Less than two months before KICK-ASS 2 hits screens, Jim Carrey denounces the violence in the film in relation to the tragedy of the Sandy Hook shootings. The actor, who plays Colonel Stars and Stripes, took to Twitter Sunday afternoon to make his feelings known.
Mark Millar responded to the tweets on his message board. He is quick to point out that "nothing seen in this picture wasn't in the screenplay eighteen months ago."
"Yes, the body-count is very high, but a movie called 'Kick-Ass 2' really has to do what it says on the tin," he continued. "A sequel to the picture that gave us HIT-GIRL was always going to have some blood on the floor and this should have been no shock to a guy who enjoyed the first movie so much. My books are very hardcore, but the movies are adapted for a more mainstream audience and if you loved the tone of the first picture you're going to eat this up with a big, giant spoon. Like Jim, I'm horrified by real-life violence (even though I'm Scottish), but 'Kick-Ass 2' isn't a documentary. No actors were harmed in the making of this production! This is fiction and like Tarantino and Peckinpah, Scorcese and Eastwood, John Boorman, Oliver Stone and Chan-Wook Park, 'Kick-Ass' avoids the usual bloodless body-count of most big summer pictures and focuses instead of the CONSEQUENCES of violence, whether it's the ramifications for friends and family or, as we saw in the first movie, Kick-Ass spending six months in hospital after his first street altercation. Ironically, Jim's character in 'Kick-Ass 2' is a Born-Again Christian and the big deal we made of the fact that he refuses to fire a gun is something he told us attracted him to the role in the first place."
KICK-ASS 2, which sees the return of original cast members Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Chloe Grace Moretz, is scheduled for an August 16 release in the U.S.