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Vaughn takes 'Cake,' Ritchie fires 'Revolver' After producing three movies for Guy Ritchie -- "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," "Snatch" and "Swept Away" -- Matthew Vaughn will make his debut as a director with an adaptation of J.J. Connolly's London crime novel "Layer Cake." The $8 million pic stars Daniel Craig ("Road to Perdition") as a savvy drug dealer who wants to quit while he's ahead. But when his final score spins out of control, he discovers there are powerful forces with no intention of letting him go straight. Co-stars include Michael Gambon, Colm Meaney, Dexter Fletcher, Jason Flemyng and Sienna Miller. Sony is bankrolling the movie under its first-look deal with Vaughn and Ritchie's Ska Films. Shooting starts June 30. Pic originally was developed for Ritchie, but Vaughn stepped in when his partner passed. "When Guy decided he didn't want to do it, I was putting a list together of possible directors, but I had been working on it for two years and it was so in my head that I realized I should do it," Vaughn says. His original ambition was to be an actor, then to be a director, but he ended up as a producer because "you didn't have to have any qualifications, just the gift of the gab and get on with it." Apart from Ska's regular production crew, he's using "Trainspotting" designer Kave Quinn. "I'm color-blind, so I really need someone to take care of that for me," Vaughn confesses.
Meanwhile, Ritchie has finally settled on his next movie -- "Revolver," from his original screenplay and set in the criminal milieu of Las Vegas. This will be the first of Ritchie's movies that Vaughn won't produce, because he will be fully occupied directing his own. "What Guy doesn't need is another director around," Vaughn says. "I learned a lot about directing from him, and he's learned a lot about producing from me.
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