Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps director Oliver Stone has got together an impressive cast for his next movie, Savages, which is based on the Don Winslow novel and follows a pair of marijuana growers who come up against a Mexican drug cartel when their girlfriend becomes kidnapped and held for ransom.

Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) and Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) will play the growers, with Blake Lively (The Town) set to play their kidnapped lady friend. Deadline also has word that Stone is arranging a Pulp Fiction reunion with John Travolta and Uma Thurman joining the film. Thurman will play Lively’s mother, Paqu, and Travolta will play a burned out Drug Enforcement agent.

Also among the cast are Salma Hayek, who’ll play the role of Mexican cartel queen-pin Elena; and Benicio Del Toro, who plays the vicious cartel enforcer Lado. Emile Hirsch (Into The Wild) has also joined the film according to Variety, although his role has not been revealed. Other parts are yet to be cast, so we can probably expect more names to join the project before it’s planned July shoot.

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Bryan Singer’s Jack the Giant Killer is edging forward and Warner Bros. is close to finding its lead. According to THR Aaron Johnson, Nicholas Hoult and Aneurin Barnard are up for the role of the young farmer.

Singer probably spotted Hoult while he was filming X-Men: First Class as Beast, in which Singer is a producer. Aaron Johnson has been mentioned for the role on a number of occasions, likely due to his appearance in Kick-Ass and recommendations from director Matthew Vaughn.

In the movie a princess is kidnapped, threatening a long-standing peace between men and giants. A young farmer is given an opportunity to lead a dangerous expedition to the giants’ kingdom in hope of rescuing her.

THR also says that Adelaide Kane, Lily Collins (Priest) and Juno Temple are testing for the part of the princess. Offers are likely to be sent out soon as “Singer and the studio are aiming for tests to occur in London within the next two weeks”, with the aim of a March shoot.

Filming on Giant Killer was originally set to begin this July, but they soon realized more time was needed to figure out the visual effects (as there will be a lot of them) so Warner Bros. pushed filming back. In the meantime Singer had his regular writer Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie, The Wolverine) re-work the script.

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You may remember at the beginning of the year Bryan Singer had two projects he was lining up to direct: Jack the Giant Killer and X-Men: First Class. Unfortunately for Singer neither could wait, so Singer became a producer on X-Men and 20th Century Fox brought in Matthew Vaughn to take over.

Filming on Giant Killer was originally set to begin this July, but they soon realized more time was needed to figure out the visual effects (as there will be a lot of them) so Warner Bros. pushed filming back to early next year. In the meantime Singer had his regular writer Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie, Wolverine 2) re-working the script, and now the project ready to go.

From Deadline:

Bryan Singer is getting his green light on Jack the Giant Killer, and he’s now figuring out who’ll climb the vine and slay the oversized villain. I’m told it has become the role that young actors are circling. I’ve also heard that Singer’s sweet on Aaron Johnson, who played the title role in Kick-Ass, and portrayed the young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy. Now, Johnson is hardly a lock; New Line is seeing a lot of other young actors as well. Production will begin this spring.

In the fantasy adventure a princess is kidnapped, threatening a long-standing peace between men and giants. A young farmer is given an opportunity to lead a dangerous expedition to the giants’ kingdom in hope of rescuing her. Aaron Johnson would be a good pick, but we’ll have to see which other young actors have auditioned for the role.

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Kick-Ass creator Mark Miller is currently writing the Kick-Ass 2 comic, which he plans to finish by Christmas, and then according to Miller Matthew Vaughn will jump straight into pre-production once the director has finished X-Men: First Class next May/June.

While many would be more than happy with a 2012 release for Kick-Ass 2, Aaron Johnson (Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass) doesn’t think the sequel will happen any time soon.

From Cinematical:

Johnson, who played Dave Lizewski (aka Kick-Ass), said, “Mark Millar’s very enthusiastic about it, yeah, definitely. I mean, I think he’s sort of set it up for a second one, but it kind of goes through Matthew Vaughn, and what have you, and they’re not going to make one any time soon…. The way I heard was that we were going to wait until, I don’t know, and it’s, you know, it’s not any time soon, I don’t think. They’re going to hold off and wait for that anticipation, I suppose.”

When we asked him if there was a script for ‘Kick-Ass 2,’ he said there wasn’t and that he hadn’t seen anything, even though he talks to director Matthew Vaughn regularly.

One of the main reasons for not sitting around would be due to Chloe Moretz’s inevitable growth as she is now officially a teenager. A 14/15 year old kicking-ass would still be fun, but the sooner they get to it the better.

You can read what Mark Miller has planned for Kick-Ass, Hit-Girl and Red Mist in the sequel here!

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Mark Millar isn’t one to keep tight lipped about anything, so when asked what he had planned for the Kick-Ass sequel (currently titled Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall) he let the details flow. The current plan is for him to finish writing the new comic by Christmas, and then production can start around April next year after director Matthew Vaughn has completed work on X-Men: First Class.

From MovieWeb:

Mark Millar: The film and the comic book are very closely tied together. There are only a few minor changes towards the end. It does led directly into a sequel, and I am writing the sequel as I always planned it to be. The actors may be a little bit older, or bigger. They can address that in the movie. But I am not changing anything for the comic book. We left things off with her being adopted by this extremely nice man. He is a cop. And she has to stop killing people, you know? That seems like an interesting starting point in the next one in regards to her character. She is going to be like Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven, where she hasn’t picked up a gun in years. It’s that type of thing. I like the idea of doing that with an eleven year old girl. She was part of this massive cacophony of violence. But she’s not allowed to kill people anymore. She is consumed with anger, and forced to watch TV shows instead. Halfway through the movie, or the comic, we will follow her as she picks up a gun again. It is going to be awesome.

And what about Red Mist?

Mark Millar: This is a guy who has had his entire family killed by Hit Girl. He heads off and develops his martial arts skills. He learns how to become a better villain. That type of thing. He is going to come back and wreck unholy vengeance on our team. But in reality, he just comes back and gets stoned, and he spends a lot of money. He can’t do anything, so he hires this bad ass girl from Russia, she comes into the story, and her plan is to kill Hit Girl. Red Mist becomes like Charles Manson. He goes on-line and influences a bunch of young villains to go against Kick-Ass and Hit Girl. The whole thing ends up as a big gang fight like you’d see in The Warriors. There is going to be a big gang fight in the middle of Times Square between all of these costumed heroes. And at the head will be the Red Mist and Hit Girl.

Kick-Ass is one of my favorite movies of 2010 (alongside Inception of course), so I am up for a sequel, but only if they keep the spirit of the first film and only if Vaughn gets 100% creative control like he had before. Lionsgate will probably be funding and distributing his time so they can at least go into the second film knowing people are looking forward to it and it will be seen.

Kick-Ass will be released on DVD/Blu-ray next week, and you can pre-order it via these links:

DVD | Blu-ray

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Speculation arose in May when James McAvoy, Aaron Johnson and X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn were spotted having what looked like a meeting. Within a few weeks McAvoy was cast as Charles Xavier in the prequel, which then lead people to wonder whether Vaughn may also have a role for his Kick-Ass actor.

Over recent weeks Johnson had been on the short-list to play Spider-Man, however with the casting of Andrew Garfield last week Johnson may have now committed to X-Men: First Class. From an AICN tipster:

I work in the [REDACTED] and we heard today that Matthew Vaughn found his young Cyclops and it shouldn’t be any surprise because he worked with him before. It’s Aaron Johnson. This is one hundred percent locked at this point. Thought you guys should know.

If this is officially confirmed in the near future that just leaves Jean and Storm to be cast, and whoever else they may be adding.

Earlier this week it was reported that Benjamin Walker, who had been cast as Beast, has left the project to focus on his Broadway show Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. According to Showbiz411 20th Century Fox were concerned about his age as Beast is supposed to be younger than Xavier and Magneto (McAvoy and Michael Fassbender) so they may be announcing a new Hank McCoy soon.

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Deadline are reporting that Sony is edging closer to finding its new Peter Parker, having viewed the screen tests of most of the young actors they are seriously considering.

Jamie Bell, Logan Lerman, Anton Yelchin, Aaron Johnson, Andrew Garfield and Alden Ehrenreich are all said to be in contention. Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) may have ruled himself out as he is expected to attend London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art later this year.

Out of the names above i’d go for either Jame Bell or Anton Yelchin, but that’s mainly because i’m familiar with them. For all we know relative unknowns Andrew Garfield and Alden Ehrenreich could have knocked their screen tests out of the park.

Sony wants to lock in its Spider-Man soon so that supporting roles can be cast around him. Production will begin before the end of the year with a July 3, 2012 release date set. The script by Jamie Vanderbilt is still being worked on, and (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb is gearing up for a 3D shoot.

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According to The L.A Times Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) and Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, Terminator Salvation) are on Sony’s list to play Peter Parker in the Spider-Man reboot, bringing the total number of potential Parkers to 7.

Jamie Bell, Alden Ehrenreich, Frank Dillane, Andrew Garfield and Josh Hutcherson are all apparently in contention, and last week we heard that Jamie Bell may have landed the role, however it seems Sony still hasn’t chosen yet.

Aaron Johnson isn’t a very inspired choice seeing as though he’s just been seen playing a geeky teenager in Kick-Ass, although he would probably do well in the role. I quite like the idea of Anton Yelchin. He’s just turned 21 but he could still pass as a convincing high school Peter Parker. The only problem with Anton is that the Star Trek sequel is expected to start filming early next year which may conflict with the Spider-Man schedule.

On the one hand I want Sony to choose the best actor for the job, which will take time, however on the other all this speculation fun can only last for so long before it gets tiresome.

Who do you want to play Spider-Man? Would you actually prefer an unknown?

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The Kick-Ass DVD and Blu-ray release date has been set for August 3rd, and the discs will contain quite a few behind the scenes clips and features.

Amazon has made Kick-Ass available to pre-order. Click here for the DVD, and here to pre-order the Blu-ray.

Check out the DVD art, a feature on Hit-Girl, and DVD/Blu-ray specs below:

BLU-RAY DISC SPECIAL FEATURES
DISC ONE
• Ass-Kicking Bonus View Mode (Blu-ray Disc Exclusive) – Synchronous with the feature film, this innovative multi-media presentation incorporates video and audio commentary, behind-the-scenes clips and illustrative graphics with Co-Writer/Producer/Director Matthew Vaughn, plus cast and crew providing an all-access perspective on Kick-Ass
• “A New Kind of Superhero: The Making of Kick-Ass “ documentary (Blu-ray Disc Exclusive)
• “It’s On! The Comic Book Origin of Kick-Ass” featurette
• Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Matthew Vaughn
• “The Art of Kick-Ass” gallery
• Marketing Archive
• BD Touch and Metamenu Remote
• Lionsgate Live™ enabled, featuring extra content for Internet-connected players
• Enhanced for D-Box™ Motion Control Systems

DISC TWO
• Standard Definition DVD Copy of the feature film

DISC THREE
• Standard Definition Digital Copy of the feature film

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES
• Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Matthew Vaughn
• “It’s On! The Comic Book Origin of Kick-Ass” featurette
• “The Art of Kick-Ass” gallery
• Marketing Archive

Kick-Ass, which was made for $28 million, took just over $90 million during its box office run. An extra $15 – $30 million from DVD and Blu-ray sales should make Lionsgate and Vaughn happy, and Kick-Ass can be considered a ‘success’.

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Following the announcement that James McAvoy would be playing Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class I did a bit of Googling and came across something that could be something…or it could be nothing.

The image above, taken by one of those paparazzi types, shows director Matthew Vaughn with James McAvoy and Aaron Johnson (who played Dave Lizewski in Vaughn’s Kick-Ass). This meeting took place last week, and given the recent casting news we can assume Vaughn and McAvoy were taking about X-Men: First Class. So what’s Johnson doing there?

Could it be that Johnson was at the meeting to talk about First Class also? Could the 19 year old actor be playing Cyclops, perhaps? I doubt he will be playing Magneto unless they are planning on having the X-Men appear as embryos.

We recently heard that First Class producer Bryan Singer has met with Johnson regarding him playing Jack in Jack the Giant Killer, however Singer was also using the casting meetings to find a potential Scott Summers. Given that Giant Killer‘s filming has been pushed back to February, could Johnson end up in both films?

X-Men: First Class casting news will no doubt pour in over the next few weeks, so if Johnson does join First Class remember it was speculated here first!

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