Matthew Vaughn accidentally 'confirmed' as new Star Wars director

Was this the moment Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star Jason Flemyng accidentally let slip that his old pal Matthew Vaughn has been hired as the new director of Star Wars?

Vaughn has been tipped to take on the first film in Disney's new trilogy, which follows the studio's acquisition of LucasFilm and all rights to the long-running space opera for $4.05bn earlier this month, after Brad Bird, Steven Spielberg and Star Trek's JJ Abrams all ruled themselves out. Flemyng, who appeared in Vaughn's comic book reboot X-Men: First Class, last year, was speaking at the UK premiere of his new film Seven Psychopaths.

Asked by film site Hey U Guys if he had spoken to Vaughn about Star Wars, Flemyng said: "Me and Matt have done nine films together, so I'm sure I'll get the call for Star Wars." He then appears (from 40 seconds in) to realise he's said too much.

Speculation over Vaughn's appointment has been fuelled by the fact that the Kick Ass director unexpectedly pulled out of shooting upcoming X-Men sequel Days of Future Past in October. Disney has confirmed that the Oscar-winning writer of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3, Michael Arndt, will be the screenwriter for Star Wars: Episode VII, which is due in 2015. The stars of the original trilogy, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) and Harrison Ford (Han Solo) have all been tipped to return to the series.

This article was written by Ben Child, for guardian.co.uk on Wednesday 28th November 2012 18.23 Europe/London