Night One of SXSW was exactly what it needed to be: Texas-style relaxation mixed with guns-firing-in-the-air excitement. The “Kick-Ass” world premiere stirred up endless lines around both sides of the block behind the Paramount Theatre. And the “Predators” event at the Alamo Drafthouse afterwards, with producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal showing off sneak-peek trailers and footage from the film, was fun, informative, engaging … and full of schwag!!

Yes, every attendee walked away with one of those little lights that projects the tri-point red gunsight that the predators use to target their prey, a black T-shirt sporting about a dozen of those red tri-point designs, and a limited edition one-sheet for the movie, signed by Rodriguez.

Check out Borys’s Heat Vision for the scoop on both events. But here’s one photo with yours truly hanging with the original predator design head, which creatures designer Greg Nicotero brought along for the Q&A.

Well, I’m on the ground in Austin, sizing up the schedule for the next few days of screenings. The weather’s glorious, and I can see the Texas flag flying from my 11th floor Hilton hotel room.

I’ve been here a few times for the screenwriter-centric Austin film fest, but this is my first SXSW. Tonight’s a big night, with the world premiere of Matthew Vaughn’s “Kick-Ass,” followed by brand new footage from Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal’s “Predators.” Stay tuned for Twitter and Risky Biz bursts from the scene.

In the meantime, a little SXSW-related news:

As the SXSW film festival looms, the makers of “The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights” and opening night premiere “Kick-Ass” are testing out some quirky ideas to gain extra exposure.

Lionsgate has hired “Kick-Ass”-branded SUVs to shuttle festivalgoers around downtown Austin from 6 pm to midnight all ten days of the fest, March 12-22. The rides are free and include swag movie gear, and passengers can Tweet their location with a photo (and hashtag #KICKASS@SXSW) for a shot at making a video en-route that could be featured on official “Kick-Ass” websites.

White Stripes fans can order a screening kit by March 10 to host a viewing party of Emmett Malloy’s concert documentary. The kit comes with the retail DVD, popcorn and peppermint swirl candy in time for a March 16 viewing. The film debuts at SXSW March 12 at the Paramount Theatre right after “Kick-Ass.”

Writer-directors Quentin Tarantino, Michel Gondry and David Gordon Green are all heading to Austin next month to take part in the SXSW Film Conference, which kicks off March 12 in tandem with the annual film festival and runs through March 16.

The SXSW organizers announced the full list of panels — more than 80 in all — and the complete short film program (130 shorts) today. The festival, which includes Gondry’s latest, the documentary “The Thorn in the Heart,” runs through March 20.

The conference includes a bunch of workshop and mentor sessions, but the panels provide exposure to fascinating filmmakers in town to talk film. Among the panels, are:

The “Cop Out” red-band trailer broke out today, and now it’s looking more like a Kevin Smith movie.

That ridiculous PG version Warner Bros. ejected first just about torpedoed everyone’s interest in sitting through the film. When it comes to Kevin Smith, no one wants to be invited to a whorehouse with a promise of seeing good card tricks, you know? Give us the money shots or we’ll just go rent “Clerks” again.

Anyway, here are Tracy Morgan, Bruce Willis and Seann William Scott acting like regular ol’ profane action-movie grown-ups. Some of it’s even funny.

One observation: The profanity zeitgeist seems to have shifted from the cringy thrill of watching old ladies like Betty White throw out f-bombs to young kids spewing curse words like little machine guns on a sugar high. “Role Models” got the movement going, and this year’s “Kick-Ass” has teed up a few choice raunch-zingers viewable in the latest international red-band trailer (also below – wait around for the last line).

Well, here we have… Eh, just watch it.

The SXSW Film Conference and Festival unleashed its complete feature lineup late Wednesday night, and it’s got some must-see world premieres (”Kick-Ass,” “MacGruber,” “Elektra Luxx“) and thus-far-unseen gems. Running in ecstatic overlap with SXSW’s voluminous music and interactive fests — from March 12-20 — the film festival has developed its own distinct Texas flavor (separate from the great Austin Film Festival’s screenwriter-centric identity).

Fest producer Janet Pierson with Seth Rogen in 2009.

Industry vet Janet Pierson took over the job of festival producer in 2008 and here discusses her year-two approach to organizing the event.

What’s your background? You were a producer for a long time?

I came up through distribution and exhibition in the late ’70s. I was the assistant director of the Film Forum ‘81 to ‘86. John Pierson and I hooked up in ‘82, married in ‘83. After “She’s Gotta Have It” opened, I quit the Film Forum and just worked with John for a couple decades as a producer’s rep, co-creator and executive producer of “Split Screen,” which was our filmmaker-friendly magazine format television show. It’s funny, because the filmmakers who passed through that show, so many of them are still working and have features all over the place. We moved here in 2004 and I was asked to take over the festival in April ‘08 for the ‘09 festival.

Two weeks after promo footage unspooled at Comic-Con, "Kick-Ass," the Matthew Vaughn comic-book adaptation about an everyday teen who becomes a superhero, is closing in on a buyer.

Lionsgate, Paramount and Universal are in the running for the pic, which Vaughn financed independently after some studios found the project’s violence too graphic and some of its dialogue too profanity-laced and opted not to board it at the script stage.

But the Comic-Con event garnered a hugely warm response from the fan universe, which has in turn helped convince the companies to reconsider. Buyer screenings followed the week after Comic-Con, and several studios began circling the pic.

Studios interested in "Kick-Ass" see a Vaughn pickup, even at a price in the solid seven figures and with a significant P&A commitment, as a way to plug a franchise-level property into their slate with comparatively little financial risk or production headaches.