More From Mark Millar On Kick-Ass, Miracle Park And Nemesis!
The comic book writer talks about the financial and critical reaction to Kick-Ass, talks about working on and casting his directorial debut Miracle Park, and briefly shares his thoughts on Tony Scott directing Nemesis...
On The Success Of Kick-Ass:
"It did $100m on theatrical and a further $100m on DVD, but funnily enough we were disappointed: we wanted it to do on a parallel with Avatar which coined in at least £800m in America. The test-screenings were off the scale. They tested it in Los Angeles, Texas, New York and London, and in three of those places it got the highest-ever test screenings. We were thinking, hang on a minute, we’re onto something here."
On How The Critics Reacted To The Movie:
"It helped that Matthew is friends with Rupert Murdoch, whose family were great believers in the film. So The Sun didn’t give it a hard time. The worst was the Daily Mail critic, whose review was so over-the-top that it created a backlash from his own readers. His verdict on it was ‘Evil’. I wanted to use that on the back of the DVD, but they wouldn’t go along with it..."
On Casting The Right Unknowns In Miracle Park:
"Almost everyone was good, which I wasn’t expecting, and there were two or three real stand-outs. It was very heartening, because it made me realise I wasn’t crazy for shooting this on my own turf."
On The Experience Of Directing His Own Movie:
"It’s been the most fun I have ever had, and I’ve been doing this since I was 19. Maybe because it’s unfamiliar ground for me, I don’t feel as if I’m retreading old ground. Directing feels like comics, but more exciting in a way: you’re dealing with people as opposed to sketches on a pad. Two hundred things can go wrong at any one time because you’re dealing with lighting and sound and so on, and that’s what makes it a rush. We have about 20% of the film in the can and will hopefully have filming done by Christmas."
On Tony Scott Directing Nemesis:
"Getting to work with him is amazing, you always wonder why he has not done a comic-book movie"