Behind the Scenes with Kevin Smith and Will Ferrell

KEVIN SMITH DEFENDS COMIC BOOK FILMS: Kevin Smith is defending comic book films after Martin Scorsese likened them to “theme parks.” He told The Hollywood Reporter outside of the premiere of his latest film, Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Monday: “Martin Scorsese is a genius. But to be fair, my entire film career – even prior to my film career – he’s been pretty much saying the same thing about action movies.” He also argued that Scorsese has done a superhero film: “For my money, I think Martin Scorsese made the biggest superhero movie ever, which was The Last Temptation of Christ. Don’t get much bigger of a superhero than Jesus. He beats Superman and [Robert] Downey [Jr.] every time, so maybe Martin is bending on that territory.”

TIME’S UP PARTNERS FOR LATINX HOUSE INITIATIVE: America Ferrera, Eva Longoria and Gina Rodriguez have signed on to lead a Time’s Up initiative in partnership with The Latinx House, to create community, engagement and opportunities for Latinx voices in and outside of Hollywood. “The Latinx House is going to be set up in places of consequence, so we’ll have dedicated space there where we’ll be doing programming for and by the Latinx community, and it will range between panel discussions, some educational skill-building sessions, gathering and networking opportunities; we also want to build bridges and help educate our allies about who we are and what our priorities are,” Ramirez, the founder of Justice for Migrant Women, told The Hollywood Reporter at The Latinx House’s private first event Saturday. “We want to ensure that wherever it appears as though there are power plays being made – decisions being made – that are going to impact our community, we have an opportunity to set the House up there.”

WILL FERRELL LAUNCING PODCAST NETWORK: Will Ferrell is getting into the podcasting biz. The comedian, actor and producer has signed a deal with iHeartMedia to launch Big Money Players Network, a podcast company devoted to comedy. “The iHeartPodcast Network has been such a pleasure to work with. I love hanging out in the offices and I’ve only been yelled at once for using someone’s computer, which I shouldn’t have done,” Ferrell said jokingly in a statement. “Its creative, multiplatform assets and ability to market and reach millions of new podcast listeners is unprecedented. I’m looking forward to continuing our journey as creative partners and helping to define how comedy and podcasting will merge in the next couple years.” Shows will begin to roll out next year.

VENOM 2 EXPANDS: Carnage is being joined by Shriek from the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Sony‘s upcoming Venom sequel, according to Deadline. Casting is underway for Shriek. The film is being directed by Ruben Fleischer and stars Tom Hardy. The film is set to infect theaters on October 2, 2020. The original surprised many by garnering $856 million at the box office on a $100 million budget.