Ever since some preliminary footage was screened at Comic-Con this past July, Kick-Ass has been one of the year's most buzzed-about films. At its premiere at Austin's South by Southwest festival a few days ago, over 1,200 hopeful attendees lined the block around theater, and hundreds were left out on the street as the film started. Based on the comic series by Mark Miller and John Romita, Kick-Ass is the story of Dave Lizewski, a gawky teenager who fights crime without the traditional aid of superpowers. With its wincingly mortal protagonists, a foul-mouthed eleven-year-old assassin named Hit Girl, and an R-rating that results in a serious body count, the movie raises the stakes for the superhero genre. (PHOTO: AARON JOHNSON AND CHLOE MORETZ)

At a panel following the screening, director Matthew Vaughn explained, "I wanted to make a postmodern superhero movie...I was getting bored with the Hollywood bullshit."  However, Vaughn's particular vision required some independent financing: "It was pretty difficult in that every studio said no to it. We raised the money independently...The investors were cool. They believed that if Hollywood didn't like it, there was a chance it was a good film."  

Creating a totally new superhero world without studio backing may have seemed an impossible task, but writer and creator Mark Miller was confident that the movie-going public's recently renewed interest in comics would see them through: "The world is very geek literate now. Everyone knows who Wolverine is–everyone's girlfriend knows who Wolverine is."

With a writer and director hailing from the UK, Vaughn was adamant about finding an American teenager for the lead role until he met British actor Aaron Johnson: "Well, I'm an English Director–Scottish Writer–I would worry we were going to do a Mary Poppins and have a Dick Van Dyke version of an American kid." When Johnson came in with an American accent, Vaughn didn't realize he was British. "I said ‘That's a bloody good English accent you've got there.'"

However, it's Hit Girl, the most dangerous and foul-mouthed character in the film, that steals the show. Played with total conviction by thirteen-year-old Chloe Moretz, the part required intense training: "We went to this place and they just did basic training, like how to take apart your gun, how to put it back together–you know, not to put your finger on the trigger," Moretz recalled.

Vaughn was quick to point out that, "There's no such thing as an eleven-year-old stunt girl."  Despite her staring role in the film (in which she takes out her fair share of bad guys), Moretz lamented that, at thirteen, she isn't able to see the R-rated film yet: "I haven't seen it–that's kind of crazy right?" Vaughn added: "Or morally correct."

Kick-Ass opens in theaters on April 16th.