Matthew Vaughn’s eagerly anticipated comic book movie Kick-Ass is to receive its world premiere at the ever-brilliant South By Southwest Festival in March. The film tells the story of a teenager (Aaron Johnson) who is so obsessed with comic books – he decides to become a “real” superhero. Along with Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage), Hit Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) and Red Mist (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), he takes on a local mob boss (Mark Strong). It quite frankly looks a hoot: mixing first rate dialogue with bone-crunching action.

The South By Southwest Festival is fast becoming one of the hottest events of the year. It’s mixture of music, film and business dealings have created quite an unique media fest in Austin, Texas. In the past, Sam Raimi screened a rough cut of Drag Me To Hell and P.T. Anderson premiered There Will Be Blood. Is this the new Sundance, but way cooler?

It won’t be long before celebrities and huge corporations turn up soiling the whole affair. And what about Matthew Vaughn? From producing Guy Ritchie movies to fast-becoming one hell of a director. Making his directorial debut with Layer Cake then delivering the hugely enjoyable Stardust: he is showing versatility and talent in abundance. Can this be said for the former Mr. Madonna? Not bloody likely.