The last time Nic Cage was in a comic-book movie, we got Ghost Rider*. But the last time Mark Steven Johnson directed a comic-book movie, we got Ghost Rider. So you can look at that particular equation from two angles. And Matthew Vaughn is no Mark Steven Johnson, so perhaps there’s no cause for concern in the news that Cage has been cast as in Kick-Ass, Vaughn’s adaptation of Mark Millar’s comic series. He’s playing a former cop on the trail of a drug lord, not even the lead, so cool off on that for a minute.
The lead is Aaron Johnson, who’ll play Dave Lizewski, a dorky kid who becomes a super hero. 18-year old Johnson isn’t quite an unknown, but if you haven’t watched Brit shows like Nearly Famous and Talk to Me (I sure as hell haven’t) then you’ll probably be out in the cold. He’ll drool over Lyndsy Fonseca (Desperate Housewives and How I Met Your Mother regular) as Katie Deauxma but she’ll think he’s gay. Then he’ll post a playlist to MySpace, but like the dweeb he is he’ll include a new-ish Cure song and then she’ll really think he’s gay. These three join the previosly cast McLovin’ and Chloe Moretz, who’ll play the highly trained crime-fighting daughter of Cage.
Kick-Ass gets under way in the fall in London and Toronto.
* Arguably, it’s been a few years since Cage made anything that wasn’t a comic-book movie, if you’re using that term in the pejorative sense.