morissette and this will definitely be the last outing for all of the characters as he doesn't want to over due them. One name he confirmed that would DEFINITELY NOT be in the picture was Linda Fiorentino, as she appears to have been quite a pain during the filming of Dogma. When asked, however, he did say that he was happy with her performance in the movie and wouldn't change a thing.
As far as plot, it seems that at one point there is a road trip theme as they make a brief stop in Kansas. He was asking for the audience members to send in pictures of Kansas towns and cities so that they could get an idea of the various features. Also, he all but confirmed that the spoiler Matt Damon let out during an interview for Bagger Vance was true (they play themselves as scribes who've sold out to Hollywood with a gun-toting "Good Will Hunting II" promo).
Then he let the BIG ONE SLIP! And it wasn't a slip, it was an at- length reply. His previous work on a new Fletch film ended with him not looking forward to working with Chevy Chase, and he talked about what a sad, self-centered person he was. It ended for other reasons than the two of them not getting along, but the Chevy Chase staring film is not in the works any more.
However, the book he is looking at adapting is the 8th in the series titled "Fletch Won" which circles the early days of Fletch and his boost from sports writer to investigative reporter. He said that this obviously calls for a younger Fletch and that Jason Lee was perfect for the role. Smith then said that he and Lee are planning the script and shooting details together while working on VA5 and can't really start on it until VA5 is done. So it looks like this is his next project!"