Matthew Vaughn is no stranger to comic book adaptations after helming X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass, and three Kingsman movies. He's also been linked to a number of other Marvel and DC projects over the years and, in recent months, we've heard he's being eyed by DC Studios to tackle The Authority.
It's a property he'd be well-suited to (particularly if it's rated R) and, during an interview with Happy Sad Confused, the British filmmaker confirmed that he's been in touch with James Gunn and Peter Safran when he said, "We've been talking."
However, he added that no specific project is currently on the table. Here's the full quote:
"DC has reached out and Gunn and Peter, we've been talking. Never say never, at the moment I'm enjoying creating my own things. The franchise is in the best hands, so let's see what happens."
It's not as if Vaughn would reveal which movies or TV shows they've discussed but he did confirm past reports that he and comic book writer Mark Millar approached Warner Bros. to pitch a Superman trilogy before Zack Snyder made Man of Steel.
"Mark and I sat down and plotted out a three-film trilogy, pitched it to Warner Bros. before 'Man of Steel,'" he recalls. "We pitched how to do a trilogy of Superman movies and Warners said they weren’t interested. That’s as far as it went."
"I would’ve done a modern version of Donner. Our big idea was that Krypton doesn’t blow up. It does eventually. The dad was right, but he got his timing wrong," Vaughn added. "When Superman is grown up, suddenly there’s a mass exodus and all hell breaks loose. That was our main idea."
It's a bold take on the Man of Tomorrow and one which suggests Vaughn would be looking to also shake things up with The Authority. However, some fans are already convincing themselves he must be on the DC payroll after the writer and director praised The Flash in a separate interview with Screen Rant.
"What really freaked me out was that I really enjoyed The Flash. I thought it was a really good film...And it died at the box office, right?" he said, sharing his thoughts on the comic book genre's recent struggles. "And I'm like, Wait, hold on, this is a good movie. What happened? And I don't know whether that was superhero fatigue; you've just seen it done."
"So even now that we've made it well, there was some really, really complicated, hard, and quite special, unique filmmaking in that film. Which I don't think Muschietti got enough credit for what they pulled off."
Vaughn would go on to elaborate on that by saying, "I think there's been so many bad superhero movies as well that it's like when the Western got, you make so many than you get bored of the genre, not because the genre is bad, but because the films are bad. I was old enough, sadly, when Batman and Robin came out, and it was terrible."
"I was a big Batman fan, and we were like, 'Ah!' And then superheroes stopped, and then they came back. Now, I'll be intrigued to see how The Marvels does."
He's clearly a fan and makes some great observations here. Recently, Vaughn has talked about his future plans for the Kick-Ass and Kingsman franchises so if he is indeed thinking about tackling The Authority for the DCU, it's hard to say when he'd be able to make that happen.