Matthew Vaughn's Comments at Comic-Con Exposed A Large Problem In Comic Book Media
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Ever since The Dark Knight broke $1 billion at the box office, studios have gone from treating comic book movies as kid films that are somewhat profitable into the cornerstone of their financial focus. This has had its positive and negative effects on the movie industry. On the one hand comic book universes like the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) were given time to grow and serious movies like Logan or Joker (that would have never been given an opportunity in the early 2000’s) were given a chance, even though they required a rated R classification.
The studios allowed the directors to tell a more ambitious story but forfeited the money they could (possibly) get from the younger crowd. On the other hand studio interference from out-of-touch executives has caused major problems. Most notably, what has happened with the failed DC Extended Universe (DCEU) and the horror stories from behind the scenes, like what was recently revealed by Matthew Vaughn at New York’s Comic-Con about the 2006 X-Men movie, X-Men: The Last Stand.
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New York’s Comic-Con is an event like no other. Cosplayers strut their most recent and popular looks and you can buy everything from your custom lightsaber to Luffy’s prized straw hat. Every year panels are available to meet or listen to your favorite stars talk about their latest projects. Since the strikes have impeded most from speaking about anything new, guests like Ewan McGregor and Matthew Vaughn have been limited in what they can talk about.
Ewan’s panel had a much more casual feel, talking about how he prefers his tea and his favorite spots in New York to visit, while Matthew Vaughn (Director of Kingsman and Kick-Ass) told some stories from the darker parts of Hollywood that expose a much larger problem in the film industry.
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In 2003, Matthew was in line to direct X-Men: The Last Stand but recently admitted that he bailed on the project when he discovered that the studio was duping Halle Berry into signing onto the project. He states “ Hollywood is really political and odd and I went into one of the executive offices and I saw an X3 script, and immediately knew it was a lot fatter and I was like what the hell is this draft.”
He then went on to state that he learned Berry hadn’t signed on yet and that the script contained an opening scene where the character Storm would save a bunch of kids in Africa that were without water. He said “All right that’s a pretty cool idea” but learned the script was only going to be used to entice her to sign on and then they would “throw it in the bin.”
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This kind of attitude and mindset is at the crux of what is wrong with certain studios and executives. Their use of deception or inability to trust directors and writers is a major problem. It’s what ruined the DCEU and what caused the much anticipated first Wolverine movie to be ridiculed by fans. Negative reactions from each DCEU movie caused Warner Bros. to change directions like an addict after every film. They battled with directors over their vision(s) which caused the quality of storytelling to decline rapidly. Ruining films like Justice League and completely canceling other projects like The Batgirl movie.
Even films that were arguably good, like the more recent Blue Beetle, did poorly because fans have given up. Even their competitor Marvel faced similar problems with the first solo Wolverine movie. A highly anticipated movie that could have been great but became a joke because of studio interference. The film was riddled with poor special effects and almost caused the permanent destruction of the character Deadpool. All because executives were hell-bent on making a lighter film.
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Trusting your directors and showrunners is how we got projects like Logan, Andor, and The Dark Knight. Matthew Vaughn’s statements have come at a time were all people can talk about is “superhero fatigue.” For fans to stay interested, studios need to take a backseat on the creative side and let the writers and directors have more control. If this happens, it will attract more talent who would usually stay away from the politics of superhero films and ultimately create better art.
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