Also in Thursday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, Adam Sandler's next comedy heads to a rival studio. Matthew Vaughn is departing X-Men. And Jill Scott boards a Fox Searchlight project.
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The Kick-Ass sequel was a forgone conclusion but speculation mounted on when it would occur and if its stars including Aaron Johnson would take part. But all turned out fine and Jeff Wadlow will direct from his script, a follow up to the original that debuted at SXSW back in 2010 that went on to gross $103M at the box office worldwide. That's a lot of ass-kicking! Star Aaron Johnson told Collider that he's seen the script and it shouldn't disappoint.
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How did Rose Byrne become the most unexpected comedic actress of her generation? After 15 years of acting, the Aussie native broke out of her dramatic shell with a fearless turn as Aldous Snow's pop star ex in Get Him to the Greek, and this week's Bridesmaids continues the streak: Byrne plays Helen, the rich and beautiful new BFF who tries to steal Maya Rudolph away from maid of honor Kristen Wiig. As director Paul Feig insisted to Movieline, "That woman should always be doing comedy."
When X-Men: First Class producer Bryan Singer was looking for a director to take the helm of the X-Men franchise, he had "hundreds of names" on his list of candidates for the gig - but Matthew Vaughn wasn't initially one of them. And then a little volcano with an unpronounceable name grounded cross-Atlantic flights, leading to a chance meeting between Singer and Vaughn facilitated by none other than Vaughn's Kick-Ass star, Aaron Johnson.
Everyone seems to love the retro '60s vibe of Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class. But do we really want to see Professor Xavier, Magneto, and Co. slogging through the not-quite-as-fashionable 1970s and 1980s in potential sequel story lines? (Think hard about this. On the one hand: Magneto in bellbottoms doing lines with Emma Frost at Studio 54. On the other: Dazzler.)
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