Matthew Vaughn (Layer Cake, Stardust) recently spoke to Ain't It Cool News about his upcoming adaptation of the ultra-violent teen superhero comic book, Kick-Ass. The first ever footage of the movie will be shown during Comic-Con this year, but Vaughn has let out some details about the movie a few weeks in advance.
In the interview with AICN, Vaughn spoke about various aspects of the movie including the look/style, the cast and even a possible sequel (with this type of movie that kind of talk is inevitable). Take a look at some of what Vaughn said about Kick-Ass:Here's what Vaughn had to say about his first attempts to shop Kick-Ass around at various studios, and the numerous turn-downs he got:
"The film breaks a lot of taboos, and has certain elements that, if you're a studio executive, might make you think, "Why in the hell would we make a film like this?" One thing I don't think anyone got from the script was how humorous and fun it is.... They were like, "Is it a gangster film, is it a comedy? What is this? We don't get it! We're not making it!" So we thought "Fair enough. Screw you guys, we're going to go off and make it."
Regarding his opinion of how Kick-Ass turned out (at least the rough cut anyway), Vaughn doesn't want to be too full of himself, but he thinks it's the best movie he's ever made (Layer Cake was pretty damn good, so...):
"I don't want to sound too arrogant about the thing because there's nothing worse than someone saying, "I made the best damn movie of all time!", then you watch it, and you go, "Yeah..." I can say this... not that it means much... but it's definitely the best movie I've ever made. That doesn't mean it's a great film. But, for me, I think I punched above my weight."
Vaughn goes on to tout Kick-Ass as a movie that's unlike anything he (or many other people) have done, as well as speculating what he thinks other people's opinion of the movie will be:
"KICK-ASS is like nothing else that I've ever done - or a lot of other people have... And I think KICK-ASS is a movie that I can guarantee you will either 100% think is a pile of dog sh**, or you're going to love it. There will be no in-between reaction to the film. It's going to be one or the other."
Fans that like their comic book movies a bit more on the realistic side of things can rest assured Kick-Ass will very much be in that vein:
"There's nothing in this film that couldn't happen. Some of the actions sequences are... you know, we're making a movie, so I pushed the boundaries as far as I could. There are a few moments you'd maybe pull off one in a million times if you were doing it for real. But I tried to ground this as much in reality without it being a documentary."
On his lead actor, Aaron Johnson, Vaughn seems pretty enthusiastic about him and his performance in Kick Ass:
"Aaron Johnson... mark my words, is going to be a huge movie star... He has that charisma where you believe every word he says. He can also stand in front of the camera and say nothing, but you still want to watch him. He's fun. The actor I think he'll become is Robert Downey, Jr. He's very similar to him."
Vaughn also talked about one of the lead actresses, Chloe Moretz (who plays Mindy/Hit Girl), who he was even more enthused about than Johnson:
"Okay. When you watch it... I will bet you any amount of money you want... anything at any odds... I'll give you a million-to-one odds if you want... that you will a) fall in love with her, b) buy her, and c) think, "My god, I just saw the Jodie Foster/Natalie Portman of this generation... I really mean that. If this movie was STAR WARS, she'd be Han Solo."
Vaughn gives a really cool detail about the style of the film being glossy like a big-budget superhero movie, only with all of this gritty stuff happening to contrast the polished look:
"For me, I thought that if I shot it grittily, you'd then expect gritty shit to happen. So I thought let's do the opposite; let's make it glossy, so you could easily see these characters in SPIDER-MAN. but it's like "What would happen if Spider-Man were in the real world?"
Finally, Vaughn teased with the possibility with a Kick Ass sequel even before the first film has a release date:
"I don't want to tempt fate. But Mark (Millar) and I over a couple of beers came up with one of the funniest, coolest idea for a sequel that we would only be able to get away with if the film does well. We'd sort of dial it up to eleven, shall we say."
For the full transcript of the interview, you can head over to AICN.
It really sounds like Vaughn has put his all into Kick-Ass, keeping the source material firmly in mind. I am liking the sound of it - particularly of what he says about giving the movie a glossy Spider-Man feel while having all of the really gritty, really violent stuff happen on-screen. I'd love to get a look of some of those moviegoer's faces that aren't expecting such explicitness!
When Kick-Ass eventually does get a release, it'll be interesting to see how it does at the box office. Much in the same way as Watchmen, this isn't a well known property outside the "comic book geek" world, and like Watchmen it's very violent. By now we know how (not) great Watchmen did at the box office; however Wanted (another little-known comic book adapted into a violent movie) was a surprise hit at the box office, so who knows?
Vaughn mentioned a possible release of the first quarter of 2010 for Kick-Ass, but nothing official has been set for it as of yet.