Who loves hearing a director talk about their work? I know I do. That’s why it was such a pleasure to find this video of Matthew Vaughn offering a sort of pesudo-commentary track to the first trailer for his upcoming adaptation of the comic book Kick-Ass.

The trailer, which comes our way courtesy of /Film, was originally put together by French Premiere. While not a commentary in the traditional sense (Premiere placed excerpts of their interview with Vaughn over the trailer), it still provides some interesting insight into one of the most anticipated movies of 2010.

The first widely released official trailer for Kick-Ass wasn’t meant to hit the interwebs until this Friday, at least according to the official site, but it’s out now and we have it here for you!

Kick-Ass is the precedent setting comic book movie by Matthew Vaughn who took it upon himself to make the movie his own way, the proper way, without the restrictions of Hollywood studios. Instead he made it true to the comics, earned the support of the fans with a huge presentation at Comic-Con and had distributors start a bidding war for it after the fact.

Happy Friday everyone! For our first Friday of November 2009, we’ve again gathered the latest posters to come out for this week’s poster round-up. So, before you head out to see this week’s opening movies, namely The Men Who Star at goats, A Christmas Carol, The Box and The Fourth Kind, check out the latest promo sheets below.

Screen Rant’s wall this week now includes new one-sheets for Kick-Ass, The Wolfman, Conan, The Twilight Saga’s Eclipse, Clash of the Titans, Scream 4, A Single Man, Avatar, Machete, Green Zone, Let Me In, Tell Tale and The Men Who Stare at Goats.

We also have a few bonus items for this year’s Pixar movie, Up.

Let’s get to it.

Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar has been getting awfully cozy in Hollywood over the past couple of years. In addition to seeing the film version of his graphic novel Wanted bank for more than $340 million worldwide,  Millar has been able to work closely with director Matthew Vaughn on the film adaptation of his comic series, Kick-Ass, which comes out in April 2010. Now, according to the man himself, Millar is planning on getting behind the camera for his very own directorial debut. According to Millar’s personal website, principal photography on the project begins in March 2010.

Ah, but you must be saying to yourself, “Rob! You didn’t tell else what movie Millar is directing. Are you some kind of incompetent fool?” Friends, if I knew I would tell you, I promise. Unfortunately, Millar is keeping his lips sealed until February when more release details will be coming out.

Although Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass doesn’t premier for another seven months, Mark Millar (co-creator of the comic) already has high expectations, telling MTV that a sequel is already in the works. According to Millar:

“There’s a basic plot. The series ends on a teaser for the next one, and the movie ends on that teaser, too…We don’t want to sound too cocky, but we know this is good. It didn’t cost that much money to make. There will definitely be another one.”

Few upcoming comic book movies are as widely anticipated as Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass. After fans got their first look at the film at Comic-Con, it only took a few weeks before Lionsgate picked it up for distribution, and now we know that it will be released April 16, 2010. A pretty quick turnaround for a self-financed movie about wannabe teenage superheroes and foul-mouthed prepubescent assassins, don’t you think?

The phenomenal buzz surrounding Kick-Ass comes in no small part from the creative talents of the comic’s creators, Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. As such, it’s no surprise that director Matthew Vaughn decided to work closely with both Millar and Romita throughout the production. In fact, Romita even produced his own animated sequence for the film. Now, thanks to MTV, we know exactly what it will be about.

Two big action movies that many people are looking for next year have finally been given official release dates!

Sylvester Stallone’s ultimate team-up film, The Expendables, was aiming for a spring release next year and now it’s confirmed for August. For Kick-Ass, the film that put on a big show at San Diego Comic-Con and only recently got picked up for North American distribution after a bidding war thanks in no small part to the positive reaction to the footage is now officially opening next spring.

This news comes to us thanks to a “Twitter exclusive” where we’re also reminded that Gamer, another action thriller, starring Gerard Butler and Michael C. Hall, opens this weekend.

Matthew Vaughn, director and producer of the upcoming rated-R comic book adaptation, Kick-Ass, really wants to helm Marvel Studio’s The Avengers movie.

Vaughn, if you remember, was director of X-Men: The Last Stand… for a short while anyway. After he took over for Bryan Singer, he quickly left which opened to door for Brett Ratner to direct the project which in my mind, is the absolute worst of the four X-Men movies.

Looking forward instead of back though, Vaughn now has directed three feature films: Layer Cake, Stardust and now Kick-Ass (which quickly earned itself an American distributor after premiering footage at San Diego Comic-Con.) Now, he wants to do another superhero flick…

Well THAT didn’t take long.

Not even a week after we told you that several johnny-come-lately studios were fighting over the rights to Kick-Ass, Matthew Vaughn’s (Layer Cake) live-action adaptation of the Marvel Comic created by Mark Millar (Wanted) and John Romita Jr., one studio has emerged from the dog pile with this promising film in pocket.

And that winner is: Lionsgate.

When Matthew Vaughn premiered the first footage of Kick-Ass at Comic-Con a few weeks back, he must have been smiling ear to ear. Originally told that the film was too violent for distribution, Vaughn decided to produce the movie himself, leaving in all the gore and graphic language of the original comic series. Vaughn’s decision to leave in the good stuff was more than validated by throngs of Comic-Con attendees and now Kick-Ass has become the hot commodity in Hollywood as studios jockey to buy distribution rights for the film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate, Paramount, and Universal are currently the top contenders to land the film. THR speculates that the final distribution deal will be “in the solid seven figures with a significant P&A commitment.” For the non-movie folks out there, P&A refers to Prints and Advertising. In other words, Kick-Ass will be getting the major release the film deserves.

Comic-Con seems like old news (even though it only ended a week ago), but as a final note we thought we’d show you what you guys ended up picking as the hottest things to come out of the 4 day event. There was certainly a lot of competition for fan attention, but as usual there are always a few things that end up grabbing the limelight.

We ran a poll asking you to pick what you thought were the three hottest things to come out of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con. Now the total numbers add up to more than 100% because with so much to choose from we allowed people to pick their top 3 items.

Results after the jump.

I started this on the flight home after the insanity that is the San Diego Comic-Con (Wi-Fi in the air rocks), and I thought it would be a good idea to give you a “one-stop shopping” post for everything we covered this year.

For 2009 we had Rob Keyes and Kofi Outlaw (along with guest contributor Ryan Connors) in addition to Bruce Simmons and myself, so we were able to bring you a LOT more coverage than we did last year. Everyone worked their tail off and did an awesome job – and we had Ross Miller going into overdrive at home covering ongoing non-Comic-Con related news (Ross is a news writing ANIMAL).

On the Kick-Ass panel: Director Matthew Vaughn, screenwriters Jane Goldman and Mark Millar, John Romita Jr., Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz.

In our previous coverage of the teen superhero film, Kick-Ass, we reported that director Matthew Vaughn would premiere the first footage of the film at Comic-Con. Now, thanks to an interview with the MTV Movies Blog, we know exactly what we’ll be seeing, and it sure sounds good to me.

Rather than putting together a rough trailer for the move, Vaughn has opted to show four whole scenes from the movie’s first act to help newcomers to the comic get a better feel  for the story and the characters.

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:

[UPDATE: We now have a pic of McLovin' in Kick-Ass! See bottom of the post.]

For months, fans of the hyper violent teen superhero comic Kick-Ass have wondered how director Matthew Vaughn will choose to end his film adaptation while the comic itself is still being published. Now, we may have an answer thanks to Comic Book Resources, which recently interviewed Kick-Ass artist and comic book titan, John Romita, Jr.

The last time we reported on Matthew Vaughn’s (Layer Cake, Stardust) forthcoming superhero movie entitled Kick-Ass was last year when one of the stars, Nicolas Cage, was commenting on his role within the movie. Since then, the movie has been shot and is currently listed as being in post-production.

The movie has been financed by Vaughn’s production company MARV Films, with no big studio ties nor any sort sort of release/distribution info attached as of yet.

Nicolas Cage – love him or loathe him, you have to admire the man’s work ethic. He makes movies like they are going out of fashion, and while they may not always find an audience, they do show an actor who likes to try different material. No matter how crazy it may appear on paper (or on screen for that matter).

Cage has been doing the press rounds for Bangkok Dangerous and he has been spilling the beans on some of his forthcoming comic book movies: Ghost Rider 2 and Kick-Ass.

Yes folks it’s that time of the week! Once again we troll through the overlooked movie news to give you a fully comprehensive overview of what’s been happening in Hollywood.

This week:

Nicolas Cage decides to Kick Ass, every-one’s favorite Journeyman Kevin McKidd may be a Highlander, Ben Affleck Extract’s something for Mike Judge, Samuel L. Jackson eyes Red Tails for George Lucas and The Sweeney gets shafted by the British Film Industry.