"Clerks" director's askew view is blogworthy

LOS ANGELES — Kevin Smith's life is an open blog.

At least, it has been since March 2005. In near-daily Internet diary entries for the past two-plus years, he wrote candidly about his friend Jason Mewes' heroin addiction, movie and TV pitches, even sex (and sometimes the lack thereof) with his wife Jennifer.

The filmmaker and self-described "raconteur" became a reporter of sorts — posting personal e-mails and quotes. He's so thorough, some friends and studio executives have lately begun stopping in midconversation to go "off the record."

"I get a lot of disclaimers," he says. "People do tend to be a bit more circumspect, I think. ... And it's my own fault because I do tend to tell a lot of stories. I guess that's the downside to the whole thing."

The diary has now been printed out and stuck between two soft covers to become Smith's second book, "My Boring-Ass Life."

He remains unsure why anybody would want to buy the thing; he couldn't even bring himself to page through the whole tome during the proofreading process.

"This is big. It's long. I don't want to read this," he recalled thinking. "I'd be shocked if anyone buys a copy of the book. I'm like why? ... It's online! You can get it for free."

The 37-year-old New Jersey native figures his book will be for "passers-by" to the View Askewniverse — not the hard-core fans that have sustained his career so far.

It's the right time for that. His next two movies are set outside of the world of Jay and Silent Bob. And he has no plans to revive them or any of the "Clerks" or "Mallrats" characters or plot points. Ever.

"After 'Clerks II' I felt like that was the way to end it," he said. "Aside from worrying about whether Jay and Silent Bob would outlive their welcome, also just getting too old and fat to play Silent Bob anymore, it just felt like that was a nice way to bookend it: Start with 'Clerks' and end with 'Clerks II,' and that would be the end of the Askewniverse Chronicles as they were."

He expects his fans are fine with the finishing move: "I think at this point they're kind of over it too. ... At the end of the day I thought maybe it's time to just let these characters go and just start making movies that aren't interconnected."

Those non-interconnected films would be "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" and "Red State."

Smith is now in the casting process for "Zack and Miri" and in typical fashion has found himself blogging about who WON'T be one of his lead actors. Jason Bateman was rumored to have been considered for the part, and Smith dismissed that with a blog entry in which he described the only time he'd met the "Arrested Development" star, when he spotted Bateman eating at a Baja Fresh restaurant in Los Angeles.

"I opted to bug the guy while he was eating and tell him how much I loved the show and his work on it, opening with the standard 'I hate to bother you, but ... ' Thankfully, he didn't seem bothered, saying 'Thanks, Kev,' as I was heading off."

It's typical Smith — a geeky fan-boy at heart, connected enough to his own fans to take the time to squelch a rumor with a self-deprecating tale.

"Everything becomes a long anecdote," he acknowledges. "I'm sure people are like, 'Just cut to the chase, dude. What happened?' But it's about the presentation."

That presentation sometimes comes back to bite him.

"There have been times when I've been like, 'God I wish I didn't say that,' " he says. Smith recently thought he'd secured a deal to guest-direct an episode of "Battlestar Galactica" and talked about it excitedly in a TV interview. He found out later that he'd taken too long to give the OK and the series had gone with another director.

"So then I did kind of (screw) myself. Then it was like they said he was doing it and now he's not. What's the conspiracy? There was no conspiracy. It was just ill information and poor timing."

Because he is a fan-boy, he knows how to dribble out information slowly but steadily enough to keep the cult fans intrigued. He describes his script for "Red State," still far from production, as different from anything he's done before. The title signifies both blood and conservative politics.

"Technically it would be political horror. Which sounds kind of off-putting and the movie is, or the script is. It's very bleak," he said. "It's tough to call it horror because it doesn't have all the tenets that a typical horror film has. It doesn't have all the identifying factors of a typical horror flick. ... When people think of horror films now they think of slasher films. Or Freddy Krueger or any number of the Japanese film remakes. This is more along the lines of a 'Rosemary's Baby' kind of horror movie."

As those two movies putter along, Smith keeps himself entertained with his new iPhone (on a pay-as-you-go plan so he can watch his dollars melt away while talking), his Nintendo DS (he just beat Super Mario Bros. 3), and by directing the pilot for the CW series "Reaper."

And finally, he listens to his own weekly "SModcast" in which he banters with producer and friend Scott Mosier.

"SModcast is my favorite thing in the world right now. I like that more than making the movies. ... If I'm ever feeling down lately, I just go listen to a SModcast ... I don't sit there laughing at myself. Sometimes I do. But Scott really is the one that makes me laugh."