Matthew Vaughn was working on Thor in early 2008, however Marvel delayed production as they wanted to see how Iron Man fared, so instead of sitting around Vaughn decided to work on Kick-Ass. Mark Miller’s comic book was rather graphic and not your typical superhero comic, so it wasn’t that surprising to hear that Sony wanted to change things to make it more commercial. They wanted to make the 11 year old vigilante girl older and a love interest, and they also wanted to tone down the violence, but Matthew Vaughn wanted to stay true to the comic so he got $30 million together to make it himself.
Throughout production they didn’t have a release date, and there weren’t sure if any studio would actually step in to release it, however at the San Diego Comic Con last month there was a huge positive response from the footage that was shown, and now according to Risky Biz Blog three studios are hovering over it, ready to throw money at it and release it.
Lionsgate, Paramount and Universal are in the running for the pic, which Vaughn financed independently after some studios found the project’s violence too graphic and some of its dialogue too profanity-laced and opted not to board it at the script stage.
But the Comic-Con event garnered a hugely warm response from the fan universe, which has in turn helped convince the companies to reconsider. Buyer screenings followed the week after Comic-Con, and several studios began circling the pic.
Studios interested in “Kick-Ass” see a Vaughn pickup, even at a price in the solid seven figures and with a significant P&A commitment, as a way to plug a franchise-level property into their slate with comparatively little financial risk or production headaches.
Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson and Chloe Moretz star in the pic, which Vaughn, the director of movies like “Stardust” and “Layer Cake,” penned with writing partner Jane Goldman.
As it only cost $30 million to make so it will easily make it’s money back, so whichever studio decides to release it could have a potential franchise on their hands, and we all know they love them. I’m glad Matthew Vaughn’s commitment and dedication has been rewarded with studios fighting over Kick-Ass. He could have easily agreed to change things at the beginning and made life easy for himself, but he decided to do it his way. It may not have worked out for Vaughn with X-Men 3 and Thor, but he’s finally got his own comic book movie that will now be released to the masses.
