Posted in: Fox, Movies | Tagged: colin firth, film, fox, halle berry, julianne moore, kingsman: the golden circle, mark strong, Matthew Vaughn, taron egerton

Matthew Vaughn Is Not Pleased With The Marketing For Kingsman: The Golden Circle

We live in a world of spoilers. Whether it's Marvel sending comic spoilers to run in the New York Times, or some jerk from high school who decided to declare who dies on Game of Thrones, spoilers are everywhere. Then there are the marketing departments that give away huge spoilers to movies in trailers, posters, and wherever else. Sometimes directors aren't exactly happy with that, and Matthew Vaughn happens to be one of those directors. He wasn't happy that the marketing gave away so many of the twists according to Deadline.

I think the marketing department's done a bloody good job of giving away a lot of the twists and turns. That's been a private bugbear of mine, and I guess now a public one. They insist it is the right thing to do. I think it isn't great for the viewing experience and the way I structured the first act. It definitely has left me feeling a bit hamstrung; the narrative thrust has been a little bit weakened. There are a few little twists and turns left that I'm definitely fighting like a crazy person right now to make sure those don't get given away. I think that will hopefully help the word of the mouth, where people go, "You aren't going to be believe X, Y and Z just happened."

This isn't the first time one of Vaughn's movies has suffered from a terribly conceived or poorly targeted ad campaign. Stardust was a fantastic film that absolutely no one went to see because of the marketing. Vaughn was asked about that and he elaborated:

Oh, it didn't help at all, the selling of Stardust. There was one meeting…we've all had some truly atrocious meetings within Hollywood, but I had the worst marketing meeting ever, on Stardust when I was told we're going to sell it as Lord of the Rings. I'm like, "But it's not Lord of the Rings. If you're going to sell it like a other movie, then should we use Princess Bride?" And I was told, "No. Princess Bride tanked." And I was like, "Yes, but it did huge on DVD. It wasn't marketed properly. Let's not make the same mistake." I'm working with Andrew Cripps again at Fox, and to his credit back then at Paramount, after Stardust didn't do well in the States, they let me take over the campaign in England. We came up with a phrase, "A fairy tale that won't behave." We changed the color palette, softened it all up, and it became my highest-grossing movie in England.

A good marketing campaign can make or break a movie which is something Vaughn is acutely aware of. However, while he says a lot was given away, the movie did a pretty good job of limiting how much of the third act we actually saw. The big spoiler they gave away was bringing Colin Firth's Harry back to life. That was probably one that could have been omitted.

Summary: When their headquarters are destroyed and the world is held hostage, the Kingsman's journey leads them to the discovery of an allied spy organization in the US. These two elite secret organizations must band together to defeat a common enemy.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle, directed by Matthew Vaughn, stars Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Halle Berry, with Sir Elton John, Channing Tatum, and Jeff Bridges. It will be released on September 22nd.

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