This from Comic Book Resources:
Can you talk about the genesis of this project and how you came to be involved?
It basically started at the U.K. premier of "Stardust." Mark Millar came up to me, and Neil Gaiman was there, and he had heard how much I respected Neil and his work and how collaborative I was him and he said, "I have an idea for a new comic I'm toying with." He hadn't even written it. And he said, "Do you want to sit down and have a drink about it?" And I was like, "Yeah, I'd love to." So we had a few drinks and got on extremely well and he pitched it to me, and I said, "[frick]. That's sounds so cool."
Speaking of Mark, how was it working with him on this project? How hands-on is he?
He's pretty hands-on, in the sense that I want him to be hands-on. I ring him up every time I want to make a big decision. We finished the script before he finished the comic, so he's like, "Oh, that's a good idea," which is probably unheard of, and when it came to casting, I showed him all the casting tapes, and when we were designing costumes...it was his idea. So filmmakers that ignore the guy who created it are idiots. You've got to keep it real to what it is.
And what about Aaron Johnson?
He's something else. I nearly pulled the movie because I'd seen about 500 actors for the role, and it was mid-day on a Friday and I said, "I've had enough of this shit." There were too many young boys who all wanted to be famous and had no craft, no technique and didn't know how to act. And I was like, "OK. If we can't find the right guy to play Dave, because it doesn't matter who is playing all the other roles, we're screwed. It's all about Dave and we'll live or die by that casting." And Aaron literally walked in as the second to last guy I met for the role. I remember that I was paranoid that it was desperation that brought him in, but he was brilliant. We needed the weekend to think about it. And then I met him again, and he was just brilliant.
Is "Kick-Ass" part of an initiative to make a Mark Millar-verse of movies?
Aaron Johnson's last minute casting saved the movie's productionThat would be Mark's dream. I think between Mark and Neil Gaiman, I've captured working with two comic book writers who have huge voices right now. And I think Mark has very commercial ideas and he deserves to have more stuff made.
I think Neil deserves to have more stuff made. I think it's weird that hardly any Neil Gaiman stuff has been made. The idea that no one has made "Sandman" yet is weird.
Is that a project you'd like to do?
You know what, I would love to do "Sandman," but I think it's stuck in development hell. But that could be like a "Lord of the Rings" – just a huge movie.
For the full interview just click the link below for more from Vaughn about shooting the movie and his thoughts on superheroes and comic books. Kick-Ass is released later this year on April 15th.
About The Author:
Comic Book Reader. Film Lover. WWE and F1 Fan. Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and ComicBookMovie.com's #1 contributor.