James Bond: Matthew Vaughn Not Directing 007

Matthew Vaughn is pretty sure he's not directing the next James Bond movie. The former 007 hopeful spoke to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. Vaughn mentioned that the higher-ups didn't really love him and that ended up being the deciding factor. "I would say I've got more chance being cast as Bond than directing Bond," Vaughn joked with the host. "Ask them. They're not keen on me." While that's very humorous, his larger story about almost directing Casino Royale is kind of wild. The filmmaker was offered the job by MGM, but some key comments while meeting with a British production company stopped things in their tracks. Watch Vaughn's comments for yourself down below.

"It was a really weird time when I got a phone call saying, "would you be interested in meeting about doing Casino Royale?" And I was like 'oh my god, yes, I would.' So I had this. I read the book again and went and met with them. We all got on, actually, I thought, really well. And then, welcome to Hollywood, I got a phone call from MGM saying 'you've got the gig, don't tell anyone.'"

Matthew Vaughn is not directing a James Bond film because the powers that be “are not keen” on him.

Watch our full chat: https://t.co/Ok9vrPtwdv pic.twitter.com/DIpjM89cKS

— Josh Horowitz (@joshuahorowitz) October 19, 2023

"And like okay, I get it. And they said, you're going to go meet EON and they're going to tell you. So I go for this meeting, and I'm pretending that I don't know, and all I'm thinking is 'come on can we cut to the chase?' I'm ready to go. And ironically, we talked about who I'd cast, and I said 'what about Daniel?' And they're like, we're not sure about Daniel. And I was like, okay, and then MGM told me I had it. And then I had the lunch, I had the meetings, and at the end of it, I wasn't offered it." 

Vaughn Turned Inspiration Into Kingsman

Not everything went badly for Vaughn though. He's helmed a lot of films that people love including Kingsman: The Secret Service, X-Men: First Class, and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The Kingsman movies clearly owe a debt of inspiration to James Bond. But, Vaughn told the crowd at New York Comic Con that the first film in that franchise was a direct response to the increasing seriousness of "James Bond."

"[The idea for Kingsman] literally came with Mark Miller and I in a pub, and, I love you Daniel Craig, but we were just thinking 'Bond's got a bit too serious.' We just came up with it literally over a few pints of Guinness at a pub called The Windsor Castle ... We were talking about how Ian Fleming didn't want to cast Sean Connery. And the director of Dr. No was like to Fleming, 'Give me two weeks and I will transform the Scottish big bloke into an English gentleman.' So he took him to Savile Row. He converted Connery into Bond and we thought, 'Well, let's take that idea and do our version because Connery had his rough edges.' So that was the kernel of the idea."

What's Going On With James Bond?

The process of story writing and casting is underway for the next iteration of James Bond. The 007 braintrust over at MGM and the Bond producers aren't actively interviewing actors yet. Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have both spoken to Empire about how they plan to recast 007 after No Time To Die. According to Broccoli, their team's biggest challenge will be finding an actor who can sustain the James Bond franchise throughout four to six new movies. That's like a decade of commitment.

"When you change the actor you have to reimagine the direction the film's gonna go in. When you hire an actor, you're hoping you're going to spend a decade at least with them and make four or five or six films with them," Broccoli explained to Empire. "So you have to think through, 'what is the trajectory? What is that actor going to bring? How are you going to move the series into another direction?'" 

"It's not just flicking through Spotlight and saying, 'Oh, there's a guy who's 6'1,'" Broccoli added. "We're going to take our time. We want to get a sense of where we want to go with the series and we want to do that before we bring anybody else on. We'll start the process probably with [writers] Rob [Wade] and Neil [Purvis] and we'll see where we go!"

Who would you like to see direct Bond next? Let us know down in the comments!