Matthew Vaughn is best known for making some amazing films like Kick-Ass, Kingsmen, Rocketman and X-Men: First Class. During this weekend’s New York Comic Con, Vaughn spoke to fans about his library of work where he talked about his experiences, the projects he did and those he didn’t do. One of these experiences was walking away from the X-Men 3 job.
A MENACING PLAN FOR X-MEN 3 FROM A STUDIO EXECUTIVE
In 2006, when Vaughn was courted to replace Bryan Singer as the director of X-Men: The Last Stand, he ultimately rejected the offer after discovering a studio executive’s plan to deceive Storm actress Halle Berry into reprising her role.
“I went to an executive’s office and I saw an X-Men 3 script. It was a lot fatter. I asked, ‘What is this draft?’ They were like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ So I grabbed it, and opened the first page, and it said ‘Africa. Kids dying from no water, and Storm creates a thunderstorm to save all these children.”
– Matthew Vaughn –
Vaughn found it a “pretty cool idea”, but when he found out that the script was going to be trashed once the actress signed on again, he wasn’t too fond of taking on the project.
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“[I went] ‘What is this?’ [They said,] ‘Oh, it’s Halle Berry’s script. I went, ‘Ok, because she hasn’t signed up yet.’ ‘But this is what she wants it to be, and once she signs up, we’ll throw it in the bin.’ I was like ‘Wow, you’re gonna do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm? I’m outta here.’ So I quit at that point.”
– Matthew Vaughn –
Once Vaughn left the project, the studio replaced Singer with Rush Hour filmmaker Brett Ratner. Singer left the franchise after the first two X-Men films to direct Superman Returns.
Berry did return as Storm for the third film, but it did not include any scenes that were set in Africa like the script that Vaughn read. It did give Storm a more prominent role as her character takes over as the head of Charles Xavier’s school for mutants after his death. Vaughn was able to get his shot in directing an X-Men film years later in 2011’s X-Men: First Class starring James McAvoy (Charles Xavier), Michael Fassbender (Magneto) and Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique).
VAUGHN’S PROJECT UPDATES
During the 45-minute panel at NYCC, there was the discussion of project updates, including Kingsman 3 that is set to release next year, a new Kick-Ass with different characters that are currently in the works and his upcoming spy thriller Argylle.
“Kick-Ass sort of changed people’s perception of what a superhero film is at the time. So we’ll be doing it again. So it’s none of the characters from the other Kick-Ass. We’d like to bring them back after the reboot. This reboot is just going off on a tangent that I can’t really talk about now. But it’s fun.”
-Matthew Vaughn-
When it came to speaking about Argylle, Vaughn talked about how the trailer of the film only featured footage from the film’s first 28 minutes and that “even what you see in the film isn’t quite the same as in the trailer.” According to Vaughn, he wanted to do something different when it came to the film. “I just loved the idea of what would happen if a wizard went to J.K Rowling in book three and said, ‘You know what? Wizards are real. Hogwarts is real. I’m real. I’m going to show you what it’s really like,’ and going on an adventure.”
For the Kingsman franchise, Vaughn confirmed that it was not over. “We’ve got to get on with Kingman 3 because I was joking that Colin [Firth] is going to end up being a portrait on the side while Taron is Arthur. So we are working on that at the moment.”
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While Kick-Ass is currently in the works and there has been no official release date, Kingsman 3 (The title being called Kingsman: The Blue Blood is set to release some time in 2024 though due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, the film may be delayed.
What do you all think? What do you think about Vaughn leaving X-Men 3 because of what the executives were doing to get Halle Berry back in the film? Did he make the right call? Let us know and don’t forget to check out our socials! If you like articles like this and more, make sure to follow for more content.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter
