/Film Interview: ‘X-Men: First Class’ Director Matthew Vaughn

By Germain Lussier/May 25, 2011 5:00 pm EST

On top of that, the film is solid; an entertaining love letter to the X-Men franchise that’s both a treat for fans but totally accessible to non-fans. Most of that is thanks to magnetic lead performances and a well-thought out screenplay that Vaughn co-wrote along with writing partner Jane Goldman and Thor writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz. X-Men First Class is up there with the best of the Singer X-Men movies and does its job so well that the franchise can go anywhere from here.

In our short 10-minute interview Vaughn talked about that, how he regretted not making X-Men: The Last Stand, how the insane profitability of Kick Ass (you read that right) could lead to Kick Ass 2 and much more. Check it out after the break.

/Film: Hey Matthew how are you.

Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Especially coming into a movie opening, it’s probably the worst possible time for that to happen.

You were up for X3 as well as Thor, what was it about X-Men First Class that finally made you decide to make a Marvel movie?

Well, actually I’ve got a tradition of getting sick as soon as I finish a film and I only finished it last week so I think now that my body is sort of relaxing… there you are. Fire away.

That leads into my next question. You’re obviously coming into a franchise with four previous films and, though you are in a different time period and could recast, during production, how aware were you of those movies and how – if at all – did they affect what you were doing?

But those previous films, is that why you and the other screenwriters chose the characters that are in this movie as opposed to the line up that’s in the original First Class comic?

My main goal was to make as good a film that could stand on its own two feet regardless of all the other films. However I thought anything that worked in all the other movies, and I could have some fun with nodding towards, I would. But my main rule was, ‘You know what, we’re trying to reboot and start a whole new X-Men franchise’ and therefore, making a film work on its own two feet was far more important than trying to be referential to the prior movies.

That’s funny, I remember you said that but at the time I didn’t understand the Bond connection. But when I was watching the movie it clicked and I thought, Sebastian Shaw is such a Bond villain.

That was already done for me. When I came aboard, the characters were already done and ironically I’d always wanted to do a Bond movie so I sort of thought I could have my cake and eat it too. I can do a Bond film and an X-Men movie at the same time. And I’d always liked political, Cold War, espionage thrillers so it was sort of the back drop that got me more excited. Magneto and Professor X were the main thrust of the film so all the supporting characters were already picked for me and I thought whoever picked them did a good job.

Shaw was a tricky character from the comics. I just thought if I made him the pony tail, cravat wearing villain, we could look like we are in Austin Powers. The weird thing is I’ve just finished the damn movie so I’m so close to it, some of the big decisions we made I can’t tell whether they’re right or not, whether we’re going to get decimated for it. Shaw, I think, we took the most liberties with. His powers, I mean, trying to illustrate one’s power of absorbing energy, is like…he was the character I was most worried about screwing up.

Before this movie comes out people are already talking about a sequel, it’s just the unfortunate nature of comic book movies and Hollywood. While you were making this movie was there ever talk, not about sequels specifically, but how much story – how many movies would take place between this movie and Bryan’s original?

I’d rather people’s expectations are low and they’re excited than high and disappointed. And I’m a big believer, I mean I remember talking to Daniel Craig about this when he was doing Bond and he was being absolutely destroyed by the web and I said ‘Look dude, your work is gonna do the talking and they’re gonna all eat their hats and apologize and say you’re great’ and I’m a big believer that my job is to make the film and not to worry about what everyone else thinks. And if I make a film that people like, then great, if I make a film that people don’t like then… I mean, that’s my job and you can’t worry about pleasing people. I just try and make as good a film as possible and if people like it, great, and if they don’t, I tried my best.

I know I would still pay for a Kick Ass 2.

You could do hundreds. We’ve got from 62 to 2000, whenever that was set. The fun thing for this, sequel-wise, is you can go through the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s now. If people go see it, I think there’s a lot of sequels to do, I’ve got lots of ideas but I also don’t like to curse it because too many times in my life now I’ve been asked about if there’s gonna be a sequel to a film which I just directed and then that film doesn’t do as well in the US box office and I go, ‘Eh, guess not.’

Okay, last question. I don’t have to put this in the first article because it’s spoiler specific but can you please tell me about…

We’re still discussing that at the moment. We might do it. People forget that Kick Ass we made for $28 million and now with DVD and everything else has made $225 million in revenue so it’s done great business. A lot of people say it could be like Austin Powers how the first one people couldn’t get their heads around, they all discovered it on video and then the second one was a huge blockbuster. My theory is I don’t know how to make sure Kick Ass 2 is as good as Kick Ass 1. I enjoyed making the movie so much and I loved working with all the characters in it so who knows? There could be one but if I do a sequel to that it’s gotta be just as good, if not better.

Sorry. Because we want you to enjoy X-Men First Class, we’ll cut the interview off there and post the final question and answer during opening weekend.