I finally saw Kick-Ass
tonight at a special screening hosted by the fine guys and gals at UGO and Lionsgate, and you know what? The hype is justified. It’s an amazing
film, an simultaneously brutal and hysterical experience that was a blast in a
packed crowd that laughed and applauded and cheered throughout the film.
It’s the real deal, just the film we were hoping for- one that mirrors
the first Spider-man in
many ways but is a much harder-edged look at things.

After
the screening UGO’s Movies Editor and my personal hero Jordan Hoffman
took to the stage with Kick-Ass
writer Mark Millar and illustrator John Romita, Jr for a Q&A, which
was gloriously free of ridiculous fanboy questions. Not sure how they
dodged that bullet, although there was one great moment where a
real-life superhero dressed in a black and red motorcylcle jacket stood
up and awkwardly commented on how it was like watching his life story.
For reals.

Anyway,
the story behind the creation of Kick-Ass is almost as interesting as the
film itself, because the movie was turned down by every single major
studio. It’s something that just doesn’t happen, especially with an
established property like this. The prepubescent killer character of Hit
Girl was obviously the big problem here, and the duo commented on how
they were asked to remove the character or make her 25 years old by
various companies. So they decided to finance the 40 million buck film themselves and see what happens, grabbing up Nicolas Cage and Mark Strong
in the process and giving the project some real cred. Of course, it
helps that director Matthew Vaughn is incredibly rich and knows a lot of
rich folks as well (he is married to Claudia Schiffer, who has a cameo
of sorts in the film)- he put up 5 million bucks of his own money and
raised the rest to make the film, and the beauty part is that they sold
it back to the studios for more money. Completely backwards-ass, and one
can only hope that they make a doc or book on the backstory, because
it’s completely fascinating.

So not to ruin anything from the
film, but it ends on a note that’s encouraging for people wishing to see
more adventures of these characters. It is an origin story, after all, and we can only hope that the film does well enough to encourage a sequel. But you’ll be able to get your hands on the comic either way!
Millar told the crowd that they had a few ideas for the upcoming comic
series, which will comprise the second part of a planned trilogy. The next
comic will be titled Balls to the Wall and feature a few heroes and
villains from the story, along with a brand new baddie called Mother
Fucker. Yes, she’ll be a direct complement to the Big Daddy character, and offer up new challenges for our heroes. They spoke briefly about the roadblockss that will face the writer/artist duo since there are some minor changes in the story and characters from comic to screen, but they seemed confident that they could get them both on track. Hopefully they won’t take forever with the next series this time!

Thanks
to UGO for a remarkably well-organized event tonight and to Lionsgate
for taking the chance on the film. Judging from how well it played
tonight, it’s going to do wonderfully. You can bet my ass will be in
seats once again opening weekend, ready to be kicked all over again.