
Normally, Mark Millar is not the most reliable of sources, but since we recently confirmed the start date of production on Kick-Ass 2, we can lend a bit more credence to the comic writer’s comments in the following interview. Director Jeff Wadlow (Never Back Down) spoke recently on the progress and tone of the sequel to Matthew Vaughn’s 2010 original hit, Kick-Ass. Millar expands on his comments quite a bit, including a candid talk about Wadlow being chosen as director, the use of Hit-Girl in the sequel, the return of the original cast (including Aaron Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse) and where the franchise will go from here. Some spoilers lay in wait ahead, but feel free to hit the jump as I’ll move the spoiler-free updates to the head of the line.

A couple weeks ago, we reported that Universal was close to green-lighting Kick-Ass 2 written and directed by Jeff Wadlow (Never Back Down), and produced by Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn. At the Kapow! Comic Convention, Wadlow confirmed that shooting would begin in September. However, he added that Chloe Moretz had not officially signed on to reprise her role as Hit-Girl, which may be a bit of a problem since Wadlow had significantly expanded the character’s role from what it was in Mark Millar‘s comic series.
Hit the jump for more on Wadlow’s plans for adapting Kick-Ass 2.

While comic creator Mark Millar has been touting the “greenlight” for Kick-Ass 2 for years now, it turns out that production may finally get started this year. Deadline reports that Universal is in talks to make a sequel to Matthew Vaughn’s excellent 2010 pic Kick-Ass. Vaughn is currently busy developing a sequel to X-Men: First Class, so Jeff Wadlow will be taking over directing duties this time around. Wadlow, who wrote and directed 2005’s Cry_Wolf and directed the 2008 fighting-centered Never Back Down, wrote the script for Vaughn who I’m assuming will be producing. Hit the jump for more.

Take any of the following dates, deadlines or confirmations with a grain of salt because Mark Millar (Kick-Ass) is not known to be the most reliable person when it comes to movie news. However, in a recent interview, the comics writer did give an update on a few of his projects possibly being adapted for the big screen, including Kick-Ass 2, American Jesus and Secret Service. While it looks like Matthew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class) won’t be back to direct the sequel to Kick-Ass, Millar suggests that Vaughn may be attached as a producer when they supposedly shoot this summer. Hit the jump for more.

It didn’t claim the record for highest debut or the greatest attendance, but this year’s Super Bowl weekend still caught most box office watchers by surprise with two bigger-than-expected openings. Fox’s Chronicle was first with $22 million from 2,907 locations, but CBS Films’ The Woman in Black was right on its heels with $21 million from 2,855. That’s the first time that two titles have opened to over $20 million on a Super Bowl frame since… ever.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | Chronicle | $22,000,000 | $22 |
| 2 | The Woman in Black | $21,000,000 | $21 |
| 3 | The Grey | $9,500,000 | $34.7 |
| 4 | Big Miracle | $8,480,000 | $8.5 |
| 5 | Underworld Awakening | $5,600,000 | $54.3 |
| 6 | One For The Money | $5,250,000 | $19.6 |
| 7 | Red Tails | $5,000,000 | $41.3 |
| 8 | The Descendants | $4,600,000 | $65.5 |
| 9 | Man on a Ledge | $4,460,000 | $14.7 |
| 10 | Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close | $3,925,000 | $26.7 |

In Texas Killing Fields, actress Chloe Grace Moretz plays a local girl in a small Texas town, growing up with a drug addict mother, a loser brother, and no shortage of unsavory men hanging around. When she goes missing, Detective Souder (Sam Worthington) and Detective Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) find themselves racing against time to catch a sadistic serial killer, in order to save the young girl’s life.
For the film’s press day, Collider spoke to Chloe Grace Moretz, in both a roundtable and a phone interview, about the appeal of doing a role that was different from what she’s done before, how she got to go to a safe house to talk to former and current meth addicts for research, how freaked out she was that this story was inspired by true events, and how much she loved working with her co-stars, Sam Worthington and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. She also talked about the experience of being a part of Dark Shadows, how the dream of working with director Tim Burton far exceeded all of her expectations, that she hopes they’ll still eventually make a Kick-Ass sequel, how she is waiting for a finished script for the Emily the Strange movie, and that she has four or five projects already lined up for next year, and is just waiting to see which one goes first. Check out what she had to say after the jump.

Like many of you, I loved Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass. And even though the film made almost $100 million worldwide, talk of a sequel is just that…talk. There seems to be no real movement on the property even as Mark Millar releases new issues featuring the colorful characters.
Anyhow, the other day I was on the set of writer/director Maggie Carey’s The To Do List (formerly titled The Hand Job) and was able to participate in a group interview with Christopher Mintz-Plasse (he played Red Mist in Kick-Ass). Eventually we asked him about Kick-Ass 2 and he revealed that’s been reading the comic and still hopes to be able to make the movie. Hit the jump for what he said.
Remember how box office watchers were counting on this weekend to become 2011’s very first big winner? A frame whose combined grosses would finally top 2010’s? With two high profile releases – Rio and Scream 4 – that seemed a reasonable conclusion and it still appears doable. Unfortunately, Friday’s estimates suggest that it will not be the unqualified rout we expected considering that last April’s strongest contender was Kick-Ass. Fox is reporting a $10.2 million opening for Rio from 3,826 locations (well over half of those in 3D). That is not much above the $9.6 million debut of the year’s top opener Rango, which had no 3D price boost in its favor. Projections originally put Rio above Rango’s weekend total but it now appears that the toon will end up well below that $38.1 figure. Meanwhile Scream 4, which many believed would win Friday, pulled in an estimated $8.3 million from 3,305 locations. That puts the sequel on track for a $22 million weekend – well below even the most conservative early projections. Finally, three films are statistically tied for fourth place with Soul Surfer, Hanna and Arthur all estimated in the $2.1 million range for Friday while The Conspirator debuted at number ten with $1.7 million. Details and analysis tomorrow.
| Title | Friday | Total | |
| 1 | Rio | $10,200,000 | $10.2 |
| 2 | Scream 4 | $8,300,000 | $8.3 |
| 3 | Hop | $2,300,00 | $73.7 |
| 4 | Soul Surfer | $2,125,000 | $14.6 |
| 5 | Hanna | $2,124,000 | $18.1 |
Four new releases hit theatres this weekend, including one that was marketed to within an inch of its life. Still, year-to-year grosses will be down once again by almost 10% and it was a holdover that took the number one title. Universal’s Hop earned an estimated $21.7 million to put it on top of the US box office for the second week in a row.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | Hop | $21,700,000 | $68.1 |
| 2 | Arthur | $12,600,000 | $12.6 |
| 3 | Hanna | $12,300,000 | $12.3 |
| 4 | Soul Surfer | $11,100,000 | $11.1 |
| 5 | Insidious | $8,740,000 | $27 |
| 6 | Your Highness | $9,500,000 | $9.5 |
| 7 | Source Code | $9,050,000 | $28.6 |
| 8 | Limitless | $5,690,000 | $64.3 |
| 9 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 | $4,885,000 | $45.4 |
| 10 | The Lincoln Lawyer | $4,600,000 | $46.4 |
Ouch. Though it seemed likely after Friday’s figures were announced, the fact that Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules so easily topped the flashier Sucker Punch has still got to hurt the folks at Warners this morning.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 | $24,400,000 | $24.4 |
| 2 | Sucker Punch | $19,000,000 | $19 |
| 3 | Limitless | $15,225,000 | $41.2 |
| 4 | The Lincoln Lawyer | $11,000,000 | $28.9 |
| 5 | Rango | $9,800,000 | $106.3 |
| 6 | Battle: Los Angeles | $7,600,000 | $72.5 |
| 7 | Paul | $7,500,000 | $24.6 |
| 8 | Red Riding Hood | $4,340,000 | $32.4 |
| 9 | The Adjustment Bureau | $4,240,000 | $54.8 |
| 10 | Mars Needs Moms | $2,186,000 | $19.1 |

Last month, we found out Comedy Central and MTV Networks were putting together The Comedy Awards, a broadcast awards event to honor the best comedy films, actors, TV series, digital content and stand-up acts. The Comedy Awards will be taped on March 26th for a premiere on Sunday, April 10th which will be simultaneous broadcast on Comedy Central, Spike TV, TV Land, VH1 and Nick At Nite. Now the nominations for the awards’ debut have finally been revealed, and they mostly hit the nail on the head. There’s love for big comedies like The Other Guys and Get Him to the Greek, but lower profile films like Cyrus and Tiny Furniture get some love too. Check out the full list of nominees after the jump.

With reports swirling about that Kick-Ass co-writer Jane Goldman is currently writing that film’s sequel, the X-Men: First Class co-scribe took to Twitter earlier today in an attempt to set the record straight. Via two different tweets, Goldman denied reports that she is already hard at work on Kick-Ass 2 saying:
“Saw a few erroneous reports today that I’m currently writing Kick Ass 2 script – sorry if anyone’s disappointed, but not true. Currently writing for 2 other projects, then on to lovely Matthew V’s next thing (right now, looks unlikely to be KA2) when X-Men post-prod’ ends.”
Based upon the above, if Goldman’s not working on the Kick-Ass 2 script and it’s “unlikely” that director Matthew Vaughn’s next film will be Kick-Ass 2, then what’s Vaughn working on after X-Men: First Class? For my best guess, hit the jump.
After just one weekend of excitement surrounding the release of The Green Hornet, the box office reverted to more modest numbers this weekend. As the week’s sole new release the romantic comedy No Strings Attached came out on top, bringing in a higher than expected total estimated at $20.3 million from its 3,018 locations.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | No Strings Attached | $20,300,000 | $20.3 |
| 2 | The Green Hornet | $18,100,000 | $63.4 |
| 3 | The Dilemma | $9,720,000 | $33.3 |
| 4 | The King’s Speech | $9,100,000 | $58.6 |
| 5 | True Grit | $8,000,000 | $138.6 |
| 6 | Black Swan | $6,200,000 | $83.5 |
| 7 | The Fighter | $4,515,000 | $73 |
| 8 | Little Fockers | $4,390,000 | $141.1 |
| 9 | Yogi Bear | $4,060,000 | $88.8 |
| 10 | Tron Legacy | $3,700,000 | $163.2 |
January suffered another down weekend, with estimated grosses for the top ten films down almost 56% over this weekend in 2010. Paramount had reason to celebrate, as True Grit outdrew Little Fockers in the weekend race for the first time. Season of the Witch, 2011’s first new title, struggled while Sony/SG’s Country Strong did modest business in its first expanded nationwide run.
| Title | Weekend | Total | |
| 1 | True Grit | $15,000,000 | $110.4 |
| 2 | Little Fockers | $13,800,000 | $124 |
| 3 | Season of the Witch | $10,700,000 | $10.7 |
| 4 | Tron Legacy | $9,803,000 | $147.9 |
| 5 | Black Swan | $8,400,000 | $61.4 |
| 6 | Country Strong | $7,300,000 | $7.4 |
| 7 | The Fighter | $7,000,000 | $57.8 |
| 8 | The King’s Speech | $6,811,000 | $33.2 |
| 9 | Yogi Bear | $6,810,000 | $75.6 |
| 10 | Tangled | $5,200,000 | $175.8 |

Season of the Witch is a supernatural action adventure that follows Behman (Nicolas Cage), a man who returns home after years of brutal warfare, only to find his world destroyed by the Black Plague. When the church elders, convinced that a girl accused of being a witch (Claire Foy) is responsible for the devastation, command Behman and his closest friend Felson (Ron Perlman) to transport the strange girl to a remote monastery where monks will perform an ancient ritual to rid the land of her curse, the men embark on a harrowing, action-filled journey that will test their strength and courage. As the mission is made even more challenging by increasingly disturbing events, the men discover the girl’s dark secret and find themselves battling a powerful force that will determine the fate of the world.
In a recent exclusive phone interview with Collider, Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage talked about why he was attracted to this project, getting to use a sword and ride a horse for the role, working with Christopher Lee, who he is a true admirer of, re-teaming with director Dominic Sena (they did Gone in Sixty Seconds together), and how much he enjoyed filming in Austria. Check out what he had to say after the jump:
Oren Peli Talks CHERNOBYL DIARIES, Found Footage Movies, and More
Screenwriter David Koepp Pens Sci-Fi Film THE WIND for Warner Bros and Debut Director Nic Mathieu
IAm8Bit in Los Angeles Hosts NOTEBOOK NERD Featuring the Artwork of Jim Rugg
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