IDEA
The idea for the Kick-Ass movie came from the comic book series written by Mark Millar. It was published by Marvel Comics and illustrated by John Romita Jr. The comic-book series is about Dave Lizewski, a teenager who sets out to become a real-life superhero and ends up by being internet famous.
OTHER WINDOWS
A video game produced by WHA Entertainment and Frozen Codebase was released through the App Store on 15 April 2010. The game was released on PlayStation Network on 29 April 2010.
The film has been nominated and has won several awards for Best British film, Best newcomer and more, with Chloe Moretz winning four of them for her performance.
KICK-ASS 2 is currently being filmed and the same cast will be returning, plus a few new faces. Matthew Vaughn has chosen Jeff Wadlow, who also co-wrote the script along with Vaughn, to direct the sequel.
FINANCE
Budget: $30 million
Total income: $96,188,903
Matthew Vaughn went around, securing independent financing. But now that it’s received a positive response at Comic Con; Lionsgate, Paramount, and Universal are all making bids for distribution. The rights to a film version of the comic book were sold before the first issue of the comic book was published.
KICK-ASS
Media
EXHIBITION
A premier was held in London for the film and the cast plus other guests - including Brad Pitt- arrived to promote the movie.
Kick-Ass made £3,881,704 (UK) on the opening weekend (4 April 2010) and it was shown on 402 Screens across the country.
It was shown on 5778 screens across the world on the opening weekend alone.
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 3 August 2010 in North America, selling 1.4 million copies within its first week, one-third of these in Blu-ray format. Kick-Ass debuted at number one on the DVD sales chart and the discs were released in the United Kingdom on 6 September 2010.
SCRIPT DEVELOPMENT
Vaughn: "We wrote the script and the comic at the same time so it was a very sort of collaborative, organic process. I met Millar at the premiere of Stardust. We got on really well. I knew who he was and what he had done but I didn't know him. He pitched me the idea. I said, 'That's great!' He then wrote a synopsis. I went, 'That's great, let's go do it now! You write the comic, I'll write the script.'"
MARKETING
PRODUCTION
Posters were put up in bus stations, magazines and and trailers were shown on TV. Empire and Total Film magazine covered the film and it's journey from page to screen and film reviews are on their websites also. The film was also pitched at San Diego Comic-con and the Empire magazine Movie-Con.
The big studios doubted the success of an adaptation as a violent superhero, which made the film be independently financed, but this gave him the freedom to make the film the way he imagined, without having to worry about high-censorship.
Filming locations include Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Dip 'N' Sip Donuts on Kingston Road in Toronto, Sir Winston Churchill Secondary Schooland "many Toronto landmarks that play cameos"; and various locations in the UK, including Elstree Studios. The opening sequence with Nicolas Cage was filmed in a sewage plant in East London.
The 2D/3D animated comic book sequence in the film took almost two years to finish. Romita created the pencils, Tom Palmer did the inks, and Dean White did the colours.
Production companies involved in making the film were Marv films and Plan B entertainment. Distributors then included institutes such as Universal pictures, Paramount and Warner pictures.
SALES
A teaser trailer was shown and this caused some controversy because of the explicit language used by Chloe (Hit-girl). An international trailer was then released and shown around the world.