How hard is it to cast 'A Porno'?

Posted Tuesday, August 14, 2007 at 4:56 PM Central

by John Couture

Considering our fascination with all things Kevin Smith, it's surprising that we've been so quiet on the Zack and Miri Make a Porno casting front. The short answer is that there's been plenty of speculation, but few hard facts.

We know that Jason Mewes has a part in it, but that he's not playing Zack and that he won't be reprising his infamous Jay character. We know that due to scheduling conflicts Rosario Dawson had to pass on Miri.

Other than that, we know it will film in January, in Minnesota and that snow features prominently in the flick. Today, the rumor du jour, courtesy of AICN, is that Jason Bateman has been tapped to play Zack.

Now, Smith has said that the male lead is someone that he admires and hasn't had the pleasure of working with yet. Bateman certainly fits the bill, but at 39 at the time of filming, he will have a hard time pulling off a late 20s entrepreneur in the making.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan Bateman and thought his cameo in Smokin' Aces was plain comic gold, but there might be more interesting Zacks out there.

This isn't a full-fledged "Perfect 10" list, but here's a few cats that we'd love to see show up in a Kevin Smith flick.

• Zach Braff - He's got that certain charm that would feel right at home in an Askew production. Perhaps, he wrote the Zack part with Zach in mind, it's only one letter off.
• Seth Rogen - Sure, he's the current comic "it" dude, but don't think that we didn't salivate just a little bit when his named surfaced on The Green Hornet.
• Ryan Reynolds - Maybe there's some jealousy residue left over from Ryan's time with Alanis Morissette, but seriously this would be a great pairing. I don't care what you say, I like Van Wilder's comic stylings.
• Justin Long - I don't know why, but ever since I heard about this project, I've been envisioning Justin as Zack. Perhaps Zack isn't a lovable loser, but if he is maybe Kev can pull some of that Live Free or Die Hard charm and get the gang back together.
• Ashton Kutcher - Seriously, think about it. Kev and Bruce Willis got tight on the Die Hard 4 set and Bruce is creepily close to the young actor who is sleeping with his ex-wife. He might be too similar to Mewes in appearance though if Mewes has a big part.
• Seth Green - Ever since Seth was tangentially connected to Mallrats as a possible replacement for Mewes in the Jay role, I've been hoping that these two Star Wars freaks would get married on-screen in their stormtrooper gear. Seth's talents are vastly underrated and Kev could do for him what he did for Affleck.

Now, sure these are simply the opinions of one fan boy who's seen Dogma one too many times, but tell me that I'm wrong. It should be noted that Smith is a notoriously avid surfer of the 'Net and he usually shoots down false rumors faster than Jay making like a circus seal, but he has remained curiously quiet on the Bateman rumor.

As always, the best spot on the web for up-to-date Kev news is NewsAskew.com. We're sure that Kev will set the story straight soon enough.