HeyUGuys were lucky to be invited to the sound stage at the world famous Pinewood Studio early last October to witness the filming of Kick-Ass 2. We were ushered past multitudes of superheroes who were all prepping for the movie’s climactic finale – a fight between all those who are good and all those who are not! This final scene takes place in Red Mist’s (now known as the Motherf*cker) evil lair and we got to speak to many of the cast and filmmakers throughout the day, both in the lair and in the Justice Forever HQ which was equipped with it’s very own graffitied table where most the interviews took place.
Over the course of the next few days, you’ll hear from the stars and filmmakers of Kick-Ass 2, including Kick-ass himself, Aaron Johnson, Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz), director Jeff Wadlow and Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). We thought it would be best to start with the man who first thought up that crazy, gloriously OTT world. Writer Mark Miller talked to us about how true to the comic this second movie is, what needed to be changed and where he sees things going from here.
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What’s it like coming back for a second movie and did you write differently on the second book knowing that would become a movie?
I actually never think about it. It’s really funny but I never imagined lines being said by the actors. I think the minute you try and second guess a movie, you do a shit comic. You see it all the time – people thinking “what would work on a film”. You’ve got to think about your primary audience, you’ve got to think about the performance or you should just buggar off and be a screenwriter. You’ve just got to think about what’s entertaining when you turn the page.
I’m lucky that my style is quite cinematic so it lends itself well. I tend to follow a three act structure and usually think about the sequences as very linear. There’s the same number of scenes in the movie roughly as in one of my story arcs so it’s a really easy transition usually. Alan Moore tends to write in twelve act structures which doesn’t tend to lend itself to something like movies, it’s lends itself better to something more like television. I’ve always been a big cinema fan so I guess subconsciously structure my stories the same way as movies.
How faithful an adaptation is the second book to the film?
It’d say it’s about 80 – 85%. Some bits are slightly toned down because it’s happening to real people. It’s weird when you see it happening to comic characters. It’s intense but there’s still that slight distance. When you see real people, you maybe have to tone it down. All the scenes are there but just maybe slightly tweaked so you’re not utterly suicidal! It’s quite dark. When I read it over again I thought ‘this is f*cked up!”
The Hit Girl book is the first half, maybe the first half of the movie, and is a bit lighter and breezier so is more like Mean Girls than Reservoir Dogs! Then it goes dark so you can almost handle it because you’ve had a bit of a laugh and then you can handle the darker stuff. Jeff [Wadlow – Director and Screenplay] has managed the light and shade really well so just as it’s getting too dark you get a little laugh. Tarantino always does that well too I think does that balance.
I couldn’t believe it when the first movie was rated 15 because that had the C-Bomb in there and I thought “Who has [Matthew] Vaughn paid off?!” I couldn’t believe it and I assumed when I read the script that it would be cut off but when I was watching the Rushes which are sent up to me in Scotland streamed and I phoned Matthew and I said I can’t believe the C-Bomb is in there and he said ‘We’ll see what happens’ and then it was in the first cut and then I’m sitting there in the cinema sitting with my aunt, all my aunts and wondering ‘How can this possibly get through’?!
The first film had the C-Bomb as the talking point. Does this movie have something which will get people talking?
Yes. Absolutely. When I was writing the comic it was in Issue 4 of Kick-Ass 2 and I was thinking what would super-villains do if they found out a superheroes true identity. The C-Bomb line in the first one is Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s line where he says ‘You’re about to see what evil d*ck tastes like’! It’s the most horrible line and I thought ‘I wonder if that will make it into the film, but it’s there! There’s a great payoff in the movie which makes it less offence when you see it on screen.
My plan originally for Kick-Ass 2 was for a real big bad-ass guy – almost a Bane type guy to come in and kill Chris’ character in the first act (this is what I was thinking way back in 2008). Then I met Chris and really liked him and thought “I can’t get rid of Chris” so I thought it would be fun to play with that McLovin’ thing and because people feel safe when they see him on screen, we’ll turn him into Heath Ledger, worse than Heath Ledger and I thought people will think ‘I can’t believe I’m seeing McLovin doing all this horrible stuff’. I said to Chris I’m going to try and do something that makes people see you as McLovin and that’s when I changed his name to The Motherf*cker.
The first movie was made outside the studio system which meant you could do what you want. Now that a studio is involved, has that dumbed it down?
Matthew’s very savvy, he’s really screwed. I always say “He’s an average looking man who’s married to a supermodel! ” He knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s the smartest guy you’ll ever meet in your life. That was my concern too. Matthew has a deal where if anyone asks a question they can remove him and can take it to another studio so the movie can be exactly what we want it to be.
It’s still very independently made, there’s no Universal guys on set. The studios are getting more like that. That happens on these $200m pictures but not on a $28m movie, they just don’t give a sh*t. I’m seeing that at my job at Fox now too. They hire people they trust then let them get on with it. If you’re Matthew Vaughn or James Mangold working at Fox, you just want to get on with your job.
Do you think you could ever do a spin-off from one of the characters?
The logical one is Hit-Girl but there’s a part of me that likes the idea of ending. Because I love the fact that everyone liked the first one but it was a massive wide hit. Everyone who saw it seemed to love it and it got all these 5 star reviews but I think the second one will probably have an Austin Powers 2 or Lethal Weapon 2 thing to do it where enough people went to the first one and it had a solid base and then it exploded for the second one. I think the second one could go like that , become a really big thing and then to end it with a third one could be really cool. When people make money they never stop. They think ‘Let’s do seven rubbish ones and get as much money as we can’!. I’ve always had a conclusion in mind, when I wrote page one of the first one I knew the final panel of the third book so Kick-ass 3 I’m writing at the moment and it’s the end of Dave’s story. It’s the logical conclusion of what would happen if you were a realistic superhero. I think something could be done with Hit-Girl but it has to be the right story. Hit-Girl has potential but Dave’s story ends in 3, that’s it.
I think they [Universal Pictures] might continue to make movies after the books. I do think Universal seem keen on making other ones.
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Kick-Ass 2 hits UK cinemas 14th August.
