Millar: Kick-Ass 2 Is Like the Empire Strikes Back

In a blog post earlier today, Kick-Ass co-creator Mark Millar gave his readers a bit of insight into the current status of his in-production sequel, Kick-Ass 2. That insight? It's better than the first one. Said Millar, "But Kick-Ass 2. What can I say? Let me tell you that yesterday as I was sitting in Eddie Hamilton's edit suite (think James Coburn's apartment in Our Man Flint) I literally for the first time thought this might actually be BETTER than the original. This was a huge moment for me because there is no bigger fan of the first movie than me. I think it's pretty close to perfect. But there's so much in this, the whole thing so rich, that I honestly think this might be the Empire Strikes Back to Star Wars. I'd seen over 40 mins before, but seeing the edited version of the next 20 mins gave me a very comprehensive look for how the finished movie is going to look and I was actually quite shocked. I won't spoil scenes for anyone who hasn't read the source material (the Hit-Girl series and Kick-Ass 2 comic), but there are so many great moments here. Kubrick said that a great movie has eight terrific moments. I lay in bed this morning and counted fourteen genuine movie-moment scenes. You can look at the book and probably guess these, but they're articulated so beautifully. I was really happy when I came away a couple of weeks back, but the Millar Gang and I were ecstatic when we left Eddie's suite yesterday. People are going to LOVE this and we all had a feeling that this was going to go really wide when it opens next June." He later added, criticizing the coverage the film has gotten in the trade press, "The number of news-sites who have misreported the CBR interview is astonishing. When I said the first 45 mins of this flick is Hit-Girl I'm talking about the Hit-Girl SERIES, which Dave and Chris also appear in. The idea that it's about someone else for forty-five minutes is just insane. How can these guys be that literal?? But it seems to go quite wide when I checked this morning and smacked my forehead. Dave, Chris and Mindy are seeded all the way through this movie and get equal screen time so don't worry!! I'm also stunned that some sites still reporting sub-heading Balls to the Wall, which I told everyone two years ago we weren't using. It's Kick-Ass 2, people." The subtitle issue is easily explained, in that social media and promotional material carried the subtitle for a while (we reported when we noticed that it had stopped being used last month). The Hit-Girl portion of the misreportage is a bit more vexing, especially because even if one were to misread his comments in the Comic Book Resources interview, there's still the fact that he's been consistent in the way he has described the film from the beginning of the process.