Matthew Vaughn


Matthew Allard Robert Vaughn is an English film producer, director, and screenwriter. He has produced films including Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, and directed Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick-Ass, ', ', and its sequel .

Early life

Vaughn was born in Paddington, London, England. Until 2002, he had thought that he was the child of a relationship between his mother, Kathy Ceaton, and American actor Robert Vaughn. A paternity investigation in the 1980s revealed that Robert Vaughn was not his father, but Ceaton never revealed otherwise to Vaughn. Upon asking his mother about his true paternity, she revealed that his father was George Albert Harley de Vere Drummond, an English aristocrat who is a godson of King George VI. Early in Vaughn's life, before the paternity investigation, Robert Vaughn asked for the child's surname to be Vaughn, and it continues today as Vaughn's professional name, though he now uses de Vere Drummond in his personal life.
Vaughn was educated at Sussex House School in London and then Stowe School in Buckingham. Taking a gap year between Stowe and university, he travelled around the world on a Hard Rock Cafe tour. After arriving in Los Angeles he began working as an assistant to a film director. He later returned to London, and attended University College London studying anthropology and ancient history. He dropped out after a few weeks.

Career

Aged 25, Vaughn produced a low-budget thriller, The Innocent Sleep, starring Annabella Sciorra and Michael Gambon. He continued as a producer on close friend Guy Ritchie's film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The film was a critical, popular and financial success, earning Vaughn and Ritchie £9 million each. Vaughn would later produce Ritchie's Snatch and Swept Away.
Vaughn made his directorial debut in 2004 with Layer Cake. The film was well received and its success led to Vaughn being tapped to direct ', but he dropped out only two weeks before filming began. Subsequently, he was very critical of Brett Ratner's direction of the film. For his next project he co-wrote and directed Stardust, followed by a movie adaptation of Mark Millar's Kick-Ass in 2010. Vaughn directed and co-wrote the first film in the prequel trilogy of the X-Men film universe titled, '. Vaughn was signed to return to the series as director of the sequel, ', but dropped out in favour of Bryan Singer who had directed the first two films in the original trilogy, X-Men and X2: X-Men United. Vaughn remained attached to the film by co-writing the script. Vaughn's next directorial project, was ', an adaptation of Mark Millar and David Gibbons's comic book The Secret Service. The film was scripted by Vaughn and Jane Goldman, and produced by Vaughn's production company Marv Films.
Vaughn returned to direct, produce, and co-write the Kingsman sequel, , which was released in theaters in September 2017.
In March 2017, Collider reported that Vaughn was top choice to direct Man of Steel 2. In September of that year, Vaughn confirmed that he is in negotiations with the studio to helm the project.
As of 2020 Vaughn is currently working on finishing up The King's Man, which is the third installment in the Kingsman franchise.

Personal life

On 25 May 2002, Vaughn married German model Claudia Schiffer in Suffolk. The couple have three children: son Caspar Matthew de Vere and daughters Clementine Poppy and Cosima Violet. The couple have homes in Notting Hill, London and Coldham Hall, Stanningfield, Suffolk.

Filmography

Film

Producer only
YearTitleDirectorNotes
1996The Innocent SleepScott Michell
1998Lock, Stock and Two Smoking BarrelsGuy RitchieNominated – BAFTA Award for Best British Film
2000SnatchGuy Ritchie
2001Mean MachineBarry Skolnick
2002Swept AwayGuy RitchieGolden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture
2003A Short Film About John BoltonNeil GaimanShort film
2009Harry BrownDaniel Barber
2013Kick-Ass 2Jeff Wadlow
2015Fantastic FourJosh TrankGolden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture
Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel
2015Eddie the EagleDexter Fletcher
2019RocketmanDexter FletcherNominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
TBASilent NightCamille GriffinFilming

Television

Video game

Frequent collaborators

;Actors and actresses
;Film crew