Kingsman: filming almost turned into a nightmare on day one

Kingsman : Matthew Vaughn opens the doors of the agency

During the production of Kick-Ass, Matthew Vaughn and comic book writer Mark Millar discuss the creation of a universe centered on a British spy agency, influenced by James Bond. In 2012, the writer and the designer Dave Gibbons unveil the comic book Kingsman: Secret Service, born of these exchanges. The director of Layer Cake and X-Men: The Beginning takes hold of it and releases the adaptation three years later, allowing itself to deviate from the original work.

While the comic book tells the story of spy Jack London and the training of his nephew Gary, the feature film takes a look at that of Harry Hart, played by Colin Firth. Alive thanks to the sacrifice of a partner during a mission in the Middle East, this prominent member of the Kingsman Agency promises to watch over his family.

17 years later, young Eggsy (Taron Egerton) is unemployed and has to deal with an abusive stepfather. Confused, he decides to call the number on the Bravery Medal Harry gave him when he was a baby. The spy agrees to take him under his wing and give him the tests for join the Kingsman secret organization.

While he doesn’t really have the attitude and vocabulary of a gentleman, Eggsy shows bravery and solidarity during the training. At the same time, billionaire Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) is preparing a Machiavellian plan to eliminate a major part of humanity to preserve the planet.

Mark Strong, Michael Caine, Sofia Boutella, Sophie Cookson and Mark Hamill round out the cast of Kingsman: Secret Service. After the success of this first opus, which brings in more than $ 414 million in worldwide revenue, Matthew Vaughn continues the franchise with Kingsman: The Golden Circle and the prequel The king’s man.

Virtuoso action scenes

With Kingsman: Secret Service, Matthew Vaughn deploys an irreverent tone that goes particularly through the action scenes, starting with the massacre within an extremist church. A false sequence shot that requires a week of filming and 130 participants, including a raging Colin Firth who trains for six months to perform 80% of his stunts according to the coordinator and director of second team Bradley James Allan.

Besides this memorable passage, the virtuosity of Matthew Vaughn for the action is also felt through the final confrontation between Sofia Boutella and Taron Egerton, but also during the training of the rookies. However, the shots of the formation start badly.

On the first day of filming, the director and his crew tackle the first night of potential future spies in the mansion serving as the agency’s HQ. To put them to the test, Merlin (Mark Strong) surprises them flooding their dormitory. Young people must then find a way to breathe and especially to leave the room. A scene for which their interpreters did not need to feign panic according to the filmmaker.

Taron Egerton and his terrified partners

For this moment when the pupils reveal their nature, a dormitory is built above a basin. During rehearsals, Matthew Vaughn understands the difficulty of turning underwater, and that for the actors to place themselves in the right place to recite their dialogues. In order to remedy these problems, the idea is to gradually lower the scenery, to stop it at different levels and to turn the sequence in stages.

But when the filmmaker shouts “Action!”, A computer bug occurs and the dormitory finds itself totally submerged by mistake. The filmmaker tells the New York Times :

The first day of filming was a disaster. (…) The fear that you see in these children was not played out. They were terrified. Everything broke down and we lost all our cameras, the sound equipment.

After the bug had been fixed, filming was able to continue in quieter conditions. The whole team was in any case well in the mood …