The Brit 50: MARV Studios

Need to know: Matthew Vaughn set up MARV Studios (an acronym of his full birth name Matthew Allard Robert Vaughn) on parting ways with SKA Films partner and fellow filmmaker Guy Ritchie in 2002, having brought hit films including Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch to cinema audiences.

The name reflected Vaughn’s desire to be independent, proudly British, and ensure he would produce and direct. Every MARV film Vaughn has directed – including Layer Cake (2004), Stardust (2007) and Kick-Ass (2010), all of which he also produced – majority shot in the UK because “we have the best crews anywhere in the world”.

Vaughn remains able to finance all MARV film budgets in-house, seeking partners afterwards, by ploughing box-office success back into the business. The days of having a “handshake deal” with 20th Century Fox have gone, but Vaughn maintains “good relationships” with various US studios, including Disney-owned 20th Century Studios (formerly 20th Century Fox), Apple and Paramount.

Vaughn first partnered with Paramount for Stardust and also produced Elton John biopic Rocketman, directed by Dexter Fletcher. His most recent efforts were directing and producing spy comedy Argylle (2024) and producing Tetris (2023), directed by Jon S Baird, both for Apple.

His film work with 20th Century Studios continues from when Vaughn directed the prequel film X-Men: First Class in 2011. He also created and released the Kingsman franchise through the studio (2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle and 2021 prequel The King’s Man), with two further features slated.

For Vaughn and MARV, the arrival of deep-pocketed streamers and tech cash has not impacted the core ambition to make British movies for global audiences in cinemas. “I’m a big believer in theatrical and will support that for as long as humanly possible,” he says. “There are movies now where I wonder if theatrical is where the script belongs. There are a few projects where we have said, ‘This would work well on a streaming platform.’”

That wasn’t the original plan for Tetris, which was originally envisaged as a theatrical movie but ended up going straight to platform, with Vaughn ceding to the backer’s wishes.

On the TV side, MARV has “two or three projects” in development. Vaughn recently brought in Los Angeles-based Andy Redman as CEO to strengthen and focus his operations. The former Portsmouth Football Club director previously ran Tornante, a US private investment firm owned by former Paramount Pictures and The Walt Disney Company chief Michael Eisner.

Vaughn plans to direct at least one movie annually for the next five years.

Key personnel: Matthew Vaughn, founder; Carlos Peres, chief creative officer; Andy Redman, CEO.

Incoming: MARV has Stuntnuts: The Movie, directed by Vaughn’s regular stunt co-ordinator-turned-­filmmaker Damien Walters, which Vaughn has produced.

Serving as the first of a planned trilogy, and the third film instalment in the Mark Millar and John Romita Jr-created Kick-Ass franchise, Stuntnuts – a palindrome no less – centres around a group of athletes who set out to raise funds so that the gym where they all trained can stay open by hiring them out as stuntmen.

A releasing partner has yet to be announced but the second instalment, Stuntnuts: School Fight, has already been shot, also filmed in the UK with a small part in Dubai (due to the need for reliable weather to execute a particularly tricky stunt sequence); a third, titled Stuntnuts: Clash Of The Nuts, is set to shoot next year.

“I’m producing a fresh franchise brand for my stunt team, allowing these guys to tackle different genres,” Vaughn says. “It fulfils my hopes of bringing younger British talent through, both behind and in front of the camera.”

Vaughn will also produce an untitled shark movie starring Keanu Reeves to be directed by Tim Miller, and will direct and produce further features for the Kingsman franchise, including The King’s Man: The Traitor King, a follow-up to The King’s Man, and a new instalment in the Taron Egerton and Colin Firth-starring franchise entitled Kingsman: The Blue Blood.

Matthew Vaughn says: “The main problem with the film industry is that budgets are out of control. Once people remember that your movies do not have to cost $200m, once there is a bit more fiscal responsibility, then the movie business will start working again. We have to start making movies for the right price. I’m shocked at the cost of some of the films that have been made recently.”

Contact: info@marvfilms.com 

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