Cage to play ex-cop in "Kick-Ass" indie pic

By Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Nicolas Cage, British actor Aaron Johnson and Lyndsy Fonseca ("How I Met Your Mother") will star in "Kick-Ass," Matthew Vaughn's adaptation of the violent Mark Millar comic-book series.

Written by Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr., the story, from Marvel Comics' Icon imprint, centres on a high school dweeb named Dave Lizewski who decides to become a superhero even though he has no athletic ability or coordination. Things change when he runs into real bad guys with real weapons.

Johnson plays the dweeb and title character, and Fonseca plays the object of the teen's infatuation, who believes that Dave is gay. Cage takes the role of a former cop who wants to bring down a druglord and has trained his daughter (Chloe Moretz) to be a lethal weapon.

Christopher Mintz-Plasse ("Superbad") is also in the cast.

Vaughn and his Marv Films partner Kris Thykier are producing the feature, which is being financed independently because many studios balked at the bloody nature of the material.

Johnson had a blink-and-you-missed-it cameo as a kiddie Charlie Chaplin in "Shanghai Knights." He went on to star in "The Thief Lord" and is one of the stars of Gurinder Chadha's teen comedy-drama "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging."

In addition to "How I Met Your Mother," Fonseca is known for her work on TV's "Big Love" and "Desperate Housewives."

Cage next appears in the crime drama "Bangkok Dangerous."

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter