It's hard to imagine a "superhero" movie that doesn't involve the extensive use of green screens and digital shots, but in a recent interview with Craze, director Matthew Vaughn said that he he tried to use them as "little as possible" in his latest movie, Kick-Ass.
"I hate it. F*cking green screen. It’s like, for me, CGI is for when you really can't do it in camera. I use it when I have to, but I just think it’s fake."
Vaughn defended his "less is more" approach to filmmaking and said that it could also work on a major studio release.
"I’d like to do a big studio franchise in this style, but yeah. I think the studio movies… Well, The Dark Knight showed that you can, and Iron Man in a way, showed that you can mix it up a bit. Yeah, I’d love to do a big studio flick."
Vaughn said that
Kick-Ass is not just about "kicking ass." The main character, Dave "Kick-Ass" Lizewski (played by
Aaron Johnson), learns some valuable life lessons.
"What Dave learns is, he goes on a big journey. At the beginning of the movie, he says, 'Why does nobody help people?' Then he falls in love with someone, so he stops helping people. And then he starts helping people. And he realizes that the reason it stops most people from helping people in danger is that they’ve got to lose. And he realizes that a real hero is someone who, even with something to lose, still does, takes a risk."
As for veteran actor
Nicolas Cage's involvement in the film as Damon "Big Daddy" Macready, Vaughn said that it wasn't a hard sell.
"Nic is a big comic book fan, and he just read the script and went, 'This is cool. I’m in.' Simple as that. You know, Nic wants to do good work, and he was very cool. Literally, we sent him the script and he read it and said, 'I’m in.' So it was a very easy process."
Kick-Ass also stars
Chloe Moretz as Mindy "Hit Girl" Macready and
Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Chris "Red Mist" D'Amico.
Kick-Ass opens April 16, 2010!