Next week, Matthew Vaughn is back with the latest instalment of his ongoing Kingsman series – and the director has now spoken of his love for another spy film franchise: James Bond.

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Speaking ahead of the Boxing Day release of The King’s Man , Vaughn has revealed which actor he'd love to take over as 007 from Daniel Craig, while also explaining why he doesn't think he'll ever get the chance to helm a film in the series.

"I don't think the Bond people would touch me with a stick. They don't like me," he told Comicbook.com.

"You know, to be blunt, I love Bond. It's obviously a huge influence on me... You wait till you see [upcoming movie] Argylle. But Henry Cavill, that man was born to play Bond. When you see how he is in this film, I was just like, 'Wow, this guy is everything you'd imagine Bond to have been, or be.'"

Argylle will be Vaughn's next film after The King's Man, and tells the story of a world-class spy who suffers from amnesia and is tricked into believing he is a best-selling spy novelist.

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Cavill stars alongside an impressive ensemble cast, with Sam Rockwell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O'Hara, John Cena, Samuel L Jackson and Ariana DeBose among those to also appear in the movie – and Vaughn has teased that it is "sort of a mixture of Die Hard, Romancing the Stone and Lethal Weapon".

"It’s just fun," he told Collider. "If people think Kingsman was fun... this is on a different level where it's just going... I was sitting in lockdown, seeing how miserable we all were, and I read it and it made me smile. So, I just thought, you know what, let's make a movie during lockdown because we put it all together really quickly.

"I was going stir crazy, like all of us at home, and I thought, well look, if I can make a movie and it's, you know, I thought it was a contained film. It's gone and exploded, and I couldn't help it. The set pieces got bigger and bigger and bigger, and I had zero discipline trying to keep it small. So, it's now huge. It's now actually the most expensive movie I've made. It's more expensive than The King’s Man, which is ridiculous."

The King’s Man is released in UK cinemas on Sunday 26th December 2021. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our TV Guide or visit our Film hub for all the latest news and features.

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This year’s Radio Times Christmas double issue is on sale now, featuring two weeks of TV, film and radio listings, reviews, features and interviews with the stars.

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