The classic Hollywood espionage operative has more in common with a Versace underwear model than an actual Langley spook, a trope that Matthew Vaughn knows a thing or two about, having directed the Kingsman movies, Kick-Ass and Layer Cake. However, his latest spy flick Argylle turns this increasingly threadbare script on its head, with the trailer revealing the homebody behind every great covert world.
“I’m guilty of handsome spies with great haircuts and wonderfully cut suits,” Vaughn tells Vanity Fair. “In reality, if you’re a spy, it’s a pretty dumb thing to do. You’re going to be the guy that gets noticed in the room.
“A good spy should be the person you least expect the spy to be. And that’s what this movie is all about. It’s like Roger Moore said about James Bond — what sort of spy walks into a room and everyone knows his name and what he likes to drink? It’s ridiculous. We’re having fun destroying these tropes.”
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While the plot pokes fun at the legendary operatives we all grew up watching — from James Bond to Ethan Hunt — Vaughn has assembled a legitimately stacked cast for the film. Because the story inhabits both the imagined world of seductive spies and suppressed small arms fire, as well as the ‘real’ world of writing desks and cat backpacks (which increasingly becomes novelesque), it gives Vaughn the opportunity to basically create two cast lists.
This includes Dua Lipa, Henry Cavill, and John Cena as archetypes in best-selling paperbacks, while Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, and Bryan Cranston, navigate real-world crime syndicates and the enforcers seeking to stop them. Brilliantly, Matthew Vaughn used his own real-life can Chip as one of the central characters.
“What happened the first day of filming, we had a professional, very expensive acting cat that was useless. So I fired the cat,” Vaughn says. “They don’t have any rights, thank God. And I went home and went up to my daughter’s bedroom and grabbed her cat and said, ‘I’m borrowing this cat for three months.’”
If the trailer is anything to go by, Argylle looks to be a blend of the comedy elements of Kick-Ass with the slickness of Kingsman, making it almost certainly worth watching. It’s still a little while away, but will arrive in cinemas on February 2, 2024.
