The King's Man – Matthew Vaughn: “Hollywood people are accountants” (interview)

With The King's Man: First Mission, Matthew Vaughn travels back in time to the dawn of the First World War. An origin story of its spy franchise behind the scenes of History, in the form of a great adventure film like no other. Encounter.

This evening, W9 will put the spotlight back on the prequel to Kingsman, released at the very end of 2021 in cinemas. We're re-sharing our interview with its creator to wait until this action-packed evening.

In 2019, Matthew Vaughn told us about his nostalgia for old-fashioned adventure films “ which were full of excitement and which filled the screen. » A genre in disuse that the director of Layer Cake, Stardust Or Kick-Ass decided to reinvest with The King's Man: First Mission. It tells the genesis of his action-espionage saga in the shadow of the First World War, against the backdrop of a deadly conspiracy between the worst tyrants and the greatest criminal masterminds in history. Until a pacifist aristocrat, the Duke of Oxford (Ralph Fiennes), decided to thwart their plan by setting up the first independent spy network… In 2020, when the film was about to be released (and was then postponed for a big year), Vaughn told us about his cat and mouse game with Hollywood studios and his relationship with adventure cinema.

First: After three films, you no longer have too many doubts: you have become a franchise director. Which would have been difficult to imagine just a few years ago…
Matthew Vaughn: So maybe you misclassified me! I have no problem with franchises, and I always knew I wanted to do ” big cinema. » Except that I was well aware that I had to take my time to get there. I believe that it must be progressive, that you must climb the ladder little by little, learning to master your art. And that's not what's happening in Hollywood at the moment: beginning directors who only have one four-million-dollar film under their belt find themselves piloting billion-dollar machines. And obviously, it goes badly. It's like a beginner boxer going to tickle Mike Tyson. It’s a guaranteed knockout.

And I imagine it's easier to sell a film to a studio when you can rely on an established brand.
Totally. If I had showed up and said I wanted to make a big adventure film with British actors, they would have said, “ Thanks, see you next time. » But if you come in talking about an idea for a prequel to Kingsman, that changes everything… You have their attention. It's a little sleight of hand.

Doesn't it bother you to be forced to play this game at almost 50 years old?
But finally ! You are very naive! It's Hollywood! No offense, but these people are accountants, they don't really like cinema. And be careful, I'm talking about Hollywood in general, not Disney. If Disney has succeeded where everyone else has failed, it's because they really stand behind their films, whether it's Marvel, Lucasfilm or Pixar. Their plan is to find people who make great content and support them all the way.

Hmm…
No, really! The people at Disney immediately liked the project. The King's Man (the Burbank firm took over the project after the acquisition of 20th Century Fox). No one told me: “ Oh my God, a period film! » They were super hot.

So you're going to get stuck on movies Kingsman in the near future ?
As a producer, yes. As a director? Who knows what will happen. I don't ask myself too many questions. I have no idea what my next film will be.

In the meantime, you're giving the adventure film a facelift. A genre that has practically disappeared from our screens. For what ?
No idea. I imagine that fashions come and go but all that is beyond us, it is decided at the highest level of Hollywood. For example, we hadn't seen a pirate film for I don't know how long before. Pirates of the Caribbean. When we proposed Scams, Crimes and Botany, there were no more gangster films. We were told: “ Nobody wants to see that. “. Except that it was false: there was an audience but they were not given the opportunity to go to theaters. And afterward, when it was a hit, everyone wanted to make their own gangster film. And it gradually became big shit. It's a cycle.

The King's man: First mission leaves us disoriented (review)

For me, the last truly great adventure film to date, the one that really ticks all the boxes of the genre, is Tintin by Steven Spielberg.
Yeah. I don't want to… In short, it was motion capturenot a movie live. It's different. It surprises me myself, but I want to tell you the latest Jumanji, who set off for pure adventure. I had a very precise vision of what I wanted to do, something truly epic, exhilarating. And I immediately remembered the backstory that I had written while imagining the universe of Kingsman. Everything fit perfectly, the stars aligned. But I didn't put up any barriers: The King's Man can also be seen as an action-packed historical drama, with a political point of view and quite a bit of humor.

A melting pot, indeed.
Yeah. So it's difficult to find the right tone but that's the point. Making films shouldn't be easy. I want to immerse the viewer for two hours, so that they forget the existence of the outside world. Everything but boredom! Recently, I had a somewhat heated discussion with another director: a review of his film said that he manipulated the viewer's emotions too much, and that really pissed him off. But damn, wow man, it’s hot! It's our job to manipulate people to make them happy, to make them vibrate… To make them feel something! I try to recreate what I experienced when I went to theaters in the 80s, when I was a kid. The Warner Bros., Disney or Paramount logo came on the screen and it was the promise that I was going to experience a moment apart. And when it was really good, I didn't want to leave the theater after the credits, I wanted to watch the film again. Except that today, you can count on the fingers of one hand the ones you want to see again, because there is nothing more to analyze. I fight against this. Cinema must be an escape. Well, at the moment, it’s a little weird with Covid-19…

Has it changed your relationship with your job?
I think it turned everyone's lives upside down, right? The real positive for me is that I'm responding to you from the comfort of my office, with a nice cup of tea at hand, instead of in a fucking hotel. Afterwards, during confinement, it was super complicated to finish making the film. Impossible to do sound mixing at home, I don't have an Atmos mixer at home (Laughter.) The editing was perfect, but by having time to think about it, you end up wanting to change things… I was starting to want to cut passages out of sheer boredom, from seeing them again and again . Someone had to tell me: “ No stop. We're not changing anything and we'll just do the sound mixing when we can. » Now it's good, but I'm still here wondering if the film will be released in cinemas in September (Editor's note: 2020. Finally the film is released at the end of December 2021)… It's very special. Especially since we really thought The King's Man for the big screen.

You're not afraid that the situation will make the industry even more cautious?
There is this line in The King's Man : “ The more we fear something, the more likely it is to come true. » We are an independent production company (Marv Films), so we will inevitably start making feature films again. The thing is, I don't know how movies will be consumed in the future. We are in the unknown. I hope the cinemas hold up.

Don't you see yourself giving up and switching to streaming platforms?
If the cinemas did not reopen, then I would be forced to do so. But as long as they're open, I'll make films for theaters.

The King's Man takes place before and during the First World War. You mix real and fictional events, such as the creation of the Kingsman agency. How did you deal with History?
We changed absolutely nothing. Everything is true. It's actually funny, because some of those who saw the film told me that I had gone a little far. What a shame! When they check on Google, they are blown away. History is pretty great in itself, no need to reinvent it. All I did was look at it from another angle through my characters. From behind the scenes, that is. My theory about what caused World War I is as good as any. In any case, no one can refute what I wrote.

On the set, you said you were aiming for a mix of The Man Who Wanted to Be King (The Man Who Would Be King in VO) and of Lawrence of Arabia. Is this still the case, more than a year later?
If I tell you about The Man Who Wanted to Be King, most people will wonder what this thing is. No better with Lawrence of Arabia.

Anyway…
You and I know, but damn, I swear half of Hollywood wouldn't get it! You would be surprised. The nickname of the film was The Man Who Would Be Kingsman, that sets things up a bit. This is the film that comes closest. In short: if you didn't like Kingsman, you may like this one. And if you liked Kingsmanthen you will love this film (Laughter.) All I can promise you is that you won't regret spending two hours in front of it. That's not bad, right?

Matthew Vaughn: “Believe it or not, I don't like violent films”