A movie that people are raving about is director Matthew Vaughn’s Kick-Ass.  I spoke to a few people that saw a test screening last week at the Arclight in Hollywood and they weren’t just raving about the movie…they were practically losing their minds over the film.  If their reaction is any indication of how good the movie is, Lionsgate is going to be very happy they bought the film for domestic distribution.

Anyway, the first trailer has been released and it’s decent.  The thing about Kick-Ass is it’s very violent and very R rated.  It’s just hard to sell how cool this film is when you have to work in a PG  environment.  Saying that, I’d imagine as the release gets closer, we’re going to get a red band trailer or something that lets people know this is not a kids superhero movie.  Either way, the trailer is worth checking out.  Take a look after the jump:

Posters which need to be grouped together to achieve their full effect kind of bug me.  Look at these, the first four posters to promote Matthew Vaughn’s “Kick-Ass”, arguably the biggest breakout of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.  I’m glad that the marketing campaign for the film has begun but will theaters devote this kind of space to four posters which leave out the actor’s names in favor of the character and their alter-ego?  I hope so because this movie needs to be on folks’ radar and I’m not sure if a poster saying “Mindy Macready Is Hit-Girl” with a purple-haired gal standing in front of “-A” will turn heads.  On second though, it might.  Just forget everything I said.  However, if you do see all four posters together in a theater and they’re out of order, please send us a photo.

Check out all four posters after the jump.  “Kick-Ass” is slated to hit theaters on April 16, 2010. [UPDATE: The official website is now online.  You'll see at the bottom  of the site that the trailer is set to debut online next Sunday at midnight.]

I will watch anything “Beatles”-related.  I suffered through the entirety of “Across the Universe” because I love them so much.  If “Batman: Arkham Asylum” had Beatles songs it would be my favorite game of the year by far.  So even though I’m slightly wary of this tale, I will not miss “Nowhere Boy” because it’s a tale of how the Beatles came together…or not.  I don’t know if they’ll include George Harrison or if the reference to the “Buddy Holly”-look John sports at one point in the trailer is to how Stuart Sutcliffe, the band’s original drummer, suggested the name based off “Buddy Holly and the Crickets”.  I know that this is about the origin of John Lennon.  All I’m saying is that if this movie isn’t 100% historically accurate I’ll 100% hate it.  I try to put the “maniac” into “Beatlemaniac”.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  “Nowhere Boy” will premiere on the closing night of this year’s London Film Festival on October 29^th and will open in theaters in the UK on Christmas Day.  No word yet of a US release.

A lot of you haven’t heard about director Matthew Vaughn’s “Kick-Ass”. That’s going to change over the next few days. The reason is, of course, Comic-Con.

On Thursday afternoon, Vaughn will be world premiering footage in Hall H from his independent comic-book movie, but with a cast featuring Nicolas Cage, Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Clark Duke and Mark Strong, you have to wonder how long it’ll be an independent as some studio is going to buy this thing after the crowd goes crazy.

Anyway, I was recently in London and got a chance to speak with Aaron Johnson on the set of his latest film “Chatroom” and he talked about making “Kick-Ass” and a lot more. It’s after the jump so take a look:

Because they’re Entertainment Weekly and you’re not, the magazine has a bunch of new images to show off as a precursor to next week’s San Diego Comic-Con.  While nothing they have will blow you away (although there is a new shot from Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland” that’s absolutely stunning), it’s worth checking out and will probably further your maddening confusion about which panels to attend.

Hit the jump to check out a few of the new photos and click here to see the rest.

MTV’s Splash Page has landed the first photo of Christopher Mintz-Plasse as superhero sidekick “Red Mist” in Matthew Vaughn’s upcoming adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic series, “Kick-Ass”.  In keeping with what I assume is the makeshift style of costumes for those that choose to be superheroes rather than having any special abilities, Red Mist looks like he wanted something that screams “Leather Daddy” and he got it.  I kind of hope they have some footage soon because this is the problem with individual stills: they lack context and are subject to easy mockery and even easier dismissal.

Hit the jump to see the full photo and find out when and where you’ll be able to finally see footage from this noise.

With only twenty one days remaining till this year’s Comic-Con, news is slowly starting to leak out about what this year’s attendees can see.  Hopefully, the official website will release a full schedule immediately so folks can know which lines to stand in for most of the day.

While we don’t know what line you’ll have to stand in for Matthew Vaughn’s “Kick-Ass” (Hall H?  Certainly one of the larger ballrooms, at least), we know that you’ll have to carve out a block of time near the end of the day on Thursday, July 23rd if you want to see his adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic starring Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Moretz, and Nicolas Cage.  Vaughn will be showing off footage from the upcoming film although there’s no official word yet if any of the stars will be attending as well.  Personally, I’m happy with just Vaughn as he grabbed my attention with “Layer Cake” and then created an underseen gem with “Stardust”.  The story follows a normal 16-year-old who decides to become a super-hero despite having no training or special powers.  While I’ve never made secret of my disdain for Mark Millar’s work and his self-promotion disproportionate to his talent, I have confidence that Vaughn and co-screenwriter Jane Goodman can turn his comic into something pretty spectacular.

Hit the jump for a few images from the film. [via /Film]