[The Guys Who Put Money On Me Full Movie Kickass Torrent
Iberio Ralda
The guys in Demons clearly understand they're style of music isn't easy to categorize. On their Instagram page, the Norfolk band refer to themselves as "post-whatever rock," and though it's obviously done with a sarcastic tone, it's fitting. You can hear elements of AmRep-styled noise rock, angular punk, and traces of hardcore in what they're cooking up.
The band got together initially as a studio project initiated by myself since I wanted to explore my love of hard music outside of another band I am also in called Mae. The band name comes from the Dostoevsky book of the same title.
At first it was just me (guitar and vocals), Jonathan Anderson (engineer and bass player), and Drew Orton (drummer). We recorded an initial EP and then began playing live, which is when we added Christopher Mathews on guitar and vocals. We are all fans of hard music and we came up in the hardcore and punk rock scenes in our respective communities (I'm from Florida originally), Drew in Atlanta, Jonathan and Chris in Hampton Roads.
Most generally it's described as "post-hardcore." Always aggressive and heavy, very riff-centric, and our tempos vary from very fast to very slow. We've been compared to Hot Water Music, Shellac, QOTSA, Nirvana.
We love the scenes that have developed Norfolk and Virginia Beach. Very warm, very enthusiastic, engaged, and socially conscious. Each scene has its own flaws of course, but that comes with the territory. We're proud and fortunate to be based here. We took an immediate liking to Prayer Group from Richmond, Rose Milk based out of Norfolk, Guiltwave, just to name a few, but I'm sure to be missing some.
We released a 2-song EP entitled Made in the USA in 2018. Last year we released a single called "Uglier Americans." They were both recorded in our practice space. Jonathan (our bassist) brings his mobile rig and we set up mics there to record.
On Made in the USA, the lyrics generally deal frustrations. Chris wrote the words and sings "Lever." I wrote and sing on "The Shadow of St. Luke." Both songs deal with subjective frustrations, but from different perspectives. Lever being more about social identity in a hostile environment, and "The Shadow of St. Luke" is more focused on critical self-reflection and excuses made to maintain an ideal version of yourself.
"Uglier Americans" was explicitly political and written to help raise money for Raices.org, and organization that provides legal aid for immigrant families being detained and separated at the border. All Bandcamp proceeds went to Raices.
Taking things as they come. But we do care deeply about what do and how we represent ourselves. We have an agent that helps us out, and a label. But we're all working, we have families. So, we try to navigate that space of obligation and devotion. It's tough, but our ambitions are in check and I'd like to think realistic considering our situation and sound.
There hasn't been a big Kick-Ass update in a while, which is a bit unfortunate considering how excited I am. So I thought I'd break the silence and bring you an update on the production. Last week we talked with actor Mark Strong, one of the finest English actors currently working. He just finished up roles in Body of Lies and RocknRolla and in addition to playing the villain in Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes (more on that in the future), he's playing the head villain in Matthew Vaughn's Kick-Ass. Not only does he give us a full breakdown of his character, who hasn't showed up in the comics yet, but reveals some interest details surrounding the production, including that it wasn't really the excessive violence that studios disliked.
Strong plays a character named Frank D'Amico, described as "a New York gangster, quite a nasty piece of work. He's a fixer, a drug dealer. And his world starts to fall apart when he realizes that his organization is being brought to its knees by what appear to be teenage superheroes." He continues on about the character's arc throughout the film: "So he's got this dilemma of realizing that his organization is falling apart and he can't quite work out why. So the film starts with him basically questioning one his guys, who he believes has taken his money or his drugs. And that scene is the most together you ever see him, and then over the course of the film, he basically falls apart. He starts to basically lose his mind."
"I've been shouting a lot, snorting a lot of coke, drinking a lot of whiskey, and threatening people with guns," he adds. We all know that the movie is based on Mark Millar's comic, but there are only four issues currently out on shelves at the moment, and none of them have really focused on D'Amico yet. However, Strong reveals that the plan is to finish each series off with a total of eight issues and that they're hoping to have three series. That's great to hear considering I loved the first four and was already anxious to see where they'd take the story next. Millar's Wanted only lasted one full series and he never continued it any further. Unlike Wanted, however, Kick-Ass is a direct adaptation of the comic without any major changes.
Getting back to the gritty side of things, back in August we reported that Matthew Vaughn was having trouble negotiating with Hollywood studios because the script was apparently way too violent for any of them to get into. He subsequently funded the entire production, rumored to have a budget upwards of $70 million, on his own. However, Strong, who has already been shooting the film with Vaughn, says he had a conversation with him that disproved those claims and somewhat clarified the whole situation.
"I'm not sure how true that is, in actual fact. Because I did mention that to Matthew. I said, 'What is the demographic for this movie? What age group and everything? Because if it's obviously as violent as the comics are, don't you lose your audience?'"
"I said, 'Isn't that the problem, that the studios all felt it was too violent?' He said, 'Well, if you choose to believe what you read on the internet, yes. But that wasn't actually the case.' He seemed to imply that it was just something that he wanted to do. And because he financed basically Lock, Stock and Snatch himself, he also financed Layer Cake himself. Stardust was a departure, in that Paramount was the distributor who also put money into it. But he still raised some of the money himself. He's just one of those guys who -- he has backers. But I think he likes having control over the movies that he makes. So he looked at Kick-Ass, loved the idea of it, and basically didn't particularly want anybody else to get involved. 'I'll make the film, and I'll make the film that I want to make. And then if other people like it, they can pick it up and distribute it.' I think that's close to the truth."
So does that mean it won't be as violent as originally thought? "Oh no, it's pretty violent," Strong says. "I just saw today the sequence at the end where Hit Girl comes in and takes out basically Frank and his goons, his nasty army. And it's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. And this is just the set up that the stunt guys and the fight arrangers have filmed. And it's absolutely astonishing. It's going to be incredibly cool." That definitely sounds like it should be pretty awesome. The violence in the comic includes an 11-year-old girl slicing bodies open and cutting heads in half with her ninja swords. I expect the violence in this to be at an acceptable R rated level, but not gory enough to be classified as horror.
While we've seen plenty of on set photos from the film, nothing official has been released just yet. We'll be anxiously awaiting any other big news we hear on this and will be sure to bring you any other cool photos we find, whether they're official or not. Mark Strong's character sounds like one hell of a nasty guy and I can't wait to see him both in the comics and in the movie once it's finished up - so stay tuned!
A friend of mine said recently she ran into a name actor at Crate & Barrel. She's a bit new to producing and had actually been pursuing this actor through mutual friends (forget about the agent and manager - too blind to real opportunity). Well, lo and behold, she approached the actor, brought up her project, and the actor said he had heard about it. They talked some more and actually hit it off quite well. In fact, they hit it off so well that during the conversation she promised him "10 points," if he ended up doing the movie.
Now, we have yet to see whether this actor will commit to the project. But apart from that, an even bigger issue looms, and it's not the one about trying to do a deal at Crate & Barrel. I ask her what she means by "10 points."
This scenario plays out all the time with filmmakers who venture out into the land of indie film. They make promises about points without being crystal clear on exactly what they are offering. Mostly, this is because the issue of points and what they mean can be a very confusing one.
Let's pretend that my friend, Jen, for this example's sake, gets a firm commitment from the actor, shoots her feature, and then finds a domestic distributor for North America who releases it in theaters, on DVD, on pay TV, etc. - the whole shebang. In fact, let's assume she used a producer's rep to find the distributor, and while they were at it, the producer's rep also found her a kickass foreign sales agent. The foreign sales agent takes the film to markets like AFM and Cannes and sells the film to foreign distributors attending these markets.
The producer's rep, John Wayne, tells her that from all of its releases into different formats (e.g., theaters, DVD, etc.), the domestic distributor collected $5 million, but is only returning $1.75 million, after deducting its fees and expenses. And he tells her that the foreign sales agent collected $900K from sales to foreign distributors, but is only returning $580K after deducting fees and expenses. As Jen starts to grouse about the high deductions, Mr. Wayne reminds her of how many films lose money and that she is actually sitting quite pretty, especially since her film only cost her $1 million to make, plus any backend commitments. "Oh snap! Backend commitments," she thinks. Mr. Wayne advises her that he'll be deducting his fees and expenses, totaling $330K, and sending the remaining $2 million her way.
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