Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant is doing the festival thing with lots of hype about Nicolas Cage, which is awesome. The guy is working a lot these days, doing voice overs for Astro Boy and has a great part in Kick-Ass, both coming soon.
Today it was announced that Cage joined the cast of The Hungry Rabbit Jumps, a thriller to be directed by director Roger Donaldson, who directed The Bank Job. The story follows a man whose wife is the victim of a brutal crime. He then becomes intertwined with an underground vigilante organization.
Rabbit is scheduled to start production in January in New Orleans. However, this isn’t his only upcoming project. He has The Green Hornet and Drive Angry. From reading the trades I got the impression he’ll film Rabbit after Hornet and before Angry.
Access Hollywood reports that Clark Duke (Superbad) has joined the cast of Kick-Ass, an upcoming comic book adaptation being directed by Matthew Vaughn.
Clark said, backstage at the MTV VMAs, that he is “pretty excited” about the project and that he will start in a week or two.
He will play Marty, a good and comedic comic book geek friend to the film’s lead character Dave. Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz and Aaron Johnson also star.
I came across these pictures (via sci-fi web site) of Nicolas Cage working on Kick Ass, a movie about a superhero daddy named Big Daddy and a superhero daughter named Hit Girl. Apparently, Cage’s character is sleazy, violent and un-fatherly.
Filming continues in Toronto with casting notices for high school looking extras.
Versatile actor Nicolas Cage, in a conference call this week to promote Bangkok Dangerous, has revealed that he and Marvel have begun talking about a potential sequel to Ghost Rider, a movie which was universally panned by critics but did well at the box office.
He notes that the film will feature a different setting – Europe – having the Rider ally with the Catholic Church and deal with supernatural stuff. The film’s antagonist is yet to be decided.
Cage also noted that he is involved in the big-screen adaptation of Kick Ass, which is about ready to begin filming. “I play a guy named Damon and I’m the father of Mindy, who is Hit Girl and I’m Big Daddy and I’m training my daughter to become a superhero,” he disclosed.
Yet another comic book gets set for production.
Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson and Lyndsy Fonseca are set to star in “Kick-Ass,” Matthew Vaughn’s adaptation of the violent Mark Millar comic book.
The clever-twist superhero story is written by Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr.; the Marvel Comics’ Icon imprint book focuses on a high school dweeb named Dave Lizewski. Lizewski decides to become a superhero despite the fact that he has no athletic ability or coordination. Finally, he runs into some real bad guys with real weapons.
According to Hollywood Reporter, Johnson plays the dweeb, the title character; Fonseca plays the object of the teen’s infatuation who assumes Dave is effeminate. Cage plays a former cop who intent is to bring down a druglord. He has a daughter (Chloe Moretzp) and he trained her to be a lethal weapon.
The movie is going into production right away this fall. Shoots are planned for London and Toronto.
From The Hollywood Reporter comes word that Matthew Vaughn (Stardust) is moving ahead to direct Kick-Ass, an adaptation of the comic by Mark Millar.
The film has been passed on by Hollywood studios due to its violent nature. However, Vaughn himself has raised the money for the $30 million indie project himself.
Written by Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr., the series follows a high school dweeb who attempts to reinvent himself as a real-world costumed superhero named Kick-Ass; however, he is neither athletic nor coordinated… until he runs into real bad guys with real weapons.
The film is expected to start shooting this Fall.
Hot off finishing Wanted, Mark Millar sat down with Comic Book Resources and revealed that he is already working on another project: the film version of Kick Ass, which he co-wrote. Millar disclosed that pre-production on the movie is almost complete, noting that the script was finished six months ago and that casting is now complete with two ‘big names’ attached. He also revealed himself to be involved as a producer for about eight months.
He notes that smaller roles have also been filled, such as “the kids who show up at the end of Issue #3.” Filming is scheduled to begin in New York this August.
