Fatal mistake we’re making after Barbie

Matthew Vaughn is responsible for some major box office blockbusters. He doesn’t however consider himself part of the big movie studio system.

Matthew Vaughn is responsible for some major box office blockbusters. He doesn’t however consider himself part of the big movie studio system.

“I don’t really work with Hollywood,” Vaughn tells Insider.

“We’re sort of the biggest independent movie company that masquerades as being Hollywood. But I love Hollywood movies, don’t get me wrong, they have made brilliant films.”

The director is back in cinemas with his latest big screen effort, the all-star Argylle.

His previous offerings include the Kingsmen movie franchise, as well as Kick-Ass, Layer Cake, X-Men: First Class and Stardust.

His signature, you could say, is throwing a genre on its head, particularly spy action comedies.

“My number one rule is I am trying to imagine I’m in the audience watching the movie,” he said.

“So I try to do what I would love to see and what I know what I don’t want to see is the same thing again and again and again and again.”

Dua Lipa and Henry Cavill in Argylle, directed by Matthew Vaughn. Picture: Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures

He continued: “There’s nothing wrong with a good formula for movies but it doesn’t mean you can’t change the ingredients a little bit. What sums up Hollywood right now is, I know for a fact all the studios are running around buying the IP of any toy that’s ever been made before.

“So that’s what they’re learning from (Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie’s) Barbie. They’re going, ‘people want to see movies about toys’. And it is like, ‘no they don’t’. God help us all when we’re watching My Little Pony movies and Polly Pockets and God knows what else is coming our way.”

That is not to say Vaughn is anti-Hollywood.

“A lot of the Marvel movies I thought were masterpieces,” Vaughn said.

“I love blockbusters but when I was a kid a blockbuster was original IP (intellectual property), you know Star Wars, Raiders (of the Lost Ark), ET, Back to the Future. These were original movies and we went and saw and they were massive.”

Argylle features an impressive cast of big names, led by Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell and Henry Cavill. Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, John Cena and Samuel L. Jackson are also in the mix while Dua Lipa makes a cameo.

Claudia Schiffer and Matthew Vaughn in London in January. Picture: Lia Toby/Getty Images

It is an original story inspired by 1980s film, Romancing The Stone. Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman, Ice Age: Continental Drift) wrote the script.
Vaughn’s supermodel wife Claudia Schiffer also has an executive producer credit in the film. He spoke to Insider via Zoom and has been working hard alongside the Argylle cast to promote the film.

“Word of mouth is probably the most important thing in the world for making someone go and see a film,” Vaughn, 52, explained.

“Word of mouth can kill you within two hours of a film coming out. You used to be able to buy a weekend and you can manipulate it and it would take 10 days for a stinker to be known as a stinker.

“Nowadays the real challenge is actually getting people to go to the cinema again because I think everyone had the habit of watching movies at home.

“I think a film like this deserves to be watched in a movie theatre, not just because of spectacle, but the camaraderie you feel with people watching it, the oohs and the ahs and did that just happen? And then cheers. It was designed for a communal human experience.”

Argylle is clearly the start of a new franchise for Vaughn. The story is set around a reclusive spy thriller author named Elly Conway (Howard), who finds herself caught up in a real life action drama.

“For this movie, I was excited about taking some of the cliches and the tropes of this classic super spy movie that I am totally guilty of being, either doing or following, and then turning it on its head,” Vaughn said.

“And so you have the Henry Cavill superspy, and then you bring Sam Rockwell in the rough and ready rock n roll spy of what a real spy should be like, and merging these two worlds together through the eyes of Bryce and creating a new illusion of what’s real, what’s fake, and underneath it all, having a love story and a cat. What else do you need?”

The feline star, for the record, is Vaughn’s wife’s cat named Chip.

* Argylle is in cinemas nationally now