Here's an entertaining read folks, and I'm (Harry'm) is here to introduce it. One bit that I hadn't seen before (but may have missed) was the possibility of trying to fit Chevy Chase into the Kevin Smith FLETCH film which is the alleged post Bob & Jay experience. Read up....
Hey Harry,
Last night (Thursday) the Academy hosted the Marvin Borowsky Lecture at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills with the "guest speaker" being Kevin Smith. As I'm guessing most his appearances are, this "lecture" turned out to be a close-to-three-hour Q & A with Kevin. Overall, not too many revelations about VA5 or the future in particular, but Kevin did discuss in depth how he got into film, his experiences with Ben Affleck, Jason Lee, etc. Here's a brief rundown of the night.
Kevin took the stage carrying his brand new daughter up there with him. As he started speaking the baby started jacking around with the mike and was eventually dragged off-stage by Kevin's [hot] wife, during which he made the comment, "That [woman] was who I... fucked to get that baby." And that pretty much set the mood for the entire night.
He then broke into a self-effacing speech (which he did a lot of throughout the night) about how weird it is for him to be at a function in his name put on by the Academy. He made a comment along the lines of, "I just want to take the time now to thank the Academy... since this is probably the closest I'll ever come to being recognized by them."
He then started taking questions from the audience. One of the first tangents he got off on was about Jason Lee. He explained Lee's fascination with "porn" and "Burt Reynolds"--not porn or Burt Reynolds as objects or as a person, but the CONCEPT of both of 'em. Lee apparently likes to use both those concepts as adjectives. He'd say stuff on set like "Let's get in the porno van..." or "That was so fucking Burt Reynolds, man." So when BOOGIE NIGHTS came out Lee was in heaven. Apparently he has the same fascination with the AOL voice saying "You've got mail" when he signs on-line. I guess you had to be there to really make sense of all of this.... Basically, he went off on all of this to clear up the misconception that most people have about Lee--that he IS the characters he plays--and how he's really the opposite in real life.
When asked about why Silent Bob speaks in one of the films, Kevin explained how it all was an accident. Apparently, the line in question was supposed to be Jay's (Mewes'), but the night of the shoot he was stoned out of his mind and Kevin (or Silent Bob, I guess) ended up having to deliver the line for him. So that led to all the interpretations of how Silent Bob breaks the silence and how what he says means so much. But no... Silent Bob really only speaks cuz of Jay's toking habit.
And then there were some questions regarding DOGMA. Kevin explained how he had always wanted to do a film about God. Apparently, the original title he came up with for DOGMA was actually GOD. He said he's "A big fan of God" and made the film "for" him/her. That got a big applause, which Kevin quieted down with one of the best lines of the night, "Don't applaud, Jesus isn't here. Jesus don't come to LA." Needless to say, that got a huge response. Also on the DOGMA topic, he told the story of how when the film came out groups were picketing and protesting it and how he and a friend went down to a theater in New Jersey to join the crowd and protest the film. He explained how they made signs that read, "To Hell With DOGMA" and "DOGMA Is Dog Shit" and went down to the theater, only to find a news team covering the event, and eventually ending up interviewing Kevin (still in cognito) as! h! ! e told the reporters how the movie was inappropriate, etc. After the report he went home and watched himself diss his own film on the channel 12 news.
Then came a long spiel about SUPERMAN LIVES. Not going to go into detail, but he told a story that must've gone on for 20 minutes about the adventures he had with studio execs and the producer of the film--and his obsessive request for a spider in the film (yeah, a spider). The producer felt he HAD to put a spider in a film at the time, and since SUPERMAN died, he got his damn spider in WILD WILD WEST (which he also produced). You gotta hear the whole story... it's great!
When asked about FLETCH, Kevin said that right now they're all tied up in "VA5 hell," so there's not much talk of what's to come after it. He DID say, however, that he WILL make FLETCH in the near future. There was a question of whether Chevy Chase would be in it, to which Kevin replied that while there hasn't been much thought/talk put into that he might bring Chevy in to do a voice-over role--a flash-back-type/story-teller deal.
In the last stretch of the Q & A, Kevin got asked by a few people about his influences and films that he can watch over and over and over. The ones he mentioned as being able to watch over and over were THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, THE UNTOUCHABLES, JAWS, DO THE RIGHT THING, and THE CUTTING EDGE (yeah, that ice-skating flick with Moira Kelly and D. B. Sweeney). Oh, and also a new home video that Jay Mewes made just recently. As a lead-in, Kevin told us that Jay just got engaged. He taped his proposal and the "celebratory fuck" that soon followed. Kevin watched the tapes immediately and apparently has watched them over and over again since.
As that last bit of story got a huge response, Kevin used it to close off the night as the Academy folks were kicking us out of the theater. Gotta say that Kevin Smith is one of the most intriguing/talented story tellers I've ever seen speak. He seems like a modest, personable kinda guy with a lot of stories dying to be spilled.
Hope you find at least some of this information entertaining/useful.
Snootch to the nootch,
Natch
