The Future of Kingsman
The box office number is out, Kingsman 2 made 39M in North America. It is less than industry expectation, but more than what Kingsman 1 made two and half years ago. Worldwide, it broke the 100M mark. So the movie performs very similar to the first movie with oversea earnings doubling domestic earnings.
The words out there are that Matthew Vaughn plans to make a trilogy. He has already written about 12-14 scenes for Kingsman 3. If Kingsman 2 does well, they will definitely make a third one. Also Vaughn indicates after the trilogy, he can see a Statesman spin-off.
My concern is: What direction will they take?
There is no way Vaughn will NOT continue to focus on Eggsy, even he's a married man and a part of the Swedish Royal family now. The end of Kingsman 2 indicates Channing's Tequila becomes a "temporary" Kingsman, he probably will help the only two remaining Kingsman members - Harry Hart and Eggsy - to rebuild the Kingsman organization. But will Channing be back?
In an interview with Cinemablend Vaughn was quoted saying "I hope so. But that's on Channing, not me. Channing isn't an actor who signs options, let's put it that way."
So basically Channing didn't sign a multi-movie contract with 20th Century Fox. I guess he didn't want to repeat the mistake of the G. I. Joe movies. He was forced back to be in G.I. Joe: Retaliation due to contract obligation, and he asked his character to be killed off.
Anyway, I think it's nice that today's Channing is in a position where he doesn't have to sign a multi-movie contract before he even reads the script. It also gives him leverage to negotiate on the Gambit movie with 20th Century Fox.
I am on the fence regarding Kingsman 3. On one hand, I like his Tequila character; but on the other hand, Kingsman 2 is not a well-written movie. Tequila and most Statesman agents were sidelined in the movie. I only want to see Kingsman 3 if they give Tequila a good story arc and develop his character. We shall see. Also I kinda of dislike Vaughn as a director of Kingsman movies, but will he let another director do it? Only time will tell.
I also want to talk about deleted footage. Vaughn's original cut is 3 hours and 40 minutes long. He had a lot of footage cut out. I guess that's why a lot of the characters feel under-developed. This also shows some problems:
(1) Vaughn could to wrap up the story under two hours. Does it count as his failure as a movie director?
(2) Or did 20th Century Fox mess up with the theatrical cut?
I have noticed a few things were changed during the filming and post production. Two of them stood out:
(1) Merlin's death. According to set photos, Merlin survived the final fight but lost his legs. Mark strong was there when they filmed Eggsy's wedding scene, but Merlin was digitally removed from the scene in post-production.
So what made Vaughn change his mind regarding Merlin? I have a theory. It was reported that Vaughn was really unhappy that the FOX marketing team decided to advertise Harry Hart’s return in all the promotional material. I think this led to the change of Merlin’s ending because Vaughn might feel he needs something that will have an emotional impact on audience.
(2) Tequila and Whiskey switched roles.
THR has a quote from Taron Egerton saying "there was a shift of sorts. There was some changing because of Channing's schedule. The thing is that the script is constantly in flux. "
That explains why some scenes with Channing in promotional material are not in the movie we watch in theatres, e.g. this one. They did film more interactions between Tequila and Eggsy after their first encounter.
Also back in March, industry people who attended Cinema Con described a scene in which Channing uses a lasso to cut people in half (I would love to see this). I guess that's why people think Tequila and Whiskey switch roles.
Finally in an interview with Vulture, Vaughn talked about Channing's dance scene.
Reporter: Did you have a ton more B-roll of that? Did you have to direct him in any way?
Vaughn: Oh yeah, we ran out … If we had film, we would have run out with that action. I couldn’t get him to stop. He loved it. He’s a good dancer as well, we were like, Woo! He can dance.
Reporter: We’ve all seen Magic Mike. He’s got the gift.
Vaughn: Yeah, and he loves to do it. We put on, weirdly, John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” and off he went.
Hehe, I knew this song would be perfect back in July when I posted this.
The words out there are that Matthew Vaughn plans to make a trilogy. He has already written about 12-14 scenes for Kingsman 3. If Kingsman 2 does well, they will definitely make a third one. Also Vaughn indicates after the trilogy, he can see a Statesman spin-off.
My concern is: What direction will they take?
There is no way Vaughn will NOT continue to focus on Eggsy, even he's a married man and a part of the Swedish Royal family now. The end of Kingsman 2 indicates Channing's Tequila becomes a "temporary" Kingsman, he probably will help the only two remaining Kingsman members - Harry Hart and Eggsy - to rebuild the Kingsman organization. But will Channing be back?
In an interview with Cinemablend Vaughn was quoted saying "I hope so. But that's on Channing, not me. Channing isn't an actor who signs options, let's put it that way."
So basically Channing didn't sign a multi-movie contract with 20th Century Fox. I guess he didn't want to repeat the mistake of the G. I. Joe movies. He was forced back to be in G.I. Joe: Retaliation due to contract obligation, and he asked his character to be killed off.
Anyway, I think it's nice that today's Channing is in a position where he doesn't have to sign a multi-movie contract before he even reads the script. It also gives him leverage to negotiate on the Gambit movie with 20th Century Fox.
I am on the fence regarding Kingsman 3. On one hand, I like his Tequila character; but on the other hand, Kingsman 2 is not a well-written movie. Tequila and most Statesman agents were sidelined in the movie. I only want to see Kingsman 3 if they give Tequila a good story arc and develop his character. We shall see. Also I kinda of dislike Vaughn as a director of Kingsman movies, but will he let another director do it? Only time will tell.
I also want to talk about deleted footage. Vaughn's original cut is 3 hours and 40 minutes long. He had a lot of footage cut out. I guess that's why a lot of the characters feel under-developed. This also shows some problems:
(1) Vaughn could to wrap up the story under two hours. Does it count as his failure as a movie director?
(2) Or did 20th Century Fox mess up with the theatrical cut?
I have noticed a few things were changed during the filming and post production. Two of them stood out:
(1) Merlin's death. According to set photos, Merlin survived the final fight but lost his legs. Mark strong was there when they filmed Eggsy's wedding scene, but Merlin was digitally removed from the scene in post-production.
So what made Vaughn change his mind regarding Merlin? I have a theory. It was reported that Vaughn was really unhappy that the FOX marketing team decided to advertise Harry Hart’s return in all the promotional material. I think this led to the change of Merlin’s ending because Vaughn might feel he needs something that will have an emotional impact on audience.
(2) Tequila and Whiskey switched roles.
THR has a quote from Taron Egerton saying "there was a shift of sorts. There was some changing because of Channing's schedule. The thing is that the script is constantly in flux. "
That explains why some scenes with Channing in promotional material are not in the movie we watch in theatres, e.g. this one. They did film more interactions between Tequila and Eggsy after their first encounter.
Also back in March, industry people who attended Cinema Con described a scene in which Channing uses a lasso to cut people in half (I would love to see this). I guess that's why people think Tequila and Whiskey switch roles.
Finally in an interview with Vulture, Vaughn talked about Channing's dance scene.
Reporter: Did you have a ton more B-roll of that? Did you have to direct him in any way?
Vaughn: Oh yeah, we ran out … If we had film, we would have run out with that action. I couldn’t get him to stop. He loved it. He’s a good dancer as well, we were like, Woo! He can dance.
Reporter: We’ve all seen Magic Mike. He’s got the gift.
Vaughn: Yeah, and he loves to do it. We put on, weirdly, John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy,” and off he went.
Hehe, I knew this song would be perfect back in July when I posted this.