-
Thursday, November 19
When director Matthew Vaughn agreed to direct an adaptation of Mark Millar's Kick-Ass comic book, he decided that he would only do it on his own terms and began looking around for investors to help him finance the $50-million movie. With the funds secured from Hollywood heavyweights, such as Brad Pitt, Vaughn's next challenge was finding a distributor.
A sneak peek of the movie was shown at this year's Wizard World Chicago comic convention, followed by a plea from Millar to "go on the Internet immediately after this happens and just give your honest opinion." Shortly after, a bidding war for the U.S. distribution rights broke out between three studios, with Lionsgate ultimately capturing the prize.
Now, Kick-Ass will go international. In a deal struck between Lionsgate International's sales unit, Mandate International, and Focus Features International, Universal Pictures International will distribute Kick-Ass in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Latin America.
Kick-Ass stars Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Moretz, and Nicolas Cage.
Next Showing: Kick-Ass is scheduled to open April 16, 2010
Posted 11/19/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Matthew Vaughn | Kick-Ass | Mark Millar
-
Thursday, November 12
The past few weeks have been incredibly kind to Kick-Ass fans. Last week four posters were revealed and just days ago a trailer emerged online.
Now, the Kick-Ass MySpace page, also the source for the trailer, has come through again, posting a new poster of Aaron Johnson as Kick-Ass with the tagline "I can't fly, but I can kick your ass."
Kick-Ass is scheduled to open April 16, 2010
Posted 11/12/2009 by Ryan
Related: Aaron Johnson | Kick-Ass
-
Wednesday, November 11
The teaser trailer for Kick-Ass was not supposed to be revealed until this weekend, but nobody told MySpace. The comic book adaptation stars Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, and Nicolas Cage as real people who decide to become costumed vigilantes.
Check out the trailer below:
Next Showing: Kick-Ass is scheduled to open in April 16, 2010
Posted 11/11/2009 by Ryan
Related: Aaron Johnson | Nicolas Cage | Chloe Moretz | Kick-Ass | Christopher Mintz-Plasse
-
Friday, November 6
Lionsgate has released four new teaser posters for Kick-Ass, director Matthew Vaughn's dark, teen superhero movie adaptation of the comic book by Mark Millar.
Each of the four posters spotlights one of the movie's "heroes": Aaron Johnson as Dave "Kick-Ass" Lizewski, Nicolas Cage as Damon "Big Daddy" Macready, Chloe Moretz as Mindy "Hit Girl" Macready, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris "Red Mist" D'Amico.
Also, we should mention that the official Kick-Ass movie site is up and running, though with only limited content for the time being.
Next Showing: Kick-Ass opens April 16, 2010
Posted 11/6/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Aaron Johnson | Nicolas Cage | Chloe Moretz | Matthew Vaughn | Kick-Ass | Christopher Mintz-Plasse
-
Tuesday, November 3
Actors who sign up for comic book movies often have to do a bit of research to familiarize themselves with the characters and concepts, especially when the movie they're starring in is based on a property that's not as widely known. For at least two actors starring in director Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of the Kick-Ass comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., research material could be found in their own homes.
Superbad star Christopher Mintz-Plasse and bit player Clark Duke team up once again in Kick-Ass, and they told MTV that they were both familiar with the comic book before signing on to do the movie. Mintz-Plasse, who played the unforgettable character McLovin in Superbad and dons tights as The Red Mist in Kick-Ass, said:
I got the script and said, "I've seen this name before," and went through my dad's comics, pulled out the first issue and read it.
Duke said that not only was he familiar with the Kick-Ass comic book, he was a big fan of the creators of the series before landing the role of Marty in the movie.
I had the comic first. I've been a big fan of Mark ever since The Authority and followed everything he's done since then. And John Romita, too, obviously — he's drawn every major character in the world over his career. So yeah, I definitely had the comic first."
Kick-Ass also stars Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, and Chloe Moretz.
Next Showing: Kick-Ass opens April 16, 2010
Posted 11/3/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Superbad | Matthew Vaughn | Kick-Ass | Christopher Mintz-Plasse | Clark Duke
-
Friday, September 25
While the newly formed DC Entertainment may have no current plans for a Superman movie, a recent fan poll conducted by MTV revealed that fans think DC ought to make a Superman movie their top priority by a wide margin. Apparently, fanboys want to wash the bitter taste of the disappointing Superman Returns from their cinematic palette.
But even if DC could rush another Superman into theaters, where would it start? Warner Bros. President Jeff Robinov would like a "darker" reboot of the franchise, but with the recent court ruling granting the rights for Superman's origins to the families of Superman's creators, the early part of the Man of Steel's life is off limits. However, if DC don't start development on a Superman movie by 2011, the families can sue again for lost revenue.
DC could always turn to Mark Millar, creator of Wanted and the upcoming Kick-Ass, who more than a year ago pitched an eight-hour trilogy of Superman movies to be released one year apart à la Lord of the Rings.
There's also an unorthodox script from J.J. Abrams that set half the movie on Krypton where a civil war had broken out, which he might prefer to use pieces of in his sequel to Star Trek.
Our money's on Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn who said he would like to reinvent Superman. Considering the legal ramifications involved in rebooting Superman, "reinventing" may bring what the fans are hoping for.
Posted 9/25/2009 by Ryan
Related: Superman Returns | Matthew Vaughn | Kick-Ass | Mark Millar
-
Thursday, September 17
It's rare for a sequel to be announced before the first movie has even been released, especially an independent superhero flick that only picked up a distributor a month ago.
But Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar, who also created Wanted and is a prolific comic book writer and creator, has confirmed that a sequel is going to be made, and that the foundation for the sequel's plot was already laid out in the pages of his Kick-Ass comic book.
There's a basic plot. The series ends on a teaser for the next one, and the movie ends on that teaser, too.
It didn't cost that much money to make. There will definitely be another one.
Kick-Ass is directed by Matthew Vaughn and stars Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz, Yancy Butler, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
Next Showing: Kick-Ass debuts April 13, 2010
Posted 9/17/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Matthew Vaughn | Kick-Ass | Mark Millar
-
Wednesday, September 2
Lionsgate used its Twitter page, which is quickly becoming the movie industry standard for updating progress on upcoming movies, to give some "Twitter exclusive" news on two of their upcoming movies:
***twitter exclusive*** KICK-ASS releases 4/16/10... EXPENDABLES arrive 8/20/10... and GAMER hits theaters THIS FRIDAY!!!
Don't worry, Lionsgate isn't mad at you, those capital letters are for emphasis. April is pretty close to Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaugh's assertion that the movie would arrive "early [2010]."
When The Expendables opens in August, writer/director Sylvester Stallone may already be finished with Rambo 5.
And Gamer opens Friday, in case you missed it.
Posted 9/2/2009 by Ryan
Related: Gamer | Kick-Ass | The Expendables
-
Monday, August 31
Director Matthew Vaughn is a huge comic book fan, as his upcoming Kick-Ass adaptation hopes to prove. However, Vaughn has left more superhero movies than he's made, having abandoned both Thor and X-Men: The Last Stand.
But that doesn't mean that Vaughn isn't ready for more. Vaughn told MTV about two projects he's hoping to direct:
I grew up watching superhero films, so I want to make superhero films. I was desperate to do Iron Man about 8 years ago, and everyone was like, "Iron Man, no one will go watch that." Cut to now, and it's a huge hit. [I'd] love to do The Avengers. And Superman ... I think it would be great to reinvent Superman.
Of course, Jon Favreau directed Iron Man, and he's also been discussed as the potential director for The Avengers. In fact, Favreau feels that The Avengers might keep the Iron Man series from falling into predictability:
...The Avengers might be the thing that helps rescue us from the inevitable sequel slump that you get into, because you're throwing everything on its ear. It might be a failed experiment or it might be something wonderful, but it allows you to add complexity in an organic way where you're culminating with something bigger, as opposed to trying to play out and not repeat the same story over and over again.
Vaughn might have a better chance at the next Superman, though James McTeigue has been strongly rumored to be directing the project.
Posted 8/31/2009 by Ryan
Related: Jon Favreau | X-Men: The Last Stand | Superman Returns | Iron Man | Superman: The Man of Steel | Thor | Iron Man 2 | The Avengers | Matthew Vaughn | Kick-Ass
-
Sunday, August 23
Until recently, it was doubtful if director Matthew Vaughn's latest movie, Kick-Ass, a dark teen "superhero" tale adapted from the comic book by Mark Millar, would get a theatrical release. Before Lionsgate picked up the film, Millar even went so far as to plead with fans at Wizard World Chicago to go home and write about how great they thought Kick-Ass was going to be.
Millar explained that "the whores in Hollywood" had trouble with the strong language and extreme violence of the film, leaving us to wonder how graphic it could be. Fortunately, actress Yancy Butler (Witchblade), who has a cameo in Kick-Ass, recently described some of the movie's footage at the Dallas Comic-Con.
Nicolas Cage's daughter (in the film), who wants to be a superhero basically, climbs up this gangster's back ... shoots him from below, and it turns into a comic book, where you see this blood splat like you would, but in pink. And you could see through the hole in his head. It's completely fascinating.
Kick-Ass stars Aaron Johnson as Dave "Kick-Ass" Lizewski, Nicolas Cage as Damon "Big Daddy" Macready, Chloe Moretz as Mindy "Hit Girl" Macready, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris "Red Mist" D'Amico.
Next Showing: Kick-Ass is scheduled for release in 2010
Posted 8/23/2009 by BrentJS
Related: Yancy Butler | Matthew Vaughn | Kick-Ass | Mark Millar