The King’s Man recently had a Global Press Conference where we got to hear some of the behind-the-scenes glorious spy secrets were revealed. Matthew Vaughn, the director and stars Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Harris Dickinson, Djimon Hounsou, and Rhys Ifans were in attendance and pulled the golden curtain back on this new film.
What Inspired The Film
One of the highlights of the press conference was director Matthew Vaughn explaining the inspiration behind the origin story of the Kingsman. He was quoted as saying:
“I rewatched a movie called The Man Who Would Be King, and I afterward joked saying, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to make The Man Who Would Be Kingsman? And it reminded me why I fell in love with cinema.The idea of an epic historical adventure film, but with great actors, great characters, uh, humor, pathos and just pure escapism and entertainment.And then I remembered the speech that Harry gave to Eggsy about how, when, why, and what Kingsman was founded for.”
Ralph Fiennes’ Character
Who knew a simple rewatch of an old film could create an entire back story for the franchise? Ralph Fiennes, who plays the Duke of Oxford even described the film Matthew proposed to film a “father-son drama” which he said came with “wonderful accessories like a great sword fight”. And who knew Ralph Fiennes had an affinity to sword fighting. He said during the conference:
“I’ve always loved stage sword fighting, you know. I mean, I’ve loved and I love films where sword fighting has been the center, like Ridley Scott’s The Duelists. And I’ve loved watching those old Basil Rathbone, Errol Flynn, Robin Hood, and that those actors of the 30s and 40s really could-they really knew what to do with the sword.”
There was quite a lot of action other than sword fighting to be had on the set of The King’s Man. Every single actor was put through major training to learn all the outs and ins and this Matthew Vaughn action style. Rhys Ifans who played Rasputin was what he described himself as a “shall we say, an action virgin…”.
The Choreography
Rhys had a very long action sequence that required not only fight choreography but dancing choreography. It took almost three weeks to complete a particular sequence involving Rasputin dance fighting which Matthew called “Russian dancing, martial arts”. The scene itself is defiantly a highlight of the film and seems like the most difficult to complete.
Within The King’s Man Matthew Reeves got to do even more within the franchise than he had before. He explained,
“It (making King’s Man) got me to explore another side of filmmaking that I’ve always been intrigued about serious movies, and drama. Films which I sort of enjoy, but a little bit intimidated to do. I mean, it’s not my usual string in my bow, shall we say. I got to explore a world in the safety of my world. It broadened my horizons, and I learned a lot. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll do Anthony and Cleopatra next.”
Why Do People Love These Films?
Will we see Anthony and Cleopatra next on the horizon? Who knows. But there is something that works so well within the Kingsman films. Ralph Fiennes said the draw of the Kingsmans films might be:
“I think it’s unpredictability. Because people think they’re getting a sort of a certain kind of spy genre. There’s a bit of James Bond, there’s a bit of that British T.V. series, The Avengers. But it’s not that. And I think the great-the great thing is you do not know what’s gonna happen next. Matthew’s continually surprising. For me, it’s total unpredictability.”
Even Rhys mentioned that the real allure of the Kingsman is:
“Yeah, I mean, the key to it all is Matthew Vaughn. I think, you know, the Kingsman fans, or otherwise, you know, don’t expect to be satisfied, necessarily, from a Matthew Vaughn film. They expect to be surprised as well as satisfied. And Matthew at every turn, turns everything you think that’s gonna happen on its head. So constantly you’re in a kind of state of cinematic vertigo when you watch his films.”
Regardless of what the draw is Matthew Vaughn has stepped up and created another chapter in the Kingsman story, The King’s Man which is in theaters on Dec 22nd.
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