Jim Carrey to Follow in Nicholas Cage's Crazy Footsteps in 'Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall'

With a resounding "TOLDJA!" Deadline confirmed today that Jim Carrey has joined Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall to play Colonel Stars. Carrey will join returning castmembers Aaron Johnson, Chloe Moretz and Christopher Mintz-Plass in the sequel to 2010's Kick-Ass. Kick-Ass creator Mark Millar took to his blog today to weigh in on Carrey's casting.

Matthew Vaughn, Jeff Wadlow and I did a conference call with Jim a couple of weeks back and we've been itching to talk about this ever since because the energy Jim's going to bring to Colonel Stars has me buzzing as much as Nic Cage with Big Daddy. You have to remember that Big Daddy's role before Cage came on was a much more straightforward bad-ass. It was Nic who gave him that Adam West delivery and brought this incredible warmth to the character, especially with regard to Mindy. 

Nic is really good friends with Jim Carrey and it's well known to everyone that Jim loved the first movie. In fact, I think he had lunch with Vaughn the day before that Conan O'Brien kick-Ass/ Superman duet you can see in the link. So we've been talking very informally about this for a little over two years now. We didn't quite know what Jim was going to be doing in the sequel, but the entire team loves him to bits and I've been a fan since I first saw him. I remember reading an interview with Spielberg, a great one back in Empire for a JAws anniversary, where he was saying that Jim would be his choice for Chief Brodie were he shooting Jaws now. He said he could see the brilliant dramatic range Jim had as well as the comedy people knew him for at that time. For all these reasons, combined with the conversation we had with him on the phone, I'm so genuinely excited about this. I can't wait to see what he does once the cameras are on.

I haven't read Kick-Ass 2 yet, and while that means I can't really weigh in on the character of Colonel Stars, it does keep me from already being disappointed in Millar's work. I think Millar is an incredibly creative and talented creator, but when it comes to finishing his projects, the guy loves nothing more than to tear down his characters and betray the emotional trust readers have put into his work. He did it with Kick-Ass, and he did it with Wanted.

The cinematic version of Kick-Ass was a much more rewarding experience than the graphic novel. As The Dark Knight's Batman once said, "Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded." Don't ask your readers to invest themselves in your characters only to crush them.