AaronJohnson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The buzz is strong on Kick-Ass, and Lionsgate listened, much to the delight of fans of the comic book and the trailer that's been making people giggle at their desks. Variety is calling the deal "mini-major," which is good news for the studio that's been subsisting on Tyler Perry and Saw flicks for the past few years.

Based on the comic by Mark Millar, the esteemed scribe behind the graphic novels for Wanted and other fan faves, Kick-Ass is directed by Matthew Vaughn and stars Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski, a high school superhero wanna-be who gets mixed up with a drug lord (Mark Strong), the ex-cop that's after him (Nicolas Cage) and his pre-teen daughter Hit Girl, and the superhero Red Mist, played by everyone's favorite McLovin', Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

Read up on how this movie shall, in fact, live up to its name with help from Todd Gilchrist's San Diego Comic-Con report. "What was more amazing was that almost all of the clips weren't merely surprising, filthy, and kind of all-around inappropriate, but that they were hugely entertaining, in that way you react to when you're watching something that feels familiar and brand-new at the exact same time."

It sounds insane and awesome and I'd like to see it ASAP!

Last summer, word hit that John Lennon's childhood was getting the feature treatment in Nowhere Boy, penned by the impressive Matt Greenhalgh, the writer behind Control. And while just about any biopic written by Greenhalgh would be music to my ears, it all depends on the cast -- which I can now share with you, courtesy of The Daily Mail.

Most important part, of course, is John Lennon, who will be played by the 18-year-old Aaron Johnson. The actor hasn't made a heartthrob name for himself yet, but you might recognize him -- whether it be as Charlie Chaplin in Shanghai Knights, the younger Ed Norton in The Illusionist, or as one of the leads in Gurinder Chadha's latest, Angus, Thongs, and Perfect Snogging. He's a bit too cute for Lennon, but that's just the way of the silver screen. Meanwhile, Anne-Marie Duff will play Lennon's laid back mother, Julia. You might recognize her from the British series Shameless (where she happened to meet husband James McAvoy). And finally, there's the strict and proper Aunt Mimi, who will be played by none other than Kristin Scott Thomas.

TDK has a whole slew of tidbits on the film, but here's the overview: Nowhere Boy will start off with Lennon's birth, and detail how he's given to his Aunt Mimi to raise when Julia's marriage ends. Then it will skip to Liverpool in the '50s, when John is about to form The Quarrymen. There's no word on how far into Lennon's career the film will go, but it is based on sister Julia Baird's memoir, The Private John Lennon: The Untold Story from His Sister. Whatever the case, I'm sold.

One of the more interesting comic book projects in the pipeline is an adaptation of Mark Millar's Kick-Ass (title likely to be changed?), directed by Matthew Vaughn. We previously covered the action comedy -- about a high school dork who decides to become a superhero despite not possessing any of the gifts normally associated with superherodom -- here and here.

Perhaps hinting at the tone of the eventual film, the first bit of casting was Superbad's Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Though he may seem like the perfect choice to play a dweeb with delusions of grandeur, Mintz-Plasse was cast in a supporting role. A week later, they've cast the lead: it'll be 18 year-old Aaron Johnson, whom you may remember as little Ed Norton in The Illusionist. Joining him will be Nicolas Cage and TV vet Lyndsy Fonseca. Fonseca will play the love interest, while Cage will play the father of Elizabeth Rappe's future daughter, "a vicious, foul-mouthed 11-year-old who chops down criminals with a katana." Apparently he's trained her to do that as part of his quest to take down a druglord.

Mark Millar, by the way, is the dude behind Wanted, a comic that was about 250 times crazier than this summer's movie adaptation. I'd like to see Shoot 'Em Up's Michael Davis get a crack at a Millar project, but I'll settle for the ultra-talented Vaughn, who can do both over-the-top violence (see Layer Cake) and elegant movie versions of difficult source material (see Stardust).