Concedes Matthew Vaughn Would Likely Only Produce, Not Direct
Mark Millar likes to talk a lot of shit. In fact, for much of 2010 the comic writer could not shut the hell up about a potential “Kick-Ass 2,” boldly proclaiming it would be like “A Clockwork Orange” or “A History Of Violence,” predicting it would hit theaters in 2012, and that it was green-lit with pre-production set to begin this past April. Well obviously, none of those things happened. And talking recently to Hero Complex, a much more humble and reasonable Millar finally admitted that the likelihood of a sequel was looking pretty slim and not only that, Matthew Vaughn is probably too busy doing his own stuff to direct.
“Hopefully, we can use the same actors if and when we do a sequel, but getting Matthew [Vaughn] to direct or Jane [Goldman] to write a movie at this budget would be very difficult because they’re superstars now and they have projects of their own,” Millar said. “I’d imagine, if this happens any time soon, that Matthew will produce and possibly co-write, like George Lucas did with ‘The Empire Strikes Back,’ and hire a new director. But there’s a window because the actors are all supposed to be in high school and if this came out after 2013, for example, that window would have closed. I obviously know more than I can say, but I think people will be pretty happy with the conversations we’ve been having.”
This is a much different Millar than we’re used to, though he still does remain somewhat blissfully ignorant. During the press run for “X-Men: First Class,” Vaughn made no secret of his aversion to a “Kick-Ass” sequel, saying that a follow-up would be “crass.”
“Everyone says we’re doing ‘Kick-Ass 2’ but… the weird thing about ‘Kick-Ass 2’ is I’d love to do it, because I enjoyed it so much, but I’m a big believer that if you’re going to do a sequel it’s got to be as good as the first one if not better. I just don’t know how I could…My business brain just says do ‘Kick-Ass 2,’ shoot it and get it out there and it would make a lot of money but I really do love that movie,” Vaughn said in May. “It was a special moment to me making that film and I don’t want to spoil it. I’m not saying it’s as good as ‘Pulp Fiction’ but I think it would be weird if Tarantino did ‘Pulp Fiction 2.’ Everything that made ‘Kick-Ass’ original and fun, if you do it again, it would be crass…”
Of course, maybe Vaughn’s business brain would be content if he was just producing and not directing, and if Millar is indeed having conversations about trying to make this happen, we see that being a route the director may go down. However, it seems 2012 is the make or break year for the movie happening so we’ll see how everything unfolds in the ensuing months, but at least from here on out (we hope) this marks the beginning of a less hyperbolic Mark Millar.
