WCXX

Comedic actor Carrey, 51, said on Twitter that the December shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, had changed his mind about the violent superhero film that is due to open in theaters in August.

"I did Kickass a month b4 (before) Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence," Carrey posted on Twitter on Sunday.

The shooting killed 26 people, including 20 children and intensified a push for gun control in the United States.

Mark Millar, who wrote the comic books on which "Kick-Ass" and its sequel "Kick-Ass 2" are based and serves as a producer on the films, rebutted Carrey's comments in a post on his website, saying the film deals with the "consequences of violence."

"I'm baffled by this sudden announcement as nothing seen in this picture wasn't in the screenplay eighteen months ago," Millar said. "Yes, the body-count is very high, but a movie called 'Kick-Ass 2' really has to do what it says on the tin."

Carrey, who in the past has spoken out in support of gun-control, said on Twitter he was not ashamed of the film but that the Sandy Hook shooting "caused a change in my heart."

The "Ace Ventura" star plays Colonel Stars and Stripes in "Kick-Ass 2," the follow-up to 2010's "Kick-Ass," starring Chloe Moretz and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, in which a young girl teams up with a nerdy teenage boy to fight evil bullies.

"Ironically, Jim's character in 'Kick-Ass 2' is a born-again Christian and the big deal we made of the fact that he refuses to fire a gun is something he told us attracted him to the role in the first place," Millar said.

"Ultimately, this is his decision, but I've never quite bought the notion that violence in fiction leads to violence in real-life any more than Harry Potter casting a spell creates more Boy Wizards in real-life," Millar added.

Comcast Corp's Universal Pictures, the film's distributor, had no comment.

(This version of story corrects the typographical error in first paragraph)

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy, Bernard Orr)