Carrey Causes A Fuss Over Kick-Ass 2

So this is possibly the strangest news story we've seen in a while.

Kick-Ass 2 star Jim Carrey has withdrawn his support from the movie after last year's shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school.

The actor has said he won't do any publicity to promote the film ahead of its release in August, explaining that the incident has changed his opinion on the film's violent content.

He tweeted: "I did Kickass a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence.

"I meant to say my apologies to others involve (sic) with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart."

Universal Pictures has yet to comment on Carrey's decision, but executive producer and comic book creator Mark Millar has said he's "baffled" by it.

Millar posted on his forum: "As you may know, Jim is a passionate advocate of gun-control and I respect both his politics and his opinion, but I'm baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn't in the screenplay eighteen months ago.

"Yes, the body-count is very high, but a movie called Kick-Ass 2 really has to do what it says on the tin. A sequel to the picture that gave us Hit-Girl was always going to have some blood on the floor and this should have been no shock to a guy who enjoyed the first movie so much.

"I've never quite bought the notion that violence in fiction leads to violence in real life any more than Harry Potter casting a spell creates more Boy Wizards in real life.

"Our job as storytellers is to entertain and our toolbox can't be sabotaged by curtailing the use of guns in an action movie."

Millar described Carrey's turn as Stars and Stripes as one of his "best-ever performances" and concluded his forum post by asking the star to reconsider his stance.

Twitter, meanwhile, is calling for the actor to dedicate his fee for the film to charity.


Kick-Ass 2 is released in the UK on August 14 and August 16 in the US.

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New Kick-Ass 2 Trailer & Behind The Scenes Videos

More profanity, violence and politically incorrect dialogue than you can shake a pair of nunchucks at… in can only be Kick-Ass 2.

The latest trailer for the movie, which Mark Millar has claimed is the best movie he's seen so far this year (not that he's biased at all), gives us an extended look at our heroes Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz), and Christopher Mintz-Plasse's The Mother F**ker, who decides to become the world's first supervillain in order to avenge the death of his mobster father.



And talking of Mr Millar, he kindly posted these set visit videos featuring himself and the film's stars behind the scenes.




Jim Carrey, Clark Duke, Donald Faison, John Leguizamo, and Olga Kurkulina also star in Kick-Ass 2, which will arrive in cinemas on August 14 in the UK, and August 16 in the US.

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Kick-Ass 2 Prelude: Hit-Girl - Our Verdict

Words: Mark Millar
Art: John Romita Jr
Buy It: from Titan for £16.99

The Blurb:
Hit-Girl spins off into her own blood-soaked saga! Mindy McCready tries to settle into life as a regular school-girl, but wants nothing more to be dispensing hot justice to the scum of New York City. Her mother thinks she's doing her homework, but in reality she's taken Kick-Ass on as her sidekick and training him up to punch, shoot and stab ... just like Daddy would have wanted. And in return, Kick-Ass is helping her learn to survive middle school - without spilling anyone's blood.

But when Kick-Ass gets benched, leaving Mindy to take on the mafia solo, even Hit-Girl may be in over her head. Meanwhile, Red Mist pursues his goal of becoming a super-villain ... and faces a final test of his own. Hit-Girl is the first act of the upcoming Kick-Ass 2 movie!

Our Verdict:
We loved Kick-Ass the comic, we loved the movie, and we have no doubt we're going to love its sequel. But as our favourite thing about Mark Millar's twisted tale is tween assassin Hit-Girl, it's incredibly gratifying to see Mindy McCready get a share of the limelight.

And, strangely considering the amount of bloodshed, it's a heartwarming tale. Struggling to fit in with the bitches at school, Mindy's yearning for the violent simplicity of her old life. So, like any rebellious youth, she goes against the wishes of her mum and stepfather, digs out her ninja sword and begins working her way down a shit list of crime bosses in a rather gory manner, training Kick-Ass to actually kick some arse and providing some laughs along the way.

And, of course, there's the set up Kick-Ass 2, too. As well as seeing Dave Lizewski's skills improve in the background, we also see Red Mist on a giggleworthy Batman Begins-type journey toward supervillainy.

Retaining the same sadistic sense of humour we've seen before, Millar deftly tells Mindy's story, managing to tread the fine line between anti-heroine and actual psychopath neatly on Hit-Girl's behalf. Mostly, it makes us yearn for more of Mindy - Millar's finest character, in our humble opinion. But those who don't want to see a 12-year-old doing murder, albeit in the pages of a comic book, will probably want to give this a miss. She does do quite a lot of it.

GG♥SF Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥

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Kick-Ass 2: The Trailer

Kick-Ass is back! 

The first trailer for Mark Millar's insane superhero sequel sees our eponymous hero Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and ultra-violent, blade-wielding teenager Mindy (Chloë Grace Moretz), aka Hit Girl, come out of retirement to create the world's first superhero team. 

But when Mindy is caught she's forced to return to the terrifying world of high school, leaving Dave to join forces with Justice Forever and the gang's leader, the barmy ex-mobster Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey). 

Of course, where superheroes go, super villains must follow. The Motherfucker, formerly known as Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), has assembled his own evil league and puts a plan in motion to make Kick-Ass and Hit Girl pay for what they did to his dad. 

Small warning for sensitive types, the trailer is full of expletives, violence, cruelty to testicles and features Aaron Taylor-Johnson's naked torso. In short, it's probably not safe for work (depending on where you work, of course). Looks bloody brilliant, though. 
 

Kick-Ass 2, directed by Jeff Wadlow and produced by Matthew Vaughn, will open on July 19 in the UK and August 16 in the US.

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Should We Fear For The Justice League's Future?

After the success of Avengers Assemble, a box office hit for Warner Bros' Justice League of America movie should be a done deal.

But the big screen future isn't looking so bright for the DC team-up.

First, Fox creative consultant Mark Millar revealed that he thinks the project is a colossal waste of time and money, and now it seems the script is being unceremoniously scrapped by Warner Bros.

Eek.

The Kick-Ass writer told SciFi Now: "The characters were created 75 years ago, even the newest major character was created 68 years ago, so they're in a really weird time.

Singling out Green Lantern, he added: "His power is that he manifests green plasma from his imagination and uses them as weapons against someone?

"Even that in itself if you just imagine then watching a fight scene with a guy who's like a hundred feet away making plasma manifestations fight someone - it's not exactly raucous, getting up close and personal."

And he didn't stop there. The Flash and Aquaman also felt Millar's wrath: "You can get away with stuff in comics that in live action's just a bit sucky – the best one is definitely Aquaman. Aquaman can't even talk under water," he said.

"If you think about it in comics it's fine, you just have a speech balloon, but how do you have Atlantis and people talking under water? Are they gonna talking telepathically? Is it going to be body forms?

"The actual logistics of each member of the Justice League is disastrous, and you put them all together and I think you get an excellent way of losing $200 million."

We wonder if those were the problems Will Beall found while penning his script - a script which has apparently been ripped to shreds by Warner Bros, as sources say it's "terrible".

Badass Digest reports: "I’ve now heard from multiple sources that the Will Beall script for Justice League has been scrapped. The story from each source is the same: it’s terrible.

"Some sources seem to think the whole movie is going to fall apart and never happen, while some believe that Warner Bros will keep moving forward, unwilling to lose the superhero arms race.

"Beall’s script supposedly includes Darkseid and a heavy cosmic threat. But the script has been half-baked from the beginning, with reports saying that heroes (beyond the core five of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern) have been cut and added from the proceedings seemingly at studio executive will."

Eek again, eh?

WB had better sort themselves out if they're going to get the film finished in time for a 2015 release.

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Kick-Ass Comes To An End

Of all superheroes sans superpowers, Dave Lizewski holds a special place in our hearts.

So we're sad to hear that Mark Millar will end the series with the third instalment.

The writer revealed the news to SFX magazine, adding that there will be a definitive ending for the character.

"Kick-Ass 3 is going to be the last one," he said. "I told Universal this and they asked me, 'What does that mean?' I said, 'It means that this is where it all ends'. They said, 'Do they all die at the end?' I said, 'Maybe' - because this is a realistic superhero story.

"And if someone doesn't have a bullet proof vest like Superman and doesn't have Batman's millions then eventually he is going to turn round the wrong corner and get his head kicked in or get shot in the face. So Kick-Ass needs to reflect that. There has to be something dramatic at the end, he cannot do this for the rest of his life."

We're not sure 'realistic' is the word we'd apply to the Kick-Ass world, but we're nonetheless happy to hear that Millar won't compromise the spirit of his creation for a happy ending.

The movie Kick-Ass 2 will hit cinemas on June 28 in the US and on July 19 in the UK.

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X-Men: Sentinels To Debut In Days of Future Past

Despite being such a huge part of the comic book canon, we weren't sure the X-Men movies would ever explore the mutant-hunting robots.

But, it seems we were wrong.

20th Century Fox's creative consultant Mark Millar has promised we'll see the Sentinels hit the silver screen in upcoming sequel, Days of Future Past.

"I don't really want to give too much away but the Sentinels are a big feature of this story," he told SFX magazine. "They will be cool and this will deliver on all of the teasers.

"We've all been waiting for this ever since X-Men: The Last Stand showed us one of their heads. Now it is finally coming, and we only have to pay ten quid to see it in the cinema whereas they're having to pay $100 million to deliver it. So I'm delighted."

Millar went on to compare the film to ensemble productions Star Trek and Lost, promising that "every character gets their own moment to shine".

With a cast list this big, that's a mighty promise, Mr Millar. We're very much hoping Fox can deliver.

X-Men: Days of Future Past will debut on July 18, 2014.

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