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Matthew Vaughn Says the ‘Kingsman’ Sequel Will Introduce the American Branch (EXCLUSIVE)

Matthew Vaughn is a filmmaker perhaps best known for his long stint producing the British gangster films of Guy Ritchie or for directing the superhero reboot “X-Men: First Class.” He is also notable for marrying Claudia Schiffer, which is something of a superhuman feat in and of itself. But, as far as cult fandom goes, Vaughn’s major achievement was “Kick-Ass,” an irreverent, blood-splattered superhero deconstruction that was based on a comic book of the same name (by Mark Millar). Millar and Vaughn have re-teamed this week for “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” this time doing for the spy genre what “Kick-Ass” did for superheroes.

“Kingsman: The Secret Service” is a fun, thrilling, sometimes shockingly violent spy movie about a secret organization (called the Kingsmen) and the seasoned agent (played by an against-type Colin Firth) that recruits a young, unknown street tough (played by newcomer Taron Egerton) to become one of them. Together, they face off against an insane super-villain (Samuel L. Jackson) and shake up the status quo. It’s a riot.

When talking to Vaughn earlier this week in New York, he sounded absolutely thrilled that the movie was coming out, which is a big deal especially because it meant him walking away from the lucrative “X-Men” franchise (he was supposed to direct “X-Men: Days of Future Past”) for something far stranger and more esoteric. Vaughn told us all about that decision-making process, re-teaming with Millar, and where the “Kingsman” franchise would be headed (spoiler: to America!)

Moviefone: You left the “X-Men” movie to come do this one. What was the thought process behind that?

Matthew Vaughn: Long story; I’ll try to do it the short way. It was purely where, because I wrote the treatment with Jane and I got very excited about that. And then Simon Kinberg went off to write it. And at this point Mark and I had been talking more and more about “Kingsman,” just as an idea. Then he sent me the comic and then I thought, F*ck he’s gone and written the comic. And I’m reading it going, “Sh*t, I like this.” This movie exploded in my head. So while I was waiting for Kinberg to write his script, I sat with Jane and just banged this one. It just fell out of me. So then I had “Kingsman.” I thought, F*ck, well I have this. And literally the same week Kinberg said, “I’m done.” Then in comes “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” It was like, f*ck, what do I do? I like both of these. I said to Fox, “Can we push ‘Days of Future Past’ back and I can do ‘Kingsman’ next?” And they said, “Why?” And I said, “I’m convinced spies are going to suddenly explode and there are going to be a lot of fun spy movies. So if I do this movie in two years time, something tells me that I will look like I will be copying lots of other films.” A lot of people are saying, “This is so original! It’s so different!” And I’m going, “Well, it’s not really. It’s been done before but not in a long time so it feels original.”

So I had this idea where we could do a smaller “X-Men” movie in the ’70s where you recast Wolverine. So you do, in the ’70s you do a smaller movie with a new Wolverine, where the “First Class” cast meets a younger Wolverine. And then that all happens. Then the ’80s is “Days of Future Past,” which is when it was in the comics. So you have Hugh and the younger cast and you really explore the older and younger characters and bring in Storm and all the other characters we hadn’t met yet in “First Class.” That was my idea. And then Fox read it and said, “No. We’re doing this. Are you in or out?” I said, “I know this thing too well now.” And also “X-Men” is Bryan’s franchise, full stop. He did 1 and 2, which are great films, and 3 was whatever it was, made money but didn’t really work. “First Class” was… I just couldn’t say no to doing this. Every pore in my body was telling me to do this.

And I was proven right, because just this year you have new Bond, “Mission: Impossible,” “Man from UNCLE,” “Spy,” “Grimsby”… And once you’ve written something, it’s really personal, and you want to do it. As a director, there’s a switch, and once it clicks on, nothing is going to click that off until you’ve made the film.

Was it hard to explain the concept to people?

It still is! F*ck! To Fox’s credit, when they read it, they were like, “We sort of understand why you’re not doing X-Men. But we think this could be very cool.” And I kept saying, “Just trust me, the world needs a new spy franchise. It really does. The new generation hasn’t gotten their fun spy movie.” The spy films got so serious.

I’m assuming it was rated R on the page. Was it hard to convince them of that aspect?

Not really. I said, “This is what the movie has got to be. Because then the movie could end up like ‘Spy Kids.’” This movie is a balancing act, a very, very tough balancing act to get right. And by making it R, it gave me the pole to keep the act balanced. If I had to make it PG-13, we could have veered off. It would have worked but it wouldn’t have been as fun.

How close was Leonardo DiCaprio to playing the bad guy?

As close as I am to becoming the pope. I don’t know where that came from. He was never offered it, was never given the script. I don’t even read the Internet anymore. I don’t know where these things begin. I have a laugh now because I’m convinced other studios are going, “How do we f*ck this movie up?”

How hard was it to find Eggsy?

It was really tough. We went through hundreds and hundreds of actors and they weren’t nailing it. And then he came in and blew my mind. It was hard to find him but once I found him it wasn’t a difficult process. Back when I made “Layer Cake,” people would ask how hard it was to find Daniel Craig and why did I cast him. It’s like, “He is what he is. I just came in.” Same thing with Jennifer Lawrence or Fassbender or all these people who I’ve worked with, even if nobody knew who they were, they are obviously incredibly talented and they just came in and I was lucky enough to have the honor of putting them in a movie before they were big stars.

Are you going to continue working with Millar?

Never say never. We’ve talked about things and he’s the one, who I always call, “The genius one-line movie guy.” I always tell him he should have been making movies in the eighties. He would have made a f*cking fortune. “Oh ‘Jaws’ in space? We’ll give you a million for that.” He could have just sat there, every day. He’ll ring me up one day and go, “Hey, I’ve got this idea.” He does it every week. It drives me nuts. And I’ll go, “Not for me, not for me…” But then something will go, “That’s for me.” He’s sent me everything he’s done but so far nothing has sparked into something that I have to make into a film.

Would you do another “Kingsman”?

I’d love to do another one. This movie really is the origin story of Eggsy. And Eggsy is really the real, true modern gentleman spy. It really isn’t Harry Hart. Harry Hart is the old cliché of what you think a gentleman spy is. Eggsy will be taking on a whole new way. But it’s up to the audience. If they go see it and want another one, I would absolutely love to do it. We had so much fun making this movie. And you wouldn’t believe what we’ve got in store. Poor Mark Strong will be going on a journey that he never imagined. And we’ve got this idea to introduce the world to the American branch of the Kingsman.

That’s so cool.

It really is.

Give the young girl more stuff to do.

Listen, all of them will be doing stuff… And the villain we’ve come up with… We’ve got a really fun idea for the sequel.

“Kingsman: The Secret Service” open nationwide Friday, February 13.
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February 11, 2015
‘Seventh Son’ Star Ben Barnes Really Loves ‘The Fabulous Baker Boys’ (EXCLUSIVE)

In “Seventh Son,” Ben Barnes plays the seventh son of a seventh son, a mystically indebted apprentice who goes on the road with Jeff Bridges, who plays a Spook, the last of a dying breed of knights who defends the innocent from the ghastly forces of darkness (led, in this case, by an incredibly over-the-top Julianne Moore as a fearsome witch). Barnes’s Tom follows the Luke Skywalker trajectory of starting off as a slightly above-average farm boy to becoming the savior of the land.

And Barnes has some history with this kind of thing, having starred in the “Chronicles of Narnia” movies (with far more benevolent beasts). When we got to speak to Barnes about “Seventh Son,” we asked him about how he came aboard the project, what it was like working with Bridges and his comely costar Alicia Vikander (don’t worry – if you don’t know who she is, you will), his academic background with fantasy literature and why “The Fabulous Baker Boys” is his favorite Jeff Bridges movie.

Moviefone: How did you initially become involved in the film?

Barnes: I auditioned. I believe that the film was already cast, long before I was involved. I was off working on other projects and then something changed and had to recast and that’s when I first heard about it. I auditioned on tape. I like to make my first audition at home, if at all possible, because it’s a more relaxed environment. And then if I have to go audition in front of a room full of people, I will… Which I did for this. I had to have a chemistry read with Alicia, which I think was a good ploy.

What was the appeal of this material? Did you know who else was going to be in it?

I was the last piece. So I knew they would all be in it, with the exception of Djimon. But I knew that my scene partners would be Jeff Bridges and Alicia, which I was up for. Jeff Bridges has been one of my heroes since “Fabulous Baker Boys,” which I saw when I was a teenager. I loved his charisma. And Alicia is obviously very beguiling; she’s so compelling and intriguing and very witch-like. I thought, if there’s one person I can see as a mentor, it’s Jeff, and Alicia was obviously a great romantic interest. It made my job much easier.

Wait. Rewind. “Fabulous Baker Boys” was what drew you into the Jeff Bridges mystique?

Well, I love “The Big Lebowski” and I love “True Grit” and I love “Crazy Heart.” But “Fabulous Baker Boys” is my favorite. He’s got such a brooding charm to him. He’s so cool.

What about “Starman?”

I haven’t seen that in a really long time.

Do yourself a favor, and watch it again.

I will. But it’s not going to be “Fabulous Baker Boys” because it’s just so fabulous.

So you had all these expectations about how cool he was – did working with him live up to those expectations?

Yes. Initially it was confusing because I found him quite intimidating. Initially, our characters start off on the wrong foot with each other and are mistrustful of each other. And I felt like he was a little mistrustful of me. But maybe that was just my projecting onto his legacy. But as our characters grew closer, he would bring me into his world. He would play me Bob Dylan songs on his guitar. One time he said, “Sit in my chair Jamin.” He calls me Jamin, which I think is a cool nickname. Like Benjamin. But just Jamin. Nobody ever gives you a cool nickname when you’re an adult. But he did. But he had this lazy chair thing and I thought, Man this is the most comfortable chair ever. And a week or two later, there were two chairs, the same, next to each other. And he said, “I got you one Jamin.” So we’d print out lyrics to songs and sing them in between shots and he carries himself with such humor and grace and is so charming.

Did Bridges take any photos of you?

They’re famous! I’ve got the “Seventh Son” book on my coffee table at home. He’s put one or two books out. It’s pretty cool.

The movie had an insanely protracted release over the past few years. Were you nervous that it would never come out?

No. I didn’t expect it to take this long. You want to deliver things hot, fresh out of the oven. It was all political, behind-the-scenes stuff. The effects house that we were using went out of business. And then Legendary partnered with Warner Bros successfully on things like “Inception” and “42” and “300” and they split with them and partnered with Universal. And I don’t know anything about that, but if we were moving with them, we had to wait for a slot in Universal’s schedule. That’s all I really know. But it didn’t have anything to do with us. We didn’t make any changes or re-edit or redo the effects or reshoot or anything. It was just a matter of timing.

Speaking of effects – you were in the “Narnia” movies, but these creatures are much more fearsome – what was that process like?

Yes, it’s a little bit more involved than having tea with badgers. This experience is more about escaping the clutches of an angry Siberian bear or a fire-breathing dragon. But they really don’t do almost anything on set anymore, which has it’s own challenges since you’re just listening to an assistant director yell at you – “The ghosts are moving around you and around you and now it’s moving through you. Now you’re scared.” And you’re thinking, This isn’t creative. Then they put the ghosts in after the fact and it’s pretty cool. It can be really rewarding.

What appeals to you about these fantasy movies?

Well I studied children’s literature in school. So from an adult’s perspective, I was looking at the “Harry Potter” movies and “The Hobbit” and “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” so I had an affinity for this kind of material even before I started acting.

And now look at you, being chased by imaginary ghosts!

It’s destiny! It all came back around!

This is based on a series of fantasy novels.

There’s about a dozen of the books. I read four or five of them, just to have the world be present in my system. There was actually a guidebook to the book, about the creatures and how to defeat them. And Jeff gave me a copy early on and said, “Study this. Study this book. This will teach you how to defeat such creatures.” It was pretty cool.

When you made it, were you talking about a franchise?

Not me personally. But I think the ending of the film certainly lends itself to further exploration of the relationship between Tom and Alice and it would be certainly cool to see the Spook he becomes.

They didn’t say, “You’ll be doing this for the next 30 years?”

No. But while we were filming, it was certainly like, “Well you could go like that…” I’d like to pick it up a few years and see what he’s become.

Is there a franchise you’d love to be a part of?

I think I’ve bitten off more of my fair share of fantasy world stuff. But I’ve never done a sci-fi. I’d love to be involved in a sci-fi. That would be cool.

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February 5, 2015
Jena Malone on ‘Inherent Vice,’ ‘Batman v Superman,’ and Her ‘Punk’d’ Legacy (EXCLUSIVE)

In Paul Thomas Anderson‘s dizzying crime comedy “Inherent Vice” (read our review from the New York Film Festival here), characters flit in and out, each one played by a terrific actor, as shaggy dog detective Doc (Joaquin Phoenix) tries to untangle a mystery that involves his old girlfriend (Katherine Waterston), a missing hippie (Owen Wilson), a real estate tycoon (Eric Roberts), and an entity known only as The Golden Fang. One of the characters Doc meets along the way is a young woman named Hope Harlingen, played by Jena Malone, who most know from her role in the blockbuster “Hunger Games” franchise.

Hope is a recovering drug addict in 1970 Los Angeles and as such she looks pretty rough, with a mouth full of crummy veneers and skin like a citrus-deprived pirate. She’s only in the movie briefly but makes a big impression. We talked about her chompers, what it was like working with a director with a reputation as mythical as Paul Thomas Anderson’s, what’s in store for the final “Hunger Games” entry, and whether or not she’s in Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”

Moviefone: My editor dared me to make this entire interview about your bad teeth.

Jena Malone: We could try! There’s certainly a lot to talk about. I did do a lot of research on female dental veneers from the seventies.

Okay! What kind of research did you do?

Well, you know, what it looks like — what the feeling was, what the purpose was, all the different variations of it. Because we were creating a set of teeth for her, from nothing, we had to decide the whiteness, was this too big, was this too small. You know, the bigger the front of the teeth was from an earlier era… It just goes on and on.

Were the teeth something from the novel?

Yes. And the thing with him is he’s the master of metaphor. Within his prose he’s telling you things about a character and revealing all of the nature of the character within that character’s actions. Just the fact that her name is Hope and living in this death of an era, the death of the dream of free love and she’s an ex-junkie and she’s removing herself from this darkness and approach this parenthesis of light. You know, she has fake teeth and she’s trying to clean herself up and become a good mom. All of it worked within the narrative so well.

Since you have relatively little screen time, did you feel any added pressure to really make your scenes pop?

I always feel pressure. Every day on set I feel a mash of butterflies that occupy a small part of my stomach, particularly when you’re doing work that you care about and work that is basically the essence of what we do, creating something out of nothing, continually. And to be fair, you have no idea what you’re doing, half of the time, because I’m just trying things out. There’s always that pressure and also that excitement of finding out what’s going to happen. But maybe there was more because of the fact that I was working with, for me, the greatest American filmmaker alive and getting to work with Joaquin, who is such an incredibly talented actor. You’re working with these greats, so there’s the added pressure of that. But what’s amazing about those two… Paul creates an energy on set of such ease and it’s so gentle and trying things and he’s constantly writing and editing as he’s shooting, allowing the scene to become what it wants to become in the moment. It’s a really easy and collaborative set to be apart of and the nerves melted away and just kind of became adrenaline and excitement.

Most of the movie is captured in these super-long takes. Was that scary at all?

It’s funny, it’s like talking about the lines at Six Flags. You don’t leave Six Flags talking about the lines, you leave Six Flags talking about the excitement of going down the ride and the thrill of those three seconds. Were there long takes? Yeah. I guess we were. But in the environment of how Paul creates, actors flourish. I didn’t find it restrictive at all. I find it all encompassing and welcoming, in a way.

What were your expectations of working with Paul Thomas Anderson, and what was the reality of working with him?

I didn’t have many expectations, because I know now that every director I’ve worked with is so different and so unique. They each have their own fingerprint, that I was just excited to see how he worked. I didn’t know what that would be. I guess I was expecting, in a way, that it’d be more restrictive or for him to be leading these very powerful sets with not an iron fist but something like that, because his films are so uniquely his vision. I imagined him to be this giant craftsman but he’s really this soft welder. He’s constantly re-interpreting his own material, finding things that didn’t work and letting those things go. You could ask him, “What does this mean?” And he’d say, “I don’t know.” He’s courageous enough to say that he’s not quite sure, he’s allowing the moment to figure itself out, which not a lot of directors have the balls to do.

Did you shoot a lot of extra stuff? Even the trailer is full of scenes that aren’t in the actual movie.

We shot a lot that day, up and around and all over that scene. But what became was perfect.

What did you think about Joaquin’s amazing yelp? Did he try out different screams?

Nothing was ever repeated when it came to Joaquin’s performance. It was a constant joy. It was constantly a surprise, it was constantly wanting to see where he was going to go next. That was working with him on every level. He’s so generous and giving and also very joyful. It’s not this very serious, weighty matter. He’s very happy to share whatever’s in his pocket and ideas and whatever and allow for things to happen. It was incredible to get to dance with him. I had the best time.

It sounds like this movie spoiled you.

I’m totally spoiled. I’m never going to be able to work with anyone again. He creates such an incredible environment for the actors, we were all wondering, “Why can’t this always be like this?”

You showed up very briefly in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.” Is it safe to say you’ll be a bigger part of the finale?

There’s a lot more to the books. “Part 1” was just part one of the full book. There’s a lot more for all of the characters. It’s the final chapter, so it’s going to be crazy.

Are you sad to see that end?

It is and it isn’t. It’s nice to see that we’ve created something so beautiful together but it’s more about missing those friendships and being a part of that family.

There have been rumors that you are in talks to join another sizable franchise for a director you’ve worked with before, as part of Zack Snyder’s “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” Can you say anything?

Ummmm… no.

Would you say, hypothetically, that you would be excited to contribute a strong female role model to a genre that is somewhat bereft of them?

I don’t think that it’s bereft. I mean look at “Hunger Games” — are you kidding me?

Yeah, but “The Hunger Games” isn’t a comic book.

It doesn’t matter. You’re turning something into a film, you’re creating a myth. What is a comic book but a written myth? I feel like there’s so much negativity, but we create. We’re still making things. It’s not about having as much as they have, it’s about continuing the conversation.

Do those big movies hold the same amount of appeal for you as something like “Inherent Vice”? Would you keep going between those two poles?

I don’t see them as poles. In my own audience, there’s no bigger film than “Inherent Vice.” As an audience, there’s no bigger film than “The Hunger Games.” As an audience member, for me, that’s what I want from a film. I just want to work with great filmmakers and keep pushing myself.

Is there any filmmaker you’ve worked with that you would want to work with again?

Paul. I’ll be texting him all the time now: “So…?” No, he’s constantly working on things. I’m just excited as an audience member to what he does next.

What do people come up to you on the street and talk to you about, besides “Hunger Games”?

That I was on “Punk’d.”

You were on “Punk’d”?

Yes. And seriously, more people recognize me from that than anything.

Thanks so much for chatting and if you do end up in that sizable film next year, hopefully we’ll talk again.

Sizable? What a funny way to say anything.

Isn’t it a sizable film?

I don’t know. I don’t know even what you’re talking about.

Oh right. You have no knowledge of this.

[Laughs] Thanks again.
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January 7, 2015