When “Kick-Ass” was released, almost exactly a decade ago, the superhero film landscape was completely different than it is now. Marvel Studios was still in its infancy, with one monster hit, “Iron Man,” and one so-so film, “The Incredible Hulk.” The idea of a brightly colored, R-rated superhero film that subverted audiences’ expectations, including one character, an 11-year-old girl named Hit-Girl using the C-word, was laughable, at best. However, that didn’t stop Matthew Vaughn and his cast/crew from doing whatever it took to bring “Kick-Ass” to life.
Speaking to THR, in honor of the film’s 10th anniversary, Vaughn, along with other members of the cast and crew, discussed what it took to make “Kick-Ass” a reality, in an era where superhero films weren’t dominating the box office and studios were far too uncertain about something as strange as what the filmmaker was pitching.
According to Vaughn, everything started when he was pitched by comic book writer Mark Millar about an upcoming book that was being released, titled “Kick-Ass,” that would make a great movie.
“I was desperate to make a superhero film, and I liked Mark’s pitch the moment I heard it,” Vaughn revealed. “According to Hollywood, it was the wrong move because no one wanted to make it. That just got me even more excited, because it seemed so obvious to me.”
To help raise money for the comic book feature, Vaughn went ahead and put together a video package to try to convey the unique tone of the film.
“I had some [previsualization] done so we could raise money for the film,” Vaughn explained. “We did the first minute of the film, which was a good representation of its tone, combining the comedy and violence.”
Apparently, though the footage definitely gave folks an idea of the tone, it was not nearly enough to get studios involved, with one unnamed studio providing nine pages of notes for the script and visualization.
“[One studio] called Hit-Girl a disaster and said the only way to save her was to make her 25 instead of 10 years old,” said ‘Kick-Ass’ creator, Mark Millar. “They also said no one wanted to hear superheroes cuss and recommended hand-to-hand combat instead of knives and guns.”
“No studio would touch it,” Vaughn added. “So I had to mortgage my house in order to finance the film, which was scary, to be honest.”
While “Kick-Ass” wasn’t the monster box office hit that Vaughn and Lionsgate (the distributor that finally boarded the film after the filmmaker premiered clips at San Diego Comic-Con) had hoped, the film was popular enough to spawn a sequel. However, since then, more “Kick-Ass” projects have been rumored, but nothing has been released.
You can see some examples of scenes from the film that would have likely turned off potential studios below: