New Kingsman movie carries historical weight, says actress Gemma Arterton

SINGAPORE - In the adventure movie The King's Man, fictitious characters and actual historical figures are entangled in adventures around the time of the World War I.

In one scene, as shown in the film's trailer, the fictitious character of Orlando, the Duke of Oxford (played by Ralph Fiennes), tries to stop the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand during a motorcade. In real life, the assassination of the archduke helped trigger World War I.

The new film stands in contrast to the first two films of the Kingsman action franchise (2015 and 2017), which had been largely free of references to real events.

Speaking at an online press event, English actress Gemma Arterton, 35, says she enjoys the new direction.

"The historical setting gives the story depth, more weight. There's something more sprawling and epic about it," she says.

The film opens in cinemas on Dec 30. In it, she plays Polly, a weapons and spycraft expert who is an ally of Orlando. Along with Djimon Hounsou's warrior-bodyguard Shola, they become the founding members of the Kingsman espionage organisation, a secretive group thwarting the plans of those who would destabilise the world.

Other historical characters in the film include King George, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas, cousins who are the royal heads of Britain, Prussia and Russia respectively. The three aristocrats are played by English actor Tom Hollander. Welsh actor Rhys Ifans is Russian mystic Rasputin, while English actor Charles Dance is British Secretary Of State for War Herbert Kitchener, a leader whose name lives on in parts of the former empire, such as in Singapore's Kitchener Road.

Arterton says Polly represents the women who in the early 20th century were filled with hope that a new era of sexual equality was dawning. The inclusion of characters such as Polly changes the franchise's tone, which up till now has been marked by violent action and grown-up humour, often described as "laddish".

"It's so different from the original films. And it being a prequel, it gives you a chance to reinvent the whole thing," she says.

Matthew Vaughn has directed every Kingsman film as well as helped adapt it from its source material, the comic book series of the same name created by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. He says he harboured an urge to create a "screen-filling epic historical adventure" in the mould of Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) and The Man Who Would Be King (1975).

A Kingsman origin story he had developed offered him a chance to fulfil his dream.

"I thought, 'Let's make a movie of that.' By doing it, I get to expand the franchise and also make an epic adventure movie," says the 50-year-old director and co-writer of films such as action comedy Kick-Ass (2010) and Marvel superhero film X-Men: First Class (2011).

The film is not only different in tone from previous films, it also goes deeper emotionally, he says.

"There is drama, historical facts, epic set pieces and the emotion that comes from World War I," he says.

The creator known for humour that pushes the boundaries of good taste understands that one can be cheeky about some topics but not others.

"We don't joke about World War I. It is treated with respect and that is as it should be. I am the first man to push boundaries and question what is tasteful or not, but even I wouldn't make a parody of the war."

The King's Man opens on Dec 30.