'Kingsman' Director Matthew Vaughn Making New Spy Movie With Samuel L. Jackson, Bryce Dallas Howard, And Sam Rockwell

Update: There's a chance yesterday's report about this movie may have gotten some details wrong. Here are the official details for this movie, which is titled Argylle. Feel free to disregard the rest of this article.Matthew Vaughn has spent the past seven years working in the spy genre directing his Kingsman films, and he seems to be extremely comfortable in that arena. In fact, he doesn't seem to be interested in leaving it any time soon: a new report says he's actually developing a new spy movie that has Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World, Black Mirror) in talks to play the lead role and a couple of other high-profile actors circling significant parts. 

Observer reports that Vaughn, whose other directing credits include X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass, Stardust, and Layer Cake, will stay in the spy genre with this new still-untitled film, which he will write, direct, and produce. The film is described as a "global espionage thriller" about a "best-selling spy novelist who turns out to be a world-class spy suffering from amnesia."

Howard is in talks to play the spy, who is duped into thinking she's merely a writer. But once her memories begin to return, so do her particular set of skills, which sets her "down a path of revenge against the shadowy organization she used to work for, the Division." Oscar winner Sam Rockwell (Iron Man 2) is in talks to play Howard's character's love interest, who is a former agent who used to work for the Division, and Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson (Iron Man 2) is being eyed to play "a rogue agent dedicated to exposing the corruption within the clandestine spy network." Jackson, of course, played the memorable supervillain in Vaughn's 2014 film Kingsman: The Secret Service (gotta love a bad guy who vomits at the sight of blood), so this would be a reunion for the two of them.

Whereas the Kingsman movies are Vaughn's twisted send-ups of the James Bond films, this sounds a lot closer in spirit to something like The Long Kiss Goodnight, Renny Harlin's 1996 movie about an amnesiac played by Geena Davis who realizes she's actually a CIA assassin. (Jackson also starred in that film, playing a scumbag private investigator who gets caught up in the action.) This could be a fun opportunity to see Howard as an action star, something she hasn't had very many chances to do in her acting career thus far. Rockwell seems like he can play this type of role in his sleep, and as for Jackson, this could be an interesting way for him to exercise some different muscles in the spy genre after portraying Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2008.