We heard late last year that Matthew Vaughn has the film rights to Mark Millar’s upcoming comic, The Secret Service, which should see its first issue released sometime this year.
Millar himself has been updating on Vaughn’s film adaptation, ComicBookMovie report, and talking about how Mark Hamill will have a pivotal role, but won’t be starring as a lead, so probably more of an important cameo.
The comic book writer spoke to ComicBookResources last month about the project that he’s working with artist Dave Gibbons on, and how Vaughn is currently writing the screenplay for it too:
“This all started when Matthew Vaughn and I were talking about ‘Casino Royale’ a couple of years back in the pub between breaks on ‘Kick-Ass.’ We loved the movie, but wondered why they didn’t do all the stuff where he learned how to be James Bond. We’ve both got a couple of friends in special forces, both here and in the US, and even the real life training, without any artistic license, is really incredible set-piece stuff. If you ramp it up a little, it makes for some incredible scenes in a comic and in a movie. ‘The Secret Service’ is about a number of things, but one of the central thrusts is about a young, wayward hoodie kid from North London learning how to be James Bond…
“This education of a 21st Century super-spy forms the structure of the story. I can’t give too much away because Matthew Vaughn and I co-conceived the thing with Dave, and Vaughn is literally right now writing the screenplay of the movie, so we’re on a non-disclosure agreement for a little while yet. But basically, if I had to say anything else about it, I would say that this is our version of S.H.I.E.L.D. or U.N.C.L.E. or any of those brilliant super-spy concepts, but seen through that skewed perspective we brought to superheroes in ‘Kick-Ass.’ It feels very, very fresh. I don’t think there’s ever been a comic like this and all three of us are very excited about it. I’ve wanted to work with Dave since I was sixteen, so it had to be something big”
Speaking on Twitter today, he had a few great little updates to add:
“Just off the phone with @HamillHimself. What an absolutely lovely man! You can find out why we’re talking over the coming weeks.”
“For anyone who wants a hint about the comic and movie Mark Hamill and I were planning last night just click: comicbookresources.com/?page=article&…”
“A full 8 page preview of this will appear in Kick-Ass 2 #7 (on sale at the end of the month): comicbookresources.com/?page=article&…”
He went on to add, speaking to CBM’s Mark Julian,
“Both our leads have to be British in Secret Service.”
“@MarkJulianCBM Haha. Got someone in mind for the kid, but we’re still mulling over the Uncle. Great fun!”
Whilst I’ve not read any of the original source material, I loved Vaughn’s adaptation of Millar’s Kick-Ass (like pretty much everyone I know), and can’t wait to see them working together again on The Secret Service. I’m already looking forward to seeing who it is Millar has in mind to play the kid, and hopefully we’ll have more news to bring on that and the rest of the project soon. For now, here are a few great images from the upcoming 8-page preview that Millar mentions, in which we can already see Hamill having a pivotal role. As usual, you can click to enlarge. And as you can probably guess, be sure not to read aloud from the images if you’re at work.
