Kick-Ass 2 Has Been Green Lit?
Tue, August 31, 2010 
According to the most honest man in Hollyweird, Mark Millar, the purposed sequel for Kick-Ass has received the green light from the studio due to an excessive amount of home video sales. The reasoning behind the green light would make perfect sense, but Millar is a notorious bullshitter when it comes to future projects so I'm taking this bit of news with a giant heaping of salt.
The first film wasn't able to find the audience the studio expected in theatres, but apparently faired much better on home video. The box office take was still $96 million world wide with a production budget of only $30 million, so the film still made it's money back and then some in box office alone. However apparently Lionsgate had much higher hopes for the film and in turn had no initial plans for a sequel, regardless of what Millar's had to say about it in the past and quite possibly even now. If an official announcement comes from Lionsgate in the next few weeks we'll know his claims were legitimate, if not he'll continue to be full of shit, no surprise there.
Millar had previously made a press release stating that Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall, would begin production in 2011 for a 2012 theatrical release. Yet nothing official was ever announced by the studio.
The first Kick-Ass was made completely independently and then bought by Lionsgate for distribution, so it’s unclear to me what process a sequel would have to go through to get greenlit (Does Lionsgate have to give the all clear? Can Vaughn just pull together the money independently again?). As for Matthew Vaughn, he’ll be tied up with X-Men: First Class for the near future, but with the way that Fox is fast tracking that film for a June 2011 release, he could conceivably be ready to direct another Kick-Ass film by next year.
As much as I loved the first Kick-Ass, you can read my review HERE, I have find it hard to believe we'll actually be getting a sequel. I'd love to see it happen, but I'm not holding my breath for anything.
Reader Comments (1)
I had a funny feeling this was going to happen, after the DVD/Blu-Ray sales were counted. The only thing that concerns me, is, as you pointed out, will the likes of Lionsgate and Universal (they released it in other parts of the world) get more control over the franchise. If Millar and Vaughn make it relatively cheaply like the first one, I don't see there being a problem, but if the budget gets too big Liongate might insist on a PG:13 rating (a lot of younger teens snuck into the first film).