Where to watch Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014)

Trivia & production notes

• Matthew Vaughn turned down directing X-Men: Days of Future Past to focus on Kingsman, deciding that if he didn't make the fun spy movie he envisioned, someone else would.
• Samuel L. Jackson accepted the villain role partly because he had long wanted to appear in a James Bond film, viewing the part as his best chance to play a Bond-style antagonist.
• The villain's distinctive lisp was partially inspired by a stutter Samuel L. Jackson had during his childhood.
• Sophie Cookson was chosen for the female lead over higher-profile actors Emma Watson and Bella Heathcote, as Matthew Vaughn preferred casting a less-established performer.
• The film's budget was roughly one-third that of Skyfall's $200 million.
• Matthew Vaughn consulted three different effects studios before selecting one to create the scene of villains' heads exploding in what he described as a Busby Berkeley-style firework display.
• For the church fight scene, Vaughn originally planned to use Guns N' Roses' November Rain but found it darker than expected and its guitar solo too brief, so he switched to Free Bird instead.
• The Free Bird version used in the film was remixed from original master recordings by Giles Martin, son of The Beatles producer George Martin, who is a friend of Matthew Vaughn.
• An alternate cut of the film was created that removed a sexually explicit scene between the protagonist and Princess Tilde along with related references.
• Mark Hamill's character Professor James Arnold was the primary antagonist in the source comic book but had a significantly different role in the film.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Kingsman: The Secret Service, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.