Corona | Coming Attractions

An action-filled clip of Nic Cage's Big Daddy doing max damage to a ton of bad guys is ready for your viewing, mature audience member.

The international redband trailer for Kick-Ass is being hosted on MSN and giving its viewers several reasons why to turn down the volume when they watch it at work. Put on your headphones if you've got them in your office and you won't have to worry about keeping your job.

In today's era where floating heads are commonplace on movie posters, and the heads of the publicity departments of movie studios believe that you can't market a movie if the public can't see the face of the actors in the poster, today's new movie poster is a welcome sight. Lionsgate has provided HitFix with the new theatrical one-sheet for Kick-Ass and it's a pretty thing to look at indeed.

The second trailer for Kick-Ass is now playing online. Our hat is tipped to the editor that worked on this trailer; they found a way to make an R-rated action movie appear intended for PG audiences. Now that's talent!

Kick-Ass will open the 17th annual South By Southwest film festival. The film is scheduled to screen on the festival's opening night, March 12.

Here comes a redband trailer for Kick-Ass that places emphasis on the 12-year-old little minx of the film, Hit-Girl. And when we say redband, we really do mean that this is a not safe for work, you better be of legal age, redband trailer.

From the film's official MySpace page comes this smelly new teaser poster good for the garbage.

A teaser trailer for Kick-Ass has come out. It's oh-so-small but hey, it's better than nothing.

Four character movie posters showing us the backs of the film's quartet of main costumed characters have exclusively debuted on IGN. The one-sheets, which are about to be seen in theater lobbies immediately, introduce unaware spectators to Kick-Ass, Hit Girl, Big Daddy and Red Mist. When you place them together side-by-side they spell out the movie's title. Check 'em out.

Lionsgate has announced its plans to release Kick-Ass on April 16, 2010. It had scheduled to debut Sylvester Stallone's new action film The Expendables a week later on the 23rd, but now that film will come out in August.

Lionsgate announced this morning that the company been awarded the North American distribution rights to Kick-Ass.

"Making and financing Kick-Ass has been an amazing experience, and we've had two important goals from the start: make a singularly entertaining film and find the right studio to release it," commented director Matthew Vaughn in a company press release. "With Lionsgate, I know that I've got a supportive and fearless team behind me. It's going to be fun working together to bring the film to audiences and those who are already fans of the comic book."

Tarquin Pack, one of the film's producers, said, "The massive response we received at Comic-Con has been hugely important in launching the next wave of momentum for the film, and Lionsgate's marketing and distribution talents are a perfect fit for us. Lionsgate is a studio that is not afraid to do things differently, and that is the attitude that has characterized Kick-Ass from the very start."

"Matthew Vaughn is an amazing talent and a true original, and he has brought a whole new mindset to the action genre with Kick-Ass," said Jason Constantine, Lionsgate's president of acquisitions and co-productions. "Kick-Ass redefines the boundaries in terms of humor, action, story, character and tone -- it's the kind of movie that reminds us of why we go to the movies in the first place. Lionsgate is thrilled to bring Kick-Ass home to give it the next-generation launching pad it deserves."

Lionsgate also adds that it will release the movie sometime in 2010.

According to the Risky Biz Blog, Universal Pictures, Lionsgate and Paramount Pictures are now courting the Kick-Ass filmmakers to pick up domestic distribution rights to their film. After declaring it too violent and controversial when it was shopped around, Hollywood is now interested in the comic book property after witnessing the positive audience reaction at last month's Comic-Con.

From all accounts that we've heard, yesterday's Kick-Ass panel wowed the crowd. Director Matthew Vaughn and comic creators Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. were on the stage to talk about the adaptation and show footage from the film.

"It was bloody brilliant. It is the pure translation of the comic that the fans are hoping for," wrote Mania's Robert T. Trate in his coverage of the panel. A number of scenes were shown but it was one action sequence in particular that amazed Trate. "The big action piece shown displayed the prowess and scope that Hit Girl (Moretz) will bring to the screen," he writes. "The Kick Ass comic panels came to life as the blood and swords started to fly. I truly believe if they would have just shown that scene alone, they would have won the crowd easily."

"It was immediately evident that Vaughn knew the exact right tone to follow with the film, and the rest of the clips cemented that fact," said Slashfilm's Devindra Hardawar. "We saw a clip of Kick Ass confronting some muggers (and failing miserably), as well as the introduction of Moretz’s Hit Girl in a hilarious scene with her father (Big Daddy, played by Nicolas Cage). The action choreography was clean as well as free of rapid cuts and shaky cam, and it became clear that the casting was perfect across the board. Aaron Johnson was perfectly geeky as Dave Lizewski, Moretz fit her role like a glove, and even Nicholas Cage shined since the Big Daddy role actually needs him to chew on scenery."

"The tone of the Kick-Ass is difficult to pin down. It's equal parts homage and satire, but it's never really winking at the audience," said Ain't It Cool's Mr. Beaks of the footage screened. "Vaughn wants you to engage with this twisted little world, and to cheer as much as you laugh. It's tough to make this call based on less than twenty minutes of footage, but I think he's struck the right balance. He's at least turned Ms. Moretz into the most adorable killing machine in film history."

And here's some video from the panel provided by PaprikaJones008:

Ain't It Cool News shows us the look of an exclusive Kick-Ass promotional poster drawn by artist John Romita Jr. that will be given away at next week's Comic-Con International during the Matthew Vaughn panel. Hit the site for details on how you can get it signed by the comic book and film's creators.

A new image from Kick-Ass debuted on Ain't It Cool News this weekend showing the green and yellow-clad vigilante facing off against two would-be assailants. The site also relates the news that the film test screened a couple of days ago and that director Matthew Vaughn feels that he's honored the hard-edged source material. "What Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels did for gangster movies, we're doing for comic book/superhero films," Vaughn is quoted as saying.