Then there’s producer Matthew Vaughn, who has since gone on to build an enviable film directing career, with movies such as X-Men: First Class, Kick-Ass, and Kingsman: The Secret Service. And that’s exactly what Tom Cruise did. He went along to a tiny screening room on the lot at Sony Pictures, and sat and watched the movie. Even then, this was not movie star behavior. Stars were for premieres, not for buyers’ screenings, something that Styler pointed out to Vaughn. But had Cruise not done what he did, there wouldn’t have been a theatrical release at all in the US, let along a premiere. Thus ensued a bidding war, and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels was on its way to becoming both a career springboard, and an international hit. Thanks to the intervention of one major movie star, and two hours of his time.
