One of the things I love most about Matthew Vaughn is that he shoots straight. When an interviewer asks him a question, he gives you the answers and the details surrounding it.
I also love his brain.
His movies are so voicey and so unique. He’s always trying something interesting.
In a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, Vaughn touched on a lot of fun subjects lie James Bond, art meeting commerce in Hollywood, and why Disney should just reboot Star Wars.
It was a fun and interesting watch.
Matthew Vaughn talks ARGYLLE, James Bond, Superman, & STAR WARS I Happy Sad Confused
www.youtube.com
The Star Wars conversation struck me as one to talk about here, because I think Vaughn actually made some really good points.
The backstory here is that Vaughn was prompted about whether or not he would tackle a Star Wars movie.
He said, “For me, doing a Star Wars movie is to play with the characters I love. If they said to me they’d reboot Star Wars and actually have Luke Skywalker, Solo and Vader and do your version of it. Everyone would say you’re an idiot to try, but that would excite me.”
This stood out to me because I immediately thought he was an idiot. the fun of Star Wars is to explore new worlds and new characters! But I also understand what he said earlier in the podcast, which was that studios and commerce will always get in the way of invention.
So maybe the easiest way on one of these huge franchises is not to go totally new, but to take a new swing on the characters that already exist.
Vaughn explored this point by expanding that characters like James Bond and superheroes are often rebooted with different actors.
He went on to say, “‘Star Wars is the Skywalker family and that’s where I think they’ve gone wrong. They’ve forgot. They’ve done brilliantly in TV but it needs an epic new film. That’s what I would do [i.e. reboot Luke]. Everyone is going to go batshit crazy but let’s bring it on. If you want a new generation, make the movie for them. The old generation, hopefully you make it well enough that they enjoy it.”
This is such an interesting conversation, because I am always in favor of original ideas and original filmmaking, but I completely understand the draw of a hard reboot, where you keep names and then get to change or twist all the other relationships.
What’s your take?
Let me know in the comments.
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
