Empire Leicester Square
London, UK

Monday 22nd March 2010
Guests arrive from 18:00

Attendees will include: Brad Pitt, Claudia Schiffer, Ellie Goulding, Matthew Vaughn, Mark Strong, Jane Goldman, Aaron Johnson, Mark Milla and John Romita Jr.

Thanks Dulci & Gabriella.

The nine-day film SXSW film fest opens March 12 with the world premiere of Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, starring Aaron Johnson, Cholë Grace Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who will all attend a Conversation panel at the SXSW Film Conference, along with the comic’s writers, Mark Millar and John S. Romita.

“Kick-Ass” most certainly does. Equal parts audacious dark comedy, wish-fulfillment fantasy and over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek action-adventure, Matthew Vaughn’s bloody funny adaptation of a cult-fave comicbook series manages to be sufficiently faithful to its source material to please fervent fanboys while remaining easily accessible for ticketbuyers unfamiliar with the superhero storytelling conventions Vaughn (“Layer Cake”) and co-scripter Jane Goldman satirize as well as celebrate. Scenes of hilariously overstated violence perpetrated by an 11-year-old girl doubtless will discomfort many and incense quite a few. But this deservedly R-rated Lionsgate release should nonetheless score a knockout in theatrical and homevid venues.

Read more/discuss.

The nine-day film SXSW film fest opens March 12 with the world premiere of Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, starring Aaron Johnson, Cholë Grace Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who will all attend a Conversation panel at the SXSW Film Conference, along with the comic’s writers, Mark Millar and John S. Romita.

Read more/discuss.

Focus Features Intl. has snapped up multi-territory rights to Brit helmer Matthew Vaughn’s superhero pic “Kick-Ass.”
Focus has acquired the pic, about a teenager who decides to become a real-life superhero, for the U.K., Australia, Germany, Latin America, Austria, Switzerland and New Zealand, where it will be released via Universal Pictures Intl.

Deal was negotiated by Focus prexy Andrew Karpen and Mandate Intl.’s Joe Drake.

Lionsgate has already acquired the pic for the U.S. and will release next April.

“Kick-Ass” stars Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Mark Strong.

Read more/discuss.