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More Kick-Ass Casting: Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson, Lyndsy Fonseca

by Alex Billington
August 22, 2008

Last week we announced that Christopher Mintz-Plasse (aka McLovin) and Chloe Moretz had joined Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of Mark Millar's comic book Kick-Ass. Today we finish off the primary cast with three more names, only one of which you'll recognize. Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson, and Lyndsy Fonseca have all been cast in Kick-Ass, which is scheduled to start shooting this fall in London and Toronto. Cage plays a former cop who wants to bring down a druglord and has a daughter, played by the aforementioned Moretz, who has been trained to kick ass with a ninja sword. Fonseca will play the female infatuation and Johnson will play the main character, a high school dweeb named Dave Lizewski.

We all know who Nic Cage is, but that's not the actor I care the most about this time. I'm interested more in Aaron Johnson, who plays the lead character. Johnson has been acting since 2001 and been in various small roles in things like Shanghai Knights, The Illusionist, "Nearly Famous", and most recently Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. I said in the last article that "I'm anxious to know who they chose for the lead, because... it will all depend on the capabilities of that actor." As far as I can tell, Johnson seems like the right guy for the job. From what my familiarity with the comic and the story, this cast should be quite exceptional. The film already sounds badass and names like this actually give me some hope. I'm glad they didn't just go commercial and choose someone like Michael Cera who doesn't really fit.

As a quick recap on this whole project, Kick-Ass is an adaptation of a comic book series written by Mark Millar and illustrated by John Romita Jr. The comic is incredibly violent and features a high school kid named Dave who attempts to reinvent himself as a real-world costumed superhero named Kick-Ass but eventually gets beat up in the process. As for the story in the film, I'm not sure where it will go after that, only because Millar's comic hasn't actually been published beyond issue #3. As we announced last time, Vaughn came up with $30 million on his own to make this movie because all the Hollywood studios didn't like its bloody and violent nature. But I must say, this is a movie that I really can't wait to see!

Filed under Casting, Hype, Movie News

From around the web:

http://www.theaterhopper.com Tom Brazelton

What's the first rule of film producing? "NEVER PUT YOUR OWN MONEY ON THE LINE!" Vaughn put up $30 mil of his own money?! I must have missed that the first time around. He'd better hope it doesn't suck!
http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

Nic Cage, how the mighty have fallen. I bet he is praying for NATIONAL TREASURE 3 right now.
Voice Of Reason

Cage is a cinema-suicide-bomber, he takes himself out and the entire audience with him;' leaving behind a mangled corpse of a movie. He drives a Volvo. A beige one. And what we're dealing with here, is one of the deadliest substances cinema has ever known so whaddaya say Kick-Ass cuts us some friggin' slack? BIG strike against this potentially incredible project.
BiggaDanLyfe

WTF? whats with casting nicolas cage is movie's left right center. He going to be like Jude Law a while back who was in like..20 million films throughout the year...by his 3rd movie (1st for me), you want to throw up and go claim your money back. Nicolas Cage MUST stop being cast in badass roles. National Treasure, Bangkok Dangerous, Ghost rider...enough! cannot take the guy seriously! The man played the lead in The Wicker Man remake! FUCK YOU CAGE! cos of him everytime i say The Wicker Man is my favourite movie, everyone laughs cos they think of the remake. FUCK!
D-9

30 Mil on the worst actor in the history of the Cinema.?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Crazy Talk! His Uncle is the only reason NICK CAGE is even is this industry. Timing of a ROCK....Can't act his way out of a paper bag. ( Sorry Valley Girl fans) This casting is beyond belief. Not only no....but HELL TO THE NO!
Squiggly_P

wtf people? Nick Cage made like two really awful movies, and suddenly he's the worst thing ever? He is a really good actor, and has been in some of the best films ever. 8mm. Leaving Las Vegas. Adaptation. Face/Off. The Weatherman. Matchstick Men was decent. He was good in Lord of War. Bangkok Dangerous looks halfway decent, and Knowing looks really good. OMG he was in The Wicker Man!!! He was in Ghost Rider!!! He must burn in hell!!! @BiggaDanLyfe: The original Wicker Man is your favorite movie? Really? Cause the remake wasn't much worse, in my opinion. Maybe after a few hits of acid the original is watchable. I dunno. Bottom line is that most of the bad films ever made are bad because the director is a retard or doesn't know what they want. This is exactly what happened with Wicker Man and Ghost Rider (and probably Next as well). If you give horrible direction to your actors, you will get a horrible performance that the actor thinks you want (and occasionally that IS what the director wants... for some reason...) Look at Wahlberg's acting in The Happening. He's a really good actor, but obviously M. Night wanted him to act that way (because M. Night thinks that his 'style' is more important than making a good film). So you can't fully blame Cage for Wicker Man - just as you can't blame all actors for the occasional poor performance. It's not always their fault.
kdjnvldszfjn_pppp

Nothing wrong with Nick Cage that the credit crunch won't sort. He's a better actor than any of the above (not hard!)