May 18, 2005

Who is that guy?

With the opening of Layer Cake last week, approximately 13,000 more people in America got a clear sense of who Matthew Vaughn is. He is a director with style, clarity and smarts. He knows how to tell a story and to tell it well.

But no one really much cares about that. Who is this guy who got the gig directing the next X-Men film for Fox after one solid little movie?

Vaughn is a guy. He looks like the older brother of a Pop Idol (The U.K. show from which American Idol was spawned). He is married to a supermodel. They have two kids. In so many ways, he is the answer to the director with whom he is most associated, Guy Ritchie. His wife is not as famous, but she's better looking. He already has a reputation, but not as bad. And he is a director who likes a good visual gag... but his movie is better than anything Ritchie has delivered to date.

He is a poker player, forever willing to walk away from the table if he doesn't like the way the cards are falling. How many times has he walked away from X-Men 3 so far? It depends who you ask. The high number is four. The low number is one.

When he was asked to travel America endlessly as the last high profile Sony Classics director, Stephen Chow, did, he cut the list down to just a few towns. You call him arrogant... he just smiles. He knows what he wants and he knows that no one really cares what he wants as much as he does.

Yet he appreciates his good fortune. He is pleased that his first film came out well and has no illusions about what it is or is not. Still, he has expectations... of Sony Classics... of the publicists... of the marketers... and now, of Fox.

Much of our conversation was off the record. But he didn't know me from Adam when I walked in the room. We share a mutual friend or two. But he has the relaxed arrogance that is required of anyone who aspires to greatness. And while Matthew Vaughn is awfully good at the "bloke" schtick, there is a regular guy in there. Who is he patterning on these days? David Fincher... a genius who is such a genius he hasn't made a movie in years. He is fluent in the gossip in town about this exec or that... but wants more information to add to the mix. He is the first to cop to gossip about him.

Basically, he's Pat Kingsley's worst nightmare. And maybe he'll get burned one of these days. But you get the feeling that he can smell out the journo with the shiv and go in another direction.

And let me disclose fully... I went into this interview expecting to find this guy really irritating. I mean, really, a guy who has made one movie, never done any major effects and gets the X-Men sequel on a short schedule? Are they fucking nuts? But by the end, I really like this man. I am really rooting for this guy.

And it is well worth your time to go see Layer Cake. It is a strong, smart, fun movie in the middle of a lot of summer dreck. And there isn't a single mutant in the whole darn thing.

E-ME. Do fries go with that cake?