One of the surprise films of 2010 was Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass. Based on the Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. graphic novel, the movie told the tale of a high school nerd who decides to be a super hero, despite his lack of any super powers.

The movie was a loud, vulgar, and gory explosion of awesome and it left many wanting more. Unfortunately the movie landed director Vaughn a chance at the “big leagues” and he went on to make the best X-Men movie to-date. With the head honcho otherwise occupied, it looked as if Kick-Ass 2 might not see the light of day.

Well that turns out not to be the case. Deadline is reporting that Universal is in talks to make the sequel as early as this year”

Universal Pictures is in talks to make Kick-Ass 2, with Jeff Wadlow directing his script. I’m told the intention is to get the film in production by August. Discussions are just getting underway with such original cast members as Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, and they will have to be signed to new deals to reprise their roles.

The Wadlow script was actually written at the request of Vaughn who wanted work on the sequel to happen while he was occupied in the X-Universe. At first the concept of losing Vaughn might seem harsh to the fans of the first film, but knowing that he was involved at some point early on, and gives his blessing now is an encouraging sign.

Writer Mark Millar, best known for the Kick-Ass and Wanted franchises, confirmed to the Daily Record that a slew of comic-to-film projects from his Millarworld production company will be going into production in this coming year.

Currently, Millar has a number of film projects being developed simultaneously, along with the monthly comics hitting the shelves. He stated that the fact his characters are being utilized for films is somewhat surprising, considering that the majority of comics-to-film adaptations that are being greenlit are based on characters that have been around for decades.

“We shoot Kick-Ass 2 and American Jesus this summer. Then Matthew (Vaughn) and I have Secret Service, which is a nerdy James Bond,” Mark said. Kick-Ass 2  is a follow up to the 2010 film which starred Aaron Johnson and Chloe Moretz.

Millar’s  American Jesus  will follow a kid who finds out he is the second coming of Jesus Christ. “If you are doing a movie about the return of Jesus as the Bible prophesied in the Book of Revelation, you have got to do it straight and treat it with dignity. I’m not taking the piss. It will be treated like a proper film,” said Millar of his post-apocolyptic thriller.

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As always, one of our favorite parts of any convention is the sights and NYCC was full of them this year so we had to share them with the Flickcast audience. The level of dedication by the men and women who attend the con every year is staggering.

Some are picture perfect renditions that rival movie quality costumes like the Anakin Skywalker we saw wandering the floor. Others come from careful collection of legitimate television costumes and props like the classic Power Rangers Green Ranger. Still others take their own imagination and run wild with custom Mandalorian battle armor for both human and giant chicken alike to life sized Castle Crashers.

One of the things this gallery sadly doesn’t do justice is give an idea on just how huge NYCC was this year. Though it is yet to overtake the surrounding neighborhood like SDCC does, the New York Comic Con feels every bit as big and as important as its west coast counterpart.

The entire Javitts Center was filled with every major comic company to movie studios and video game publishers in every corner. This year the Flickcast was only able to spend a day on the Con floor but if things keep looking up for NYCC, we may have to tackle this show the same way we do San Diego Comic Con or E3.

Take a look below to get just a glimpse of the many sights at this year’s convention. See you next year New York!

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While there have been tons over the past decade, this is certainly the biggest year for superhero films in theaters. Between X-Men: First Class, Green Lantern, Captain America and Thor, we’ve got more than enough magic, aliens, and science to keep putting butts in seats all year round.

While we’re finally getting films for The God of Thunder and the Green Lantern Corps, which is something nobody ever thought would happen, where does that leave the rest of the B-list characters in the Marvel and DC universe, such as Hawkman?

That’s where a brand new comedy short from Frog Island about how the rest of the superhero community feels about the winged hero wielding Nth metal to allow him to fly and fight intergalactic crime.

Some great moments and potshots and some less than popular comic film heroes, and we even get Yogi Bear star TJ Miller to star as our favorite emerald hero. Check out the short after the film and be sure to catch Hawkman in theaters probably never (or until Nolan decides to back the movie).

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Clips are flowing like water these days as we get closer and closer to the June 3rd release date of Fox’s X-Men: First Class from Kick-Ass director Matthew Vaughn.

We brought you some great clips showcasing the original team of mutants like Banshee, Havok, and Mystique, but now we’re giving Hank McCoy a.k.a. Beast some love.

From what we can gather from the clips we’ve seen, it looks like McCoy (played by About a Boy star Nicholas Hoult) and Mystique (played by the up and coming star Jennifer Lawrence) are set to be in a bit of a love story, which is interesting considering the shared color the two have in common.

Check out the clip after the jump of Beast and Mystique meeting for the first time, and be sure to catch X-Men: First Class in theaters on June 3.

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In what will come as no surprise to anyone, except maybe my mom, the MTV Movie Award nominations have been released and the most popular and creatively vacant film franchise this side of middle earth leads the pack. That’s right,  The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is on top with eight nominations.

The news is not all bad though as both Inception and Harry Potter are also lead contenders. In fact, aside from the obvious Twilight nominations, most of the nominations are not so bad. Many of the better films from 2010 are represented, including Kick-Ass, which has gone mostly forgotten in the retrospective hoopla.

Aside from the traditional Best Movie and Best Kiss, this year also brings a brilliant new category to the world of cinematic awards: “Best Line From A Movie.” This is not only a genius category for the shallow festivities of MTV, but it is something that all award shows should consider in the future.

In the world of cinema fandom movie quotes are often a defining factor in the quality of a film. The more quotable the movie, the more likely it will find a home in the hearts of film geeks the world over.

The nominations for Twilight are to be expected from MTV, but the nominations for Harry Potter are a little more of a surprise. Up to this point in time the Harry Potter movies didn’t really make a dent in the target audience of MTV.

Of course the franchise remains popular the world over, but for MTV, known for immature, shallow drama and sex appeal, to acknowledge the penultimate Potter film in so many categories shows that the Potter is still relevant to pop culture in general.

Check out the full list of nominations after the jump.

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That’s right comic book fans, it’s that time of the week again. New comics are coming out from our friends at Marvel and we’ve got some particular ones we’re interested in.

Among the new ones coming out, we’re looking forward to reading  Cyclops #1, Kick-Ass #2,  Scarlet #5, Wolverine #7, and Secret Avengers #11.

As with most weeks, new comics arrive on Wednesday, so hit your nearest comics book store early for best selection.

Don’t know where your nearest comic store is? Use this handy guide to find one.

Comics On-Sale:
5 RONIN #5 AJA COVER
5 RONIN #5 MCGUINNESS VARIANT
AGE OF X: UNIVERSE #1
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #657
AVENGERS #11
AVENGERS #11 CAPTAIN AMERICA 70TH ANNIVERSARY VARIANT
BLACK PANTHER: THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR #516
BLACK PANTHER: THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR #516 CAPTAIN AMERICA 70TH ANNIVERSARY VARIANT
CAPTAIN AMERICA #616
CAPTAIN AMERICA #616 EPTING VARIANT
CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE SECRET AVENGERS #1
CYCLOPS #1
DEADPOOL CORPS #12
DEADPOOL CORPS #12 YOUNG VARIANT
DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #883
DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #883 YOUNG VARIANT
INCOGNITO: BAD INFLUENCES #5
INCREDIBLE HULKS #625
KICK-ASS 2 #2
KICK-ASS 2 #2 YU TRIPLE VARIANT

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We’ve been waiting months and aside from an occasional clip here or there, we’re finally getting the first official look at James Gunn’s upcoming raunchy, real-life superhero comedy Super, which features a huge (and very eclectic) cast. Now that we’re getting an idea of how the film is going to play out, we can see that tonally, it’s going to be quite different than Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass, which seems like a parallel story on paper.

Not only that, the cast alone, which includes Rainn Wilson, Liv Tyler, Kevin Bacon, Ellen Page, Michael Rooker and Nathan Fillion, should be enough to sell this film to fans everywhere. Here’s the official synopsis:

Rainn Wilson stars as a normal guy named Frank who decides to become a crime fighter when his wife (Liv Tyler) leaves him for a drug-dealer (Kevin Bacon), taking on the identity of the Crimson Bolt and agreeing to let a young overzealous comic shop employee (Ellen Page) to be his sidekick Boltie.

Together, they fight crime in the most violent manner imaginable.

There was a worry for a while whether we’d ever get to see this film or not, as things were quiet on finding a distributor. Luckily, IFC Midnight was able to pick up the slack and they’re bringing the film to theaters on April 1st.

Check out the trailer after the jump and join Rainn Wilson as he exclaims, “Shut Up, Crime!”

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We all know unconventional superhero stories are all the rage right now, between Kick-Ass, Green Hornet, and the popular BBC series Misfits. Now one indie filmmaker is taking that trend to the web with a super low-budget short about your not-so-average super powered crime fighters in Lazy Teenage Superheroes.

Filmmaker Michael Ashton, who shot, wrote, cut, and did VFX for the short, brings humor, pop culture references, and the voice of this generation all together in a classic comic team-up setting. Here’s the synopsis.

Tyler is your average awkward teenager just trying to get by like the rest of us. Until one day, he moves in with three unusual roommates – Mitchell, Calvin, and Richard all have extraordinary, super human abilities. Although Tyler still has one thing they don’t have: ambition. Lazy Teenage Superheroes follows Ty as he tries to get his new “super” friends to put down the video games, get off the couch, and use their powers to help save the world, instead of themselves.

There are some low budget elements that you have to look past in order to get some some amazing visual effects and storytelling. With any luck, this will turn the heads of a few Hollywood bigwigs and allow them to realize that productions like these are what fans of the genre are looking for, not things like The Cape or a sequel to Ghost Rider.

You can check out the short after the jump, which is rapidly approaching the 500,000 views mark on YouTube in just over a week. You can also hit up Ashton’s official site for more details on the production.

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If we learned anything from Chloe Moretz’s performance in this year’s Kick-Ass, it’s that chick assassins are in. More in than when Natalie Portman was just a teenager. So of course, with that knowledge, Hollywood is going to be snatching up intellectual property in that department until they realize it’s no longer “cool”. That’s where the new trailer for Hanna comes in.

From director Joe Wright (Atonement) comes this dark thriller that will more than likely end up with a big twist in the final act. Here’s the full synopsis.

Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) is a teenage girl. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a soldier; these  come from being raised by her father, an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of Finland. Living a life unlike any other teenager, her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. The turning point in her adolescence is a sharp one; sent into the world by her father on a mission, Hanna journeys stealthily across Europe while eluding agents dispatched after her by a ruthless intelligence operative with secrets of her own. As she nears her ultimate target, Hanna faces startling revelations about her existence and unexpected questions about her humanity.

Not only do we get Hollywood’s “next big thing” Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) in the titular lead, but Eric Bana plays the paranoid father, and Cate Blanchett takes a swing at a Southern accent. Check out the full trailer after the jump, and catch Hanna in theaters on April 8th.

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Mark Millar has definitely taken the comic universe by storm in the past 10 years. He first turned heads of fanboys (and fangirls) everywhere with The Authority in 2000. Then he went a bit darker with his anti-hero epic Wanted. Later, Millar would get his first taste of adaptation, as Warner Bros. optioned Wanted into a highly successful feature film.

The same thing happened with Kick-Ass and Lionsgate last year, and now just about anything Millar puts in a comic is getting picked up as a film right away. His super villain series Nemesis is already being worked on by Tony Scott’s company, and Superior, the story of a crippled teen who turns into a famed superhero is also being looked at by several studios.

Coming up next month, you’ll be able to see all of Millar’s favorite characters crossover in an epic portrait that spans over 3 variant covers by regular cover artist Leinil Francis Yu. When asked about the idea, Millar couldn’t have been more about it.

“It wouldn’t make sense as a story as they all exist in their own distinct universes. But I was talking to Leinil in New York about this a few weeks back and we came up with this idea of spreading the image across three variants, each character touching the front cover of another book and it seemed very exciting. These are my wee babies so to see them all playing together gives me a warm glow. I’m collecting them to form one big image and to have it framed over my desk.”

Check out the full-sized image after the jump, and catch each variant for Kick Ass 2 #2, Superior #4, and Nemesis #4, all on sale in December and January.

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Fans of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr’s first ultra-violent kid-superhero romp, Kick-Ass will have something special in store for them at the comic store today. Kick-Ass 2, the second volume of the popular comic arrives in stores today.

In the new story-arc, Hit-Girl is adopted by a cop following the death of her father and is no longer allowed to engage in hero activity. While Hit-Girl lays low, the story’s main villain, Red Mist hires a bad-ass girl from Russia to help him exact revenge for his family’s death at the hands of Kick-Ass and company. He goes online and influences a new bunch of young villains to take up his fight.

Soon enough, gangs from across New York are filming their atrocities and putting them on the internet in an attempt to out-do each other. All in all, it sounds like more of the same ultra-violent and foul-mouthed comic goodness we’ve come to expect from Millar and Romita Jr. And of course, the question now is what about the second flick?

While IMDB already has an entry for the flick, Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall, and is showing a 2012 release, Millar talked with MTV and outlined what would need to happen to make that release on-time.

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