Hollywood owes a lot to Scottish comic book author Mark Millar. Besides revamping the The Avengers, a move that saved Marvel and led to a string of blockbuster superhero movies like Iron Man and Thor, he and his company Millarworld also created Kick-Ass, Wanted and other names destined for the big screen.

In an interview with The Daily Record, Millar, who’s anticipating the release of The Avengers movie, expressed his desire to focus on developing his own original books, with a goal of doing “15 big comic books and 15 big movie franchises.” From the looks of it he’s well on his way – he discussed several projects in the works, among the second film in the Kick-Ass trilogy that, according to him, will start shooting this summer, despite reports that it wouldn’t happen at all. The production coincides with American Jesus, another film based off of his many works in which the Christ comes back and hides out in Scotland. Millar elaborated on the potentially provocative concept and shed more light on the plot:

“If you are doing a movie about the return of Jesus as the Bible prophesied in the Book of Revelation, you have got to do it straight and treat it with dignity. I’m not taking the p***. It will be treated like a proper film.

“I have never been cool. I am a Catholic and go to mass. A lot of people are surprised because much of my work is irreverent and expect the same with American Jesus. But I want it to be a beautiful film.

“A film about the returned Jesus Christ has amazing artistic potential. Jesus shows up in the middle of the financial crisis, America is in turmoil and the Eurozone is collapsing. They are quite apocalyptic times that we are living in with the gap between rich and poor.

“It is the reverse of the Omen, which is about a kid who finds out he is the anti-Christ. This is a kid who finds out he is Jesus Christ.”

 American Jesus isn’t the only story set in Millar’s home country – he also spoke on Supercrooks, a heist movie described as “Ocean’s Eleven meets the X-Men” that has a scene in Glasgow.

In addition, he’s working with Kick-Ass movie producer Matthew Vaughn on Secret Service, a spy flick described as “My Fair Lady meets James Bond” that should shoot after the completion of Kick-Ass 2 and American Jesus. The ever ambitious Millar also spoke on Jupiter’s Children, an intergalactic superhero saga he believes will become the biggest sci-fi franchise since Star Wars. Seeing as how George Lucas has retired from the ilk, I guess someone has to step up to continue the genre, and who better than Millar?

Are you looking forward to Kick-Ass 2? Do you think any of the other Millar projects sound interesting?