Filmmaker Matthew Vaughn (“Kick-Ass”), thus far, has essentially made an entire career out of making spy films, ones arguably much more irreverent than the James Bond movies—a series he seemingly was desperate to be a part of at one point. But then Vaughn came up with the “Kingsman” franchise in 2014 with the first installment, “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” and then basically never looked back.
In fact, Vaughn has yet another spy film and potential franchise in the works, “Argylle,” an espionage action film due February 2024 via Apple TV+ and Universal. Vaughn turned up at New York Comic-Con to promote “Argylle” and, during his press tour, sat down for a long chat with the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
One of the big revelations of the interview was confirming an old rumor: Yes, Vaughn was scheduled to direct “Casino Royale” for about a day initially, and then the gig got pulled from him for unexplained reasons that next day.
To hear it from Vaughn, he received a phone call from MGM asking if he was interested in meeting with the Broccolis [the Bond producers] for “Casino Royale,” and he was immediately interested. “I was like, ‘Oh my god,’ yes, I would.’” He read the book again and then met with the Broccolis the next day. “We all got on really well, I thought,” he said. “Then, welcome to Hollywood; I got a call from MGM that said, ‘you’ve got the gig, don’t tell anyone.”
Then Vaughn met with EON, the British production company behind Bond. they asked who he would cast, and he said, how about Daniel Craig (who he had just directed in “Layer Cake”), and they put on the brakes and said, “We’re not sure about Daniel.”
“MGM offered it to me, but at the end of the [EON] meeting, and at the end of it, I wasn’t offered [the gig], so I went home thoroughly confused,” he explained.
Next? Vaughn calls back MGM to ask, “What is going on? And they went, ‘Ahh, we spoke to soon, you ain’t got it, and we’re going to cast Daniel [Craig].”
To Vaughn’s credit, he seems way over it. Asked if he would take a James Bond film now if offered it, Vaughn basically said that would never happen, and it’s not something that will ever be on the table.
“There is about as much chance as me—I’ve got more chance of being cast as Bond as directing Bond,” he admitted. “Yeah, ask them,” Vaughn said of the Broccoli producers that control the James Bond movies. “They’re not keen on me.”
Asked if he knew what he would do IF he were miraculously given a Bond film, he said, “Yes,” and then asked for a hint, he said, “No.”
Some of the reasons are pretty obvious, anyhow. “’ Kingsman’ is my Bond,” he said, “And anything I would have done with ‘Kingsman’ I would have done on Bond.”
That said, if you look at the films closely, Kingsman, in many ways, snubs its nose at Bond and can be quite crass at times. It would not surprise if the Broccolis just found the films a little too juvenile and vulgar for their English tea-time taste.
Earlier in the interview, Vaughn says he probably said “everything wrong” to the Broccolis in their first initial meeting, so it’s possible in that meeting he may have killed his own chances. “Back then, I was naïve of—my skill set was making movies for a very small amount of money, so I was doubting the time that they wanted to make the movie in, and I kept saying I didn’t think there was enough time in post and I didn’t know the concept of throwing money at problems.”
Vaughn goes on, but yes, producers like to hear optimism and everything but doubt and skepticism when hiring a filmmaker, so it’s very possible his practical concerns talked himself out of the gig. It’s a fascinating conversation, so watch it all below. “Argylle” is in theaters in February 2024, and you can watch that trailer below, too.
