Layer Cake - Matthew Vaughn

Isn’t that what an anti-hero is? That’s the whole point – he’s a hero who shouldn’t be. Then he gets killed in the end, so it’s morally got some substance to it.

If it’s a hit over here there might be a sequel. In the book he doesn’t die. He gets shot and at the ending of the book he’s got a big metal plate in his head and is now a bit slower.

It’s funny you asked that, because I did want to imply that maybe he’s not dead, but most people think he’s a goner.

No.

Guy [Ritchie] decided not to direct Layer Cake. To be honest, I think there’s a real mystique about directing and directors and it began to piss me off. Everyone goes “Oh, he’s a director” and sort of bow, and I wanted to try and prove that there are geniuses out there. There are some guys that make a film and you go, wow, and I’ll never be one of those. I did this to try and prove to the world that I think anyone given the chance could make it work. To my amazement I really enjoyed it and I want to carry on now. It blows producing away.

On a 35 mm camera yeah. I was a right idiot to tell everyone.

There are a lot more romantic comedies.

People just want to watch movies that are entertaining, it doesn’t matter what genre it is. I don’t know what it is about gangster films, but people say, “God it’s another gangster film!” But there’s another romantic comedy coming out every week but no one says “Oh, it’s another romantic comedy” or “It’s another action film.” For some reason gangster is the only genre where people where you make a gangster movie and people go, “Oh no, another gangster film.”

Quite a bit. The writer [J.J. Connolly] did the first draft on his own and it was 408 pages.

About 390! So I rolled up my sleeves and it took 8 months, which really surprised me. The project I’m on we just did the script in 6 days so I’ve done both extremes now.

X-Men which we can’t talk about! There was no script and I said, this is crazy; I’m not making a movie without a screenplay. So we sat down and wrote something – which is pretty good, actually.

But how many of them did a good film?

I can answer that for you probably one that I can think of.

Well, maybe two then. Being a producer is not a good training. If a carbon copy of me came in and said they wanted to direct Layer Cake after being a producer I would kick them out as quick as I could. I would never give myself the job. Although I did.

Yeah but they were a little more subtle. They had a reason. The only thing Guy and I used to argue about was the style. Sometimes I’d be like, “Why the hell are we doing this? Why is the camera flying around?” I’m more interested in sort of classic storytelling. I think that’s what lasts. When we made Lock Stock in England it caused a lot of imitating. A lot of MTV style, with crash zooms, frame cutting – which you watch now and be like, ugh. It’s like blue light and smoke from the 80’s.

I love the movies from the 70’s. When I first started watching movies they had a real impact on me. I think with the camera, you’ve got to try to do things in an interesting way, but if you notice the camerawork too much, you’ve gone too far.

Music is half the film. Any movie. I think music is what takes the experience off the screen into your soul, into your head. It ceases to be just there, it comes into you. Music is hugely important.

It was an off the shelf company. It’s been a roller coaster ride beyond belief since Guy and I first met – we were told that we needed to have a company, we were that wet behind the ears. Our lawyers said that if you want to own a film so it’s not just you two walking around, have a company, and the cheapest way is to buy a company off the shelf. There was one called Ska Limited, and we bought it and just put Films in.

Also Guy’s got a massive scar from here to there [gestures from sideburn to chin] and so we just thought it was funny. … I’m a big believer that it doesn’t matter what you call your company, nobody ever notices.

They’re all great actors. In a way there’s a great risk for these actors to say yes to working with me as a director. I have no reason. Trying to persuade them why I could direct, there’s no reason. I just said they had to take a blind leap of faith. And they were all willing to do so.

I think I’m learning it. I haven’t gotten to the echelon where – I still smell what shit smells like. One day I hope I won’t.

God, yeah. The problem with the movie business is that the shit’s at top.

Nothing at all. I put the money into it.

I’m doing a feature with Neil at the moment. Neil is a really good friend of mine, a lovely bloke. The way it came about was that there was a book of his that I wanted, called Stardust. Neil and I are making Stardust as a feature together. Neil wanted to make a short so I said I would put the money into it. We’re working on the script at the moment; it’s going to be a good film.

That’s the thing when I say working on it. I’ve written the treatment, and I’m not a writer so I’m trying to find the right writer. I’ve taken the story and changed it a bit, put a new third act on. It’s going to be cool, it’s going to be like Princess Bride meets Midnight Run.

Yeah, I have some limited editions that Charles sent me. The way he paints is very Victorian and I want it to be is more modern. I think people have a problem where they say, “Oh it’s a fairy tale, let’s shoot it in a fairy tale way.” I want to shoot it in a far more modern, grittier manner.

Direct and produce it.

I don’t know yet. I’m learning. I always used to argue with directors that make films no one goes to see. I don’t get it. I think you should make a movie that has an audience or a potential audience. So I just want to make films that are entertaining.

I like the idea of making big budget films with a heart. I’m writing a spy movie with John Hodge, of Trainspotting who is genius. I’m reading his stuff and he takes a cliché and turns it on its head.

I don’t know. We turned up, did the scene and I said that was good or it was shit. I had to stamp a few of them because they got a bit theatrical and I was, “Bring it back.” Mostly we garnered each other’s respect in rehearsals. Once you trust one another you can get so much done.

I like comic books but I don’t read them like I used to. I like graphic novels more than comic books. That’s how I got to know Neil Gaiman. I like being entertained, I like good stories and I think comics have that. People who write comics take them very seriously, so you get that serious application to a commercial world.

Hardly any difference.

It was a mutual finding. I heard Singer wasn’t doing it and I told my agent I would be intrigued, could they get me in a room. They saw Layer Cake and really liked it.

That’s right!

I think there’s a time in your life where you don’t feel like you fit in. I think everyone has that, especially when you’re a teenager and especially in the society we live in. There’s a high demand that you must like this and look like this, the dogma of modern society is pretty stressful.

It’s about minorities. I’m not a member of a minority but I can empathize with what’s going on. I think Singer treats it in a more simplistic manner than I am going to. There are three or four scenes where I know people are going to be shocked and close to tears.

Not officially. I’m hoping…

He’s going to play Professor X! No, what’s interesting is that Juggernaut is the step-brother of Professor X, and I thought it was interesting to have this English thug opposite Patrick Stewart and they’re sort of similar looking!

Does he? No, I’m going another way. It’s the war in Falklands [laughs]. In Vietnam, huh? Yeah, there is some stupid shit in X-Men. I’ve been looking at some stuff – like the Dark Phoenix story, I’ve been looking at that a lot and bits of it are great but bits of it you’re like ugh.

Joss Whedon’s pretty cool.

I wouldn’t have a clue.

I can’t say because they’ve become the basis of the film. There is this ridiculous shroud of secrecy. I think the studios are so used to thinking everything is crap that they hide it. I think if something’s good, let everyone talk about it. But there was one comic book when we were going through them and I said, this is it, this is the story we’re going to tell.

The irony is that it’s even more important because I don’t have the luxury of casting most of these guys. I just turn up and say, Hey Hugh get on with your lines. Which is going to be odd, especially if I don’t like what they’re doing. I’m going to have to take them aside and say, OK, everything you did in the last film? Ignore. Do something new.

You got me at a moment because X-Men has taken me by surprise. One of the reasons I’m attracted to it, and one of the reasons I’m scared of it is because there’s such a short amount of time to get it done. But I thought maybe it would be good to do it and learn. There’s a lot for me to learn, because filmmaking is filmmaking. It’s harder for me to make a good movie for 900 grand than for $150 million. Try giving; I’m not going to say who, one of those big directors 900 grand for a movie.

At the moment, no, because I want to direct and he definitely doesn’t want to produce. Now I can understand why. It depends, I might suddenly ring him up and say I feel like producing a movie again and I’m there but that’s hopefully a long way off because I want to direct. But if I couldn’t find something to direct, I would produce.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck