“Kingsman” director Matthew Vaughn said he quit a major Hollywood production after finding out that one of the film’s stars was being baited with a fake script.
Vaughn discussed several career updates during a Saturday evening discussion at New York Comic Con, per The Hollywood Reporter. Besides revealing that he’s planning to return to “Kingsman 3” and that he’s “going off on a tangent” with a “Kick-Ass” sequel featuring different characters, the director revisited this alleged incident with Halle Berry and “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006).
While discussing his issues with the dark side of the Hollywood machine, Vaughn said, “I went into one of the executive’s office and I saw an ‘X3’ script, and I immediately knew it was a lot fatter. I was like what the hell is this draft. He went, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ and I’m like, ‘No, no. I’m the director. I’m worrying about this draft.”
He continued, “He wouldn’t tell me, so I grabbed it literally — it was like a crazy moment — opened the first page, and it said, ‘Africa. Storm. Kids dying of no water. She creates a thunderstorm and saves all these children.’”
After Vaughn said he found the concept to be a “pretty cool idea,” the English filmmaker said he couldn’t condone what he discovered next.
“[I went,] ‘What is this?’ [They said,] ‘Oh, it’s Halle Berry’s script. I went, ‘OK, because she hasn’t signed up yet.’ ‘But this is what she wants it to be, and once she signs up, we’ll throw it in the bin,’” the director said of the film executive’s response. “I was like, ‘Wow, you’re gonna do that to an Oscar-winning actress who plays Storm? I’m outta here.’ So I quit at that point.”
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“The Last Stand” is the sequel to X2 and the third installment in the “X-Men” film series. The movie featured an ensemble cast including Berry, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Vinnie Jones, and Patrick Stewart.
“X3” grossed approximately $459 million worldwide but received mixed reviews from critics.