A fairytale ending

Hang on a minute. Matthew Vaughn, the British producer behind Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch and Mean Machine has jetted into Dublin for the premiere of his second film as director. So what violent, criminal underworld has he plunged himself into this time? Will he return to XXXX, the violent cocaine dealer played by Daniel Craig in his debut feature, Layer Cake?

Well, no actually. Stardust, based on Neil Gaiman’s 1999 novel, is a modern take on the fairytale with more than a little curtsey before Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride. This sweet romantic adventure sees a shop boy swain (Charlie Cox) take on a quest to prove his love for an unworthy Sienna Miller by journeying through a magical kingdom of fey airborne pirates, murderous rival princes and conniving witches. What gives? Where have all the geezers gone?
“Honestly, I think Stardust is much more reflective of who I am than the gangster films,” says the 36 year-old director. “I didn’t grow up in a world of coke-dealing and geezers at all. Okay, I didn’t come from a world of flying pirates either, but I’ve always enjoyed fairytales and now that I’m a father I wanted to make something I could share with my family.”
Clearly, plenty of actors had the same child-friendly idea. Stardust’s blindingly impressive cast includes Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Ricky Gervais, Peter O’Toole, Rupert Everett, David Kelly, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ian McKellen and, well, you get the idea. Wasn’t it all a little daunting for a sophomore director?
“Well, the thing about directing the likes of De Niro is that you keep thinking of all the great directors he has worked with,” says Mr. Vaughn. “I kept thinking ‘Oh God, he’s worked with Scorsese, De Palma and all the greats. I’m about to get found out here’. But he’s a professional actor. He wants to take direction. And he’s an absolute joy to work with.”
The film, which opened to universally positive notices in the US this summer, is something of a comeback for Vaughn following his less-than-amicable departure from X-Men 3.
“What I like about Stardust is that it’s about 90% how I envisaged it,” he says. “Of course you worry that your idea of entertainment may not tally with other people’s but if I want to make a movie then it has to be my film for better or worse. You live and die by that. With X-Men I was a tiny little cog in a big factory. A lot of the movie was being made regardless of what I thought. I just panicked. I knew that if the film was good it would be a miracle and if it was bad, I would get the blame even if it wasn’t my fault. Fox did everything they could to eliminate the role of the director on that film. If they could have made it without a director, they would.”
Erm, they practically did. They hired Brett Ratner.
“Ha. You said it, not me.”
Born in London in 1971, the young Matthew was raised believing that Robert Vaughn, the star of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was his father. The case surrounding his paternity was finally resolved in recent years when British aristocrat George de Vere Drummond was named as Matthew’s biological progenitor.
“It’s a complicated story,” he says. “I’d have to sit here going through it with you for hours to do it any justice. And don’t believe half of what’s on the internet. If you look there it’ll tell you I was born in LA when I wasn’t and that my mother was an actress when she wasn’t. IMDb and Wikipedia are the worst. I once rang up Daniel Craig to wish him a happy birthday and he’s like ‘what the fuck are you talking about, mate’. But the Robert Vaughn thing is a can of worms. The long and short of it is that when I was 32 I found out that my real father is the heir general to the Duke of Oxford and the Duke of Ireland.”
Do that put Matthew in line for anything or do certain old-fashioned standards about legitimacy still apply?
“Probably, but I’ve never given it any thought to be honest,” he says. “I think the notion of earls and dukes in modern society is patently ridiculous. I’ve grown up in a very privileged background so I had friends at school who were going to become members of the House Of Lords and they were probably the stupidest people I’ve ever known. It actually used to worry me. I think the idea of the House Of Lords, or rather the idea of a second tier of government is a good one. But it should be structured so that you get there on merit. As it was, it was considerably worse than having a lottery to decide who got in. At least they wouldn’t be inbred. I remember dumb eight-year-old friends strutting about with ‘Hon’ attached to their name. I’m so glad that whole system has had its day.”
Mr. Vaughn does, however, still qualify for membership of another exclusive club. He and supermodel Claudia Schiffer have now been married for five years and have two children, Caspar and Clementine, together. They are, of course, long time friends with Guy Ritchie and his wife Madonna. Doesn’t this make him Celebrity Royalty?
“Oh Lord, no,” he protests. “In the first place, I’m not really a celebrity. Nobody has ever asked me for an autograph. In the second place, it’s the last thing I want to be. I look at the criticism Guy gets and it’s just so unfair. I mean, Revolver has to be the only movie where the knives were out to such an extent you were reading reviews of reviews of reviews. And besides, I hate the notion of modern celebrity in Britain. Jade Goody and her ilk seem to have ruined our culture.”
So no red-carpet escapades for Mr. and Mrs. Vaughn then?
“Oh no,” says Matthew. “I mean, I’ll go to my own films but that’s it. The rest of the time Claudia and I like to stay home chatting and playing chess. We’re probably the most boring, least glamorous couple you’ll ever meet really”.

Stardust is released October 19.