Friday, February 5

• Kick-Ass International Red BandTrailer

  Funded independently by writer-director Matthew Vaughn and co-creator of the comic book Mark Millar, Kick-Ass already has a sequel underway before the movie even reaches theaters.

  With an overseas April 2 release fast approaching (April 16 for us Yanks), another new poster and a red band international trailer have been released to help expose the movie to its overseas market. The new trailer reveals plenty of new footage, and also a slew of foul language, especially from the mouth of Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz). Watch Aaron Johnson as Dave "Kick-Ass" Lizewski, Nicolas Cage as Damon "Big Daddy" Macready, Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris "Red Mist" D'Amico, and Mark Strong as mob boss Frank D'Amico in the red band trailer below. Just send the kids out of the room first.

  
  

  Posted 02/05/2010 by Ryan

  Related: Aaron Johnson | Nicolas Cage | Mark Strong | Chloe Moretz | Christopher Mintz-Plasse | Kick-Ass

Wednesday, January 27

• Empire Magazine Cover Kick-Ass

  For an independently financed superhero movie that at one point had creator Mark Millar pleading with comic book fans to go home and write about it in the hopes that it might get a distribution deal, director Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass is making the kind of media blitz that is usually reserved for major franchise films, such as Marvel Studios' Iron Man 2.

  Already released within the last couple of months have been a number of teaser posters, two different sets of character posters, two Green Band trailers, a Red Band trailer, various interviews, and even the news that a sequel might already be in the works. Now, Empire Magazine is spotlighting the "little superhero movie that could" in its most recent issue, complete with a gritty fold-out cover that features Aaron "Kick-Ass" Johnson, Chloe "Hit Girl" Moretz and Nicolas "Big Daddy" Cage.

  
  
  Next Showing: Kick-Ass opens April 16, 2010
  

  Kick-Ass - REDBAND Trailer

  Nicolas Cage Stars

  Posted 01/27/2010 by BrentJS

  Related: Aaron Johnson | Nicolas Cage | Chloe Moretz | Matthew Vaughn | Mark Millar | Kick-Ass

Monday, January 25

• First Look: Official Diary of a Wimpy Kid Poster

  The first trailer for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie arrived late last week, and now we have the first look at the official poster.

  We love that it features the middle school "morons," and are also intrigued by the prominence of illustration for a live-action adaptation. Chirag Gupta (Karan Brar), Angie (Chloe Moretz), Greg (Zachary Gordon), Rowley (Robert Capron), and Fregley (Grayson Russell) look like only an obligatory footnote.

  
  
  

  Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Trailer

  Zachary Gordon stars as Greg, the wimpy kid

  Posted 01/25/2010 by reelz

  Related: Chloe Moretz | Zachary Gordon | Grayson Russell | Robert Capron | Karan Brar | Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Thursday, January 21

• Chloe Moretz on Playing a Vampire in Let Me In

  Chloe Moretz has not one but three movies opening in 2010, and on the strength of Kick-Ass and Diary of a Wimpy Kid alone, Moretz made our list of The 10 Breakout Stars of 2010. After playing the foul-mouthed heroine Hit Girl and "avant-garde school-paper editor" Angie, respectively, Moretz will play a young vampire in Let Me In, the remake of Swedish vampire flick Let The Right One In. Moretz described the movie to MTV.

  It's about a boy who lives in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Growing up, not many people like him, he's not popular. He's wimpy, kind of an outcast. Then this girl moves in, she's totally different. She doesn't wear shoes, wears raggedy clothes — it's sort of like "Romeo and Juliet" with vampires. She can't be with him, because she's a vampire. But they fall in love; it's a really sweet coming-of-age story between a little boy and a little girl.

  While on the surface Let Me In may also sound like Twilight, Moretz says her vampire isn't "very glamorous."

  It's a very sad and heavy burden to have; it's not easy to live. You need blood to live, and that's not an easy thing to go through. [My character, Abby] has to kill for it. She's a very sweet, loving person. And that's why I relate to the character — she's a beast, it's a demon inside of her and she can't stop it from coming out ... when I turn into a vampire, it's terrifying.

  Despite the blood and violence Moretz is involved with on screen, she claims she is a very different kid from the characters she portrays.

  It's a movie; it's not me. If I ever uttered one word that I said in [Kick-Ass], I would be grounded for years! I'd be stuck in my room until I was 20! I would never in a million years say that.

  Both Kick-Ass and Diary of a Wimpy Kid open in April, while Let Me In opens October 1.

  
  

  Posted 01/21/2010 by Ryan

  Related: Chloe Moretz | Kick-Ass | Let Me In

Wednesday, January 20

• Chloe Moretz Interview: Talking Kick-Ass and Diary of a Wimpy Kid

  Chloe Moretz plays Hit-Girl in the upcoming Kick-Ass, and will likely be playing It Girl in real life, as MTV has pegged her as "One of 10 to Watch in 2010." Moretz is also near the top of our list of The 10 Breakout Stars of 2010. In a recent interview with Music Television, Moretz talk both Kick-Ass and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, both releasing in April.

  About her favorite scene in Kick-Ass:

  When I go [to] kill a drug lord to get back at him — I think I kill 30 guys in, like, 30 seconds, in one corridor with two guns. Then I run out [of bullets], pick up another gun and shoot it, throw it at them, jump over a table and throw my legs forward, kicking [a bad guy] ... later, I get stuck in a cupboard and have to throw kitchen knives. It's so fun; it was the coolest thing ever.

  And for all the Diary of a Wimpy Kid fans out there who are wondering who the heck "Angie" is and how she got in the movie when she's not featured in the books:

  The wimpy kid is a nerd, he's the total outcast of school. I'm an avant-garde school-paper editor with these crazy hairstyles and funky, out-of-nowhere clothes. It's a fun role for me to do. The wimpy kid goes from elementary school to middle school, and he's trying to survive in middle school. I'm in middle school now — it's really tough, the transition from little school to teenager ... he's trying to get a popular kid reputation ... it's a mixture, I think, of the first two books.

  
  

  Posted 01/20/2010 by reelz

  Related: Chloe Moretz | Kick-Ass | Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Sunday, January 17

• New Kick-Ass Teaser Poster Released

  The opening of director Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass, is still three months away, but the movie and its stars are already receiving considerable buzz, both positive and negative.

  Amidst rumors that a sequel might already be in the works, two of the stars — Aaron "Kick-Ass" Johnson and Chloe "Hit Girl" Moretz — have just been included in IMDb's 10 to Watch in 2010 list of celebrities on the rise. At the same time, the extreme violence and foul language in the movie has come under fire from some family groups in Australia.

  Possibly in an effort to cool down some of the critics who claim that the movie is promoting childhood violence, a new, "splashy" teaser poster has just been released on the official Kick-Ass web-site. Unlike the previous posters, which were realistic and gritty, the new poster has a lighter feel to it, more resembling a comic book cover than a movie poster, with the title of the film partially obscured.

  Kick-Ass also stars Nicolas Cage as Damon "Big Daddy" Macready, Mark Strong as mob boss Frank D'Amico, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris "Red Mist" D'Amico.

  
  
  Next Showing: Kick-Ass opens April 16, 2010
  

  Kick-Ass - REDBAND Trailer

  Nicolas Cage Stars

  Posted 01/17/2010 by BrentJS

  Related: Aaron Johnson | Chloe Moretz | Matthew Vaughn | Kick-Ass

Tuesday, January 5

• The 10 Breakout Stars of 2010

  

  Looking back at our first-annual "Breakout Stars" predictions (2009), we hit only about .300. Chris Pine, Channing Tatum, and 3-D were hits. Jody Hill, Saoirse Ronan, and Rian Johnson were misses, as was Ayelet Zurer, the Israeli stunner who we thought would finally catch on with American audiences as Tom Hanks' co-star in Angels and Demons. Damn.

  This year we're looking to improve our batting average with these 10 new predictions &mdash and we didn't even include Rosamund Pike, who looks to be darn near a sure thing with four movies set for release in 2010. Check out our list of The 10 Breakout Stars of 2010.

  
  

  Posted 01/05/2010 by reelz

  Related: Jeremy Renner | Anna Kendrick | Matthew Goode | Logan Lerman | Chloe Moretz | Mary Winstead | Mia Wasikowska | Quinton "Rampage'' Jackson | Olivia Munn

Saturday, December 5

• Matthew Vaughn Discusses Kick-Ass and a New Poster Debuts

  

  Director Matthew Vaughn likes to do things his own way. When his friend, comic book writer Mark Millar, approached him with the idea of making a movie based on his Kick-Ass comic book, Vaughn refused to leave it up to "the whores in Hollywood." Instead, he went out and raised Kick-Ass's $50 million budget himself.

  One of the ways Vaughn avoided the inflated budgets of other "superhero" movies is by filming as much as possible with his cameras, rather than relying on CGI, a technology that he is not very comfortable using.

  I hate [CGI]. F*cking green screen. It's like, for me, CGI is for when you really can't do it in camera. I use it when I have to, but I just think it's fake.

  Another way that Vaughn kept the cost of the movie down was by hiring up-and-coming actors, rather than "name" actors, for the lead roles. The notable exception to this is veteran actor Nicolas Cage as Damon "Big Daddy" Macready, who Vaughn said was pretty easy to convince to star in the picture.

  Nick is a big comic book fan, and he just read the script and went, "This is cool. I'm in." Simple as that. You know, Nick wants to do good work, and he was very cool. Literally, we sent him the script and he read it and said, "I'm in." So it was a very easy process.

  While the name of the movie implies that there's going to be a lot of action, Vaughn said that the main character, Dave "Kick-Ass" Lizewski (played by Aaron Johnson), does learn some valuable lessons nevertheless.

  

  What Dave learns is, he goes on a big journey. At the beginning of the movie, he says, "Why does nobody help people?" Then he falls in love with someone, so he stops helping people. And then he starts helping people. And he realizes that the reason it stops most people from helping people in danger is that they've got to lose. And he realizes that a real hero is someone who, even with something to lose, still does, takes a risk.

  In related news, AICN has the first look at a new Kick-Ass teaser poster featuring Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris "Red Mist" D'Amico.

  
  
  Next Showing: Kick-Ass opens April 16, 2010

  Posted 12/05/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Aaron Johnson | Nicolas Cage | Chloe Moretz | Matthew Vaughn | Christopher Mintz-Plasse | Kick-Ass

Friday, December 4

• Meet the Cast of Diary of a Wimpy Kid

  Getting its start as a popular Web comic, Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series has sold millions of copies and turned just as many little boys into readers. Dads dig them. Little girls have even been known to read them.

  Now the hard part: making a movie that meets the fans' sky-high expectations. Information about the movie has been scarce, and only a few pics from the set have turned up. At least we know who's been cast.

  Who's playing the wise-cracking hero in the live-action movie? And, more important, what do we think of the casting? Find out in Meet the Cast of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

  
  
  
  
  Next Showing: Diary of a Wimpy Kid is set for an April 2, 2010 release

  Posted 12/04/2009 by reelz

  Related: Steve Zahn | Rachel Harris | Devon Bostick | Chloe Moretz | Zachary Gordon | Grayson Russell | Robert Capron | Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Wednesday, November 11

• Kick-Ass Trailer Now Online

  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 | Christopher Mintz-Plasse | Kick-Ass

Friday, November 6

• Four New Kick-Ass Teaser Posters Debut

  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 11/06/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Aaron Johnson | Nicolas Cage | Chloe Moretz | Matthew Vaughn | Christopher Mintz-Plasse | Kick-Ass

Tuesday, November 3

• Let Me In Starts Production

  Let Me In, the American remake of the Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In, starts production today, transporting the coming-of-age tale from the cold and blustery Stockholm, Sweden to the dry and hot Albuquerque, New Mexico. Director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) is returning to the source material for Let the Right One In, the Swedish novel of the same name by author John Ajvide Lindqvist, to help inspire the story about a young boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee from The Road) who befriends a mysterious new girl in town (Chloe Moretz from the upcoming Kick-Ass), who happens to be a vampire.

  With Richard Jenkins already cast as Moretz's caretaker, the new cast additions announced are Elias Koteas as the policeman, Cara Buono (The Sopranos) as Smit McPhee's mother, and Sasha Barrese (The Hangover) as Virginia, the character who survives a vampire attack in the Swedish original.

  Reeves intends to pay homage to the Swedish version in Let Me In, but wants to take the story in his own direction. "This project is very personal to Matt as it is to the many passionate fans of the original story," said producer Simon Oakes. "The brilliance of that story deserves to be seen by audiences on a wide scale and we are excited that the pieces are in place to make that a reality."

  When foreign horror movies do well critically, they're often remade in America, but time will tell if Let Me In will work as well as The Ring, or become a debacle like Quarantine, which couldn't do justice to the Spanish zombie movie [Rec] it was based on.

  Shooting on Let Me In will start in Albuquerque and travel to various parts of New Mexico. With a projected end for the shoot sometime in January, we expect to see its original release date of January 15, 2010 pushed back.

  
  
  

  Let the Right One In - Trailer

  Posted 11/03/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Richard Jenkins | Cara Buono | Elias Koteas | Sasha Barrese | Chloe Moretz | Kodi Smit-McPhee | Matt Reeves | Let the Right One In | Let Me In

Thursday, October 1

• Richard Jenkins Joins Remake of Swedish Vampire Flick

  Variety reports that Richard Jenkins has joined the cast of Let Me In, a remake of last year's Swedish vampire flick Let the Right One In, which was released to very high acclaim from both audiences and critics. The movie won Best Narrative Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, among many other accolades.

  Also joining the cast are Chloe Moretz, who starred in (500) Days of Summer, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, who can be seen opposite Viggo Mortenson in The Road, which arrives in late November. Moretz will play a pre-teen girl vampire who moves to a new neighborhood and befriends Smit-McPhee's character, a boy about her age. Jenkins will star as the girl's caretaker.

  Cloverfield director Matt Reeves will helm Let Me In, which is scheduled to begin production this fall in New Mexico. The movie is currently slated for a January 15, 2010 release.

  
  

  Posted 10/01/2009 by Rich Z

  Related: Richard Jenkins | Matt Reeves | Chloe Moretz | Kodi Smit-McPhee | Let the Right One In

Monday, August 17

• Lionsgate Wins the Kick-Ass Sweepstakes

  With three studios fighting for the the comic book-adaptation movie Kick-Ass, Lionsgate ended up winning the distribution rights, much to writer/director Matthew Vaughn's delight:

  Making and financing Kick-Ass has been an amazing experience, and we've had two important goals from the start: make a singularly entertaining film and find the right studio to release it. With Lionsgate, I know that I've got a supportive and fearless team behind me. It's going to be fun working together to bring the film to audiences and those who are already fans of the comic book.

  Kick-Ass was independently financed before Lionsgate picked up the rights. A release date is still unspecified, though Kick-Ass will open some time in 2010. The movie, should it follow the comic book, will be the violent story of a teenager who decides to become a costumed vigilante and meets a variety of crazed copycats. The bloody nature of the movie didn't frighten Lionsgate, who typically release genre flicks like the Saw movies and the upcoming Gamer. What sold Lionsgate on the picture was the huge response Kick-Ass received at the San Diego Comic-Con, according to Kick-Ass producer Tarquin Pack:

  The massive response we received at Comic-Con has been hugely important in launching the next wave of momentum for the film, and Lionsgate's marketing and distribution talents are a perfect fit for us. Lionsgate is a studio that is not afraid to do things differently, and that is the attitude that has characterized Kick-Ass from the very start.

  The way Pack and Vaughn are talking, it looks like their faithful adaptation won't be compromised on its way to the theaters, which should be good news for fans.

  
  

  Posted 08/17/2009 by Ryan

  Related: Aaron Johnson | Nicolas Cage | Chloe Moretz | Matthew Vaughn | Kick-Ass

Monday, August 10

• Wanted Creator Mark Millar Asks Fans for Help with Kick-Ass and Says "No" to Superman

  Comic book scribe Mark Millar took the stage at Wizard World Chicago to discuss the process of adapting his Kick-Ass comic book into a major motion picture directed by Matthew Vaughn, and ended up pleading with the audience for help.

  According to Millar, securing funding for the film wasn't easy, due to the violent subject matter and course language. Fortunately, Millar's friend, director Matthew Vaughn, believed in the project and decided to champion it.

  (Vaughn's) a good pal of mine, and he loved the book before it came out. He saw the scripts ahead of time because he likes to see what other pals are up to. And, he said, 'I really want to make this movie.' And, what I normally do with like Wanted is that we'll make the comic, and then an agent takes it out to all the whores in Hollywood, and they start bidding, and it's all out of your hands. Hopefully it all works out. Luckily Wanted did. It worked out good. But what happened with this is that it's very difficult material.

  Unfortunately, Millar and Vaughn found that they couldn't retain the integrity of the source material and secure studio funding, so Vaughn took matters into his own hands, raising $50 million in investments so that they could make the movie the way they wanted to make it. Now, Millar is asking fans to help decide whether Kick-Ass receives a theatrical release or goes straight to DVD. After showing footage of Kick-Ass at Wizard World Chicago this weekend, Millar said:

  If you can go on the internet immediately after this happens and just give your honest opinion — I'm pretty sure you'll like it because it's really well made and really well done — but that's the one favor I'd ask everyone. You may think it's shite. I hope you love it because we do.

  Before leaving the stage, Millar was also asked about the rumors that he and Vaughn were conspiring to produce a sequel to Superman Returns. He said:

  There was no interest in me, but they went to Matthew because he's a very well-liked Hollywood director. I love Superman, but Kick-Ass has been such an amazing experience that I realized I'd rather be George Lucas. We just go off and make our own movies and we own them ... that's the model I'd like to follow with future stuff.

  Kick-Ass stars Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage and Chloë Moretz.

  
  

  Posted 08/10/2009 by BrentJS

  Related: Aaron Johnson | Nicolas Cage | Chloe Moretz | Matthew Vaughn | Mark Millar | Kick-Ass | Wanted

Monday, April 27

• Kick-Ass "Hit Girl" Photo

  The 11-year-old super-assassin Mindy, a.k.a "Hit Girl," from Mark Millar's next big comic book movie is showcased in this exclusive pic from Empire Magazine. Played by Chloe Moretz, Mindy's a pre-teen assassin who's been trained by her father, played by Nicolas Cage, since the age of four.

  Kick Ass is about Dave Lizewski, an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who decides to become a superhero -- even though he has no powers, abilities, or training. After getting beat up more often than not, he inspires other vigilantes when his exploits are shown on YouTube. Matthew Vaughn is directing Kick Ass, and we've been assured of an ultra-violent romp not seen in your typical superhero fare.

  
  
  Next Showing: This unique superhero movie hits theaters later this year

  Posted 04/27/2009 by Jim

  Related: Nicolas Cage | Chloe Moretz | Matthew Vaughn | Kick-Ass