Matthew Vaughn

Sir Matthew Allard Robert Vaughn (legal name Matthew Allard Robert de Vere Drummond; born 7 March 1971) is an English filmmaker. He has produced films including '' Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998) and '' Snatch'' (2000), and directed ''Layer Cake'' (2004), '' Stardust'' (2007), '' Kick-Ass'' (2010), '' X-Men: First Class'' (2011), and '' Argylle'' (2024). Vaughn also co-created the ''Kingsman'' comic book series and resulting franchise, directing, producing and co-writing the films '' Kingsman: The Secret Service'' (2014), '' Kingsman: The Golden Circle'' (2017), and ''The King's Man'' (2021).

Early life

Vaughn was born in Paddington, London, England. Until 2002, he had thought that he was the child of a relationship between his mother, a production manager and producer Kathy Ceaton (died 20 July 2013), daughter of electrical and property tycoon James Ceaton, and a former wife of a Pakistani millionaire Javaid Saigol, and American actor Robert Vaughn. A paternity investigation in the 1980s revealed that Robert Vaughn was not his father, but Ceaton had never revealed otherwise to Vaughn. Upon asking his mother about his true paternity, she revealed that his father was George Albert Harley de Vere Drummond, an English banker, aristocrat and godson of King George VI. Early in Vaughn's life, before the paternity investigation, Robert Vaughn had asked for the child's surname to be Vaughn, and it continues as Vaughn's professional name, though he uses de Vere Drummond in his personal life, having changed it by deed poll in May 2002.

Career

Aged 25, Vaughn produced a low-budget thriller, '' The Innocent Sleep'' (1996), starring Annabella Sciorra and Michael Gambon. He continued as a producer on close friend Guy Ritchie's film '' Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels''. The film was a critical, popular and financial success, earning Vaughn and Ritchie £9 million each. Vaughn would later produce Ritchie's '' Snatch'' and '' Swept Away''.

Vaughn made his directorial debut in 2004 with ''Layer Cake''. The film was well received and its success led to Vaughn being tapped to direct '' X-Men: The Last Stand'' (2006), but he dropped out only two weeks before filming began. Subsequently, he said the film was "pretty good" given the limited time they had to make it, but he was critical of Brett Ratner's direction of the film. For his next project he co-wrote and directed '' Stardust'', followed by a movie adaptation of Mark Millar's '' Kick-Ass'' in 2010. Vaughn directed and co-wrote the first film in the prequel trilogy of the ''X-Men'' film universe titled '' X-Men: First Class'' (2011). Vaughn was signed to return to the series as director of the sequel, '' X-Men: Days of Future Past'' (2014), but dropped out in favour of Bryan Singer who had directed the first two films in the original trilogy, ''X-Men'' and '' X2''. Vaughn remained attached to the film by co-writing the script.

Vaughn's next directorial project, was '' Kingsman: The Secret Service'' (2014), an adaptation of the comic book '' The Secret Service'' created by Millar and Dave Gibbons from a concept by Millar and an initially uncredited Vaughn himself (Vaughn being credited as the comic's co-creator on all republications since 2014). The film was scripted by Vaughn and Jane Goldman, and produced by Vaughn's production company Marv Films. Vaughn returned to direct, produce, and co-write the ''Kingsman'' sequel, '' Kingsman: The Golden Circle'', which was released in theaters in September 2017. Vaughn also directed and provided the story for ''The King's Man'', the third instalment in the franchise serving as a prequel to the original film. Delayed from November 2019 due to both the schedule shuffle following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox and the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic, the film was released on 22 December 2021.

In March 2017, '' Collider'' reported that Vaughn was top choice to direct '' Man of Steel 2''; in September of that year, Vaughn confirmed that he was in negotiations with the studio to helm the project. By March 2019, Vaughn stated that discussions with Warner Bros. had ended, and he was no longer involved with development of the film.

Vaughn began working on spy film '' Argylle'' in 2021, an original story written by Jason Fuchs and starring an ensemble cast including Henry Cavill, Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Samuel L. Jackson, Bryan Cranston and John Cena. The film premiered in January 2024, and was released by Universal Pictures and Apple Original Films.

In January 2024, Vaughn announced that he would be producing a third ''Kick-Ass'' film, titled '' Stuntnuts Does School Fight'', directed by his longtime stunt coordinator Damien Walters in his feature film debut, which had secretly already been greenlit and had completed filming. also announcing two further films in the ''Kick-Ass'' franchise to be in development, to be produced by him as a trilogy, under the working titles ''Vram'' and ''Kick-Ass''.

In April 2025, Vaughn announced his involvement in a new film production studio, "UR•MARV", in collaboration with Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.

Personal life

On 25 May 2002, Vaughn married German supermodel Claudia Schiffer in Suffolk. The couple have a son and two daughters, the youngest born in 2010. They have resided at Coldham Hall, Stanningfield, Suffolk, since 2002, and also have homes in Notting Hill, London and Northamptonshire.

Vaughn has identified himself politically as a conservative and a supporter of the Conservative Party. According to a 2015 article by ''The Guardian'', Vaughn has served on the committee of a Tory fundraising ball, and had been one of the 103 signatories of a letter sent to ''The Daily Telegraph'', that backed David Cameron and George Osborne’s lowering of the corporation tax and criticised Ed Miliband's attempt to introduce a law banning zero-hour contracts.

Vaughn was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2024 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours for services to the creative industries.

Filmography

Film

Producer only
* '' The Innocent Sleep'' (1996)
* '' Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'' (1998)
* '' Snatch'' (2000)
* '' Mean Machine'' (2001)
* '' Swept Away'' (2002)
* '' A Short Film About John Bolton'' (2003)
* '' Harry Brown'' (2009)
* '' Kick-Ass 2'' (2013)
* ''Fantastic Four'' (2015)
* '' Eddie the Eagle'' (2016)
* '' Rocketman'' (2019)
* '' Bloodshot'' (2020) (Executive producer)
* ''Silent Night'' (2021)
* ''Tetris'' (2023)
* '' Stuntnuts: The Movie'' (TBA)
* '' Stuntnuts Does School Fight'' (TBA)

Television

Executive producer
* '' Lock, Stock...'' (2000)
* '' Swag'' (2003)
* ''Make My Day'' (2003) (Documentary)

Video game

Producer
* '' Kick-Ass: The Game'' (2010)

Frequent collaborators

;Actors and actresses

;Film crew

References

External links

*

Interview
Superherohype.com; accessed 28 February 2015

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughn, Matthew
1971 births
Action film directors
Alumni of University College London
English film directors
English film producers
English male screenwriters
English screenwriters
Hugo Award–winning writers
Knights Bachelor
Living people
Mass media people from Bury St Edmunds
People educated at Sussex House School
People educated at Stowe School