Earlier this year, the stylish and super-violent Kick-Ass came crashing into cinemas, packed full of punches and profanity. Based on the comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr, this story of a comic-loving teen who becomes a crime-fighting phenomenon despite his lack of superpowers struck a chord with fans and critics (and upset a few family associations in the process). In anticipation of the Blu-ray and DVD release, Tarquin Pack, who produced the movie with director and frequent collaborator Matthew Vaughn, spoke to Mark McKenzie-Ray about the success of the world’s unlikeliest superhero…

What was it that attracted you to Kick-Ass as a project and what set it apart from anything you’d done previously?

Mark Millar’s material. Mark’s as mad as anything. He is one quirky dude, particularly when he lets himself off the leash with his own material. But even when he’s doing stuff for Marvel, he still brings a leftfield approach. He comes at it from a slightly skewed point of view, in a good way. With this, it was just like, “Wow, OK!”

Also, without wanting to sound completely like a post-modern wanker, it kind of felt like the next logical progression. We’d seen films that are about comic books, so now is the time to see a film that is about somebody who has seen films about comic books. It felt fun and it felt different.

You’ve worked with Matthew Vaughn on a number of projects before Kick-Ass. What is it that makes your relationship and track record so successful, and how did that apply to Kick-Ass?

I just do what he says! [Laughs] That’s the key to a healthy producer-director relationship: do exactly what your director wants at all times! We’ve worked together for a while, and in all seriousness, that is the key to a good producer-director relationship. My job is to facilitate his vision, and I think a lot of producers kind of end up thinking that their vision matters or they try to play politics with the other people involved in it, and to me, it’s not about that. It’s about making sure that he gets what he wants.

I also have to say “No” when the budget can’t actually wear it – we have to think of a different way of doing something. But the different way of doing something always has to be orientated towards making sure he gets what he wants and make the film that he wants to make. I guess so far I’ve managed to comply enough not to get fired by him! [Laughs] We share similar sensibilities, a similar sense of humour and a similar work ethic, I guess.

There’s a very strong sense of collaboration on Kick-Ass, in that it wasn’t just a straight comic-to-movie adaptation. There seems to have been a lot of back and forth between the comic and film. Could you talk a little bit about the process of how the two mediums worked together to create Kick-Ass?

The whole relationship started at the Stardust premiere. Mark came along as a guest of Jonathan Ross, so it was kind of a weird beginning. Mark had written outlines, he had very detailed outlines for the first couple of comics and some rough sketches, and Matthew just loved it as an idea. In the interim, we developed a script called The Debt, which ended up being made with John Madden directing. Then at the same time, Matthew became more and more interested in the project, it was something he wanted to do. Jane Goldman also got really into the whole idea, so they started writing the script.

At about the halfway point, Mark was obviously busy doing other stuff, writing for Marvel, and John Romita was also really, really busy with other Marvel work, so they kind of started slowing down. That’s an important myth to dispel: a lot of comic guys said, “Oh, well, the comic came out late because it was [Matthew’s] fault.” It was actually because those two were so bloody busy and they couldn’t get their own shit together! [Laughs]

So it got sidelined while we were like, “Well, we’re about to come steaming past you Mark, we need to get our script done because we want to make our film.” That actually became a really interesting and impulsive experience. It meant that we were sending him ideas, he was reading scripts as it was developing and going, “Well, I don’t want to do that for the comic, but I think it works for the film.” So it became an interesting process, and, hopefully, it’s successful.

There have been a large number of comic book movie adaptations, some more successful than others. What do you think sets Kick-Ass apart from the others, and why do you think it was so well received by critics and fans?

The material was original and different, I think that helps. From my viewpoint, the film is really well made, it’s actually technically well done and well crafted. I don’t think many people go to the cinema and sit there thinking, “Oh, look, that’s actually really nicely shot!” or “That’s actually really well built.” But it’s one of those things that on a subconscious level, you absorb it.

The great thing about Kick-Ass is that everybody that was involved in it really gave a shit, our crew went the extra mile. I think that makes people respond to it.

Kick-Ass somehow manages to avoid straying into campy territory...

That’s a kind of tonal thing and that’s down to Matthew as a director. He walks a very fine line, tonally. I think it could have easily descended into farce and parody, but it was never our intention and, luckily, Matthew was confident enough as a director to make sure it didn’t topple over that edge, because that would have been a disaster.

When we were making it, it was always the thing, it needs to be funny, but it’s not a comedy. It had to be so many different things, and I think we’ve succeeded. It wasn’t easy, but luckily I’m not the director. [Laughs]

What would you say is the standout sequence or moment in the film?

I think my favourite is the strobe sequence with Hit Girl. The moment that Big Daddy is dying – that to me, in terms of the tonal, delicate balance you had to walk along at that point… I don’t mind admitting that when it was shot, I said, “Oh God, this could really, really not work, this could be really, really bad,” and Matthew was like, “No, this is going to be great.” The first time I watched that, I was just like, “Wow, OK, actually, the action’s fucking great.” And suddenly I’m just plunged into this serious situation: the guy’s dead! It took me on that journey.

Then when we went and scored it, the composer did an even better job; the music takes you there. I think Chloe [Moretz]’s performance is exceptional. So that, for me, is one of the best bits. Whenever I watch it, I just kind of think, “Wow!” Because that could have been really bad! [Laughs] You could have had every member in the entire audience just pissing themselves. I mean, what did you think of it?

I agree, that’s one of my favourite bits of the whole film. That, and the animated sequence, which was drawn by John Romita Jr…

Oh great! The animation sequence was, to an extent, my baby. Not only from a creative point of view, but actually trying to get it done. No one else seemed to want to deal with it, and I found it a really fascinating process. It was a hell of a lot more difficult that we thought it was going to be! John Romita is just so fucking good at what he does. He is just amazing, and the guys he works with are amazing as well. And they’re all exceptionally nice. John Romita has got to be one of the nicest human beings on the face of this Earth!

It was one of those things, that when we were first trying to sort it out, we approached John and told him that it would probably be a couple of weeks’ work. Obviously he’d never done it before, we’d never done it before, so we didn’t think it would take that long. Just a few drawings, how difficult could it be? He asked us, “How many frames do you think you’ll need?” and we thought, 24 frames maybe, just some keys frames, and we’d build the rest of the animation from them. So he agreed to do it, seeing as it was only a couple of weeks. Then, a year later… [Laughs] Sorry, John!

Still, it was worth it…

I think it really worked. So it definitely was worth it for me. John is probably his harshest critic, so he was like, “There’s a couple of shots I don’t like there,” and you say, “Come on, John.” John came over to the UK for the premiere – and it was a really buzzy, excited premiere. Afterwards, John said, “They liked my sequence!” I just said, “Yeah, I told you, it’s great, dude!” It’s really great that he got validated.

There’s been some talk of a sequel to the first movie. Can you tell us anything about the status of Kick-Ass 2?

Everyone is putting pressure on Mark Millar to pull his finger out and get [the second comic book series] done. I hope he’ll be a little quicker than he was on Kick-Ass, that would help!

We’re doing a limited edition DVD that’s going to have some pages from [the Kick-Ass 2 comic] as well. There’s a really amazing box set that we’ve done which is only for the UK – because, apparently, they don’t like them in the US! There’s a couple of pictures that John Romita Jr has done for it exclusively, and it comes with a little comic. I’m looking forward to getting mine!

Finally, you’re working with Matthew Vaughn again on your next project, X-Men: First Class, a prequel to the X-Men trilogy. How are things developing so far? There have been reports that Matthew removed a sequence after he saw Inception…

It’s going great. We’ve got a great cast so far. With regards to Inception, Matthew had come up with a really brilliant idea. There was this rotating room, and it was really, really cool. Then we saw Inception! [Laughs]

But, yeah, he just wanted to validate that. We came up with a similar idea, but Christopher Nolan has already done it, and we’re not going to copy him. So it’s kind of frustrating. But it hasn’t affected the storyline in any way, it was just a cool sort of thing to do in the action sequence. It’s just slightly frustrating, because it would have been really awesome…

Kick-Ass is released on DVD and Blu-ray (region 2) on 6 September 2010.