Kick-Ass Production

One of the many fascinating things about this movie was that the film was being created while the comic book was also being created. At one point the screenplay overtook the actual comic book but were both competed at the same time with all creators bouncing off one and other. The comic book creators, Mark Millar and John Romita JR worked with the film creators Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn and essentially all created the story of Kick-Ass.

The origins of this film was autobiographical by Mark Miller as he said in previous years his friend and himself wondered what it would have been like to be a real superhero (much like Dave in the film), however they realised how insane the idea was but this idea sparked the story which showed what would have happened if they would have tried it out for real. In addition to this Romita designed the neighbourhood, schoolyard, settings and clothes to reflect his little world (Queens, New York City), most of it set in his neighbourhood.

It was clear the film was influence by the comic book as when we are moving from place to place and through time it is signified by a small caption at the bottom of the screen saying “6 months ago” or “meanwhile” etc. In addition to this the comic book influence is shown when the audience see Big Daddy and Hit Girls background as the full thing is completely animated in comic book form.

However the film does not completely follow as the comic book does which was a difficulty in itself as on one hand the film had to stay true to the comic book but it also had to differ in some ways otherwise the audience would know exactly what would happen. One of the main differences from the comic book is where Katie realises that Dave is actually Kick-Ass, in the film Dave is rewarded by spending the night with her and has no consequences whereas in the comic Katie beats Dave up and then spends the night with another boy while sending Dave pictures to show what he is missing. This shows that although the film and comic do differ they have a consistency about them.

Another huge difficulty in the production of this film was the level of violence in the film as it was hard to find people to fund the film and be a part of the production. The production budget for the film was $30 million which was funded by Matthew Vaughn’s Marv Films and Plan B Entertainment and the film was distributed by Universal Pictures. This was difficult to find as the violence of the film was so intense and a lot of it was performed by an 11 year old girl as well as a lot of the violence in the film is taken out on her, this was hard to do as in today’s society abuse towards a child is not tolerated so to have a young girl be punched repeatedly by a grown man was hard to portray in film without being too socially sensitive.

Overall the production of this film was in some ways difficult and other ways simplistic, both the comic and film showed parts of the creators personalities and backgrounds incorporated. In the end the film and comic were competed at the same time and complimented each other well with consistent messages and representations.