Submitted photoEggsy (Taron Egerton) meets Arthur (Michael Caine), the head of the Kingsman spy agency.

British director and producer Matthew Vaughn and screenwriter Jane Goldman have worked together on several film projects, beginning with “Stardust” in 2007 and including their newest, “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” which opens in the United States today.

“We’ve written five and a half things, and they have all actually been made into films,” Vaughn said proudly. (The half refers to “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” which Vaughn was hired to direct but ultimately didn’t; the two received story credit.)

“It’s weirdly unusual,” Goldman added. “Which actually describes us.”

Weirdly unusual or no, Vaughn and Goldman seem to have a particularly harmonious taste for surreal ultraviolence that is often disturbingly funny and that has earned them a fair share of controversy (especially when they cast an 11-year-old Chloë Grace Moretz as a lethal schoolgirl in their “Kick-Ass,” from 2010). They also share a love for old British spy characters, encompassing James Bond and Austin Powers, evident in “X-Men: First Class” (2011), and at the forefront in “Kingsman,” a spy spoof, based on a comic book series by Mark Millar that is also an homage to the venerable tradition of dapper men who never spill a vintage whisky while dispatching a foe.

In “Kingsman,” a youth from public housing named Eggsy (Taron Egerton), is recruited by Harry Hart, a suave secret agent played, obviously, by Colin Firth.

Hart is straight out of the Classic British Spy handbook, complete with bespoke tailored suit, bulletproof umbrella and a neat line in slinging a beer glass. As Eggsy is tested to see whether he is worthy of Kingsman, an independent international secret service (will he make it, or will the posh boys prevail?), Hart and his colleagues try to unravel the evil plans of a Bond-worthy villain with a Bond-worthy name: Richmond Valentine.

Played by Samuel L. Jackson with a lisp and a Russell Simmons wardrobe, Valentine is a tech billionaire who wants to save the world. In his own very, very special way.

“Kingsman” opened in Britain to lukewarm reviews, and while the film seems to end with the possibility of sequels, Vaughn, 53, and Goldman, 44, wouldn’t say whether anything else was in the offing.

“It’s like being about to give birth and being asked if you want another kid,” Vaughn said. Goldman laughed.

“Definitely,” she said. “We’ll be working on something else.” In an hourlong telephone chat, Vaughn, speaking from London, and Goldman, calling from Toronto, did reveal:

How They Met:

“Neil Gaiman, whose book ‘Stardust’ was based on, and whom we both knew, somehow thought I’d be a good fit to write the screenplay, even though I had only written books before,” explained Goldman, a former journalist who has written fiction and nonfiction. “I think Matthew met me as a courtesy.”

Vaughn denied that. “Not out of courtesy, out of desperation,” he said.

“Most screenwriters do scripts as a way of making money, not as a way of making movies,” he continued. “I was so relieved to meet someone fresh, with a voice, who I could be in a room with and who didn’t drive me mad.” At the end of their meeting, Vaughn asked Goldman when she could start.

How They Work Together:

“We don’t necessarily fall into the complementary areas that people imagine,” Goldman said. “People think I do the human interest, and he does the crazy violence, but we cross over quite a lot.”

Vaughn made assenting noises.

“When Jane started writing gangster dialogue in ‘Kick-Ass,’ I thought it would be a waste of time, but actually her middle name should be Scarface.”

Usually, they agreed, they have similar sensibilities when it comes to the cartoonlike, extravagant violence that has characterized several of their movies.

Occasionally They Do Conflict:

“The dog scene in ‘Kingsman’ is the first time we’ve genuinely disagreed with one another for longer than a few minutes,” Goldman said.

For fear of a spoiler, suffice it to say that Eggsy must make a difficult decision, which she felt was inappropriate for the hero. Eventually she came up with a solution that Vaughn liked.

They Had Been Thinking About a Spy Movie for Ages:

“Matthew has been talking about it ever since we met,” Goldman said, adding that they had talked a lot about the movies they loved when younger. “Roger Moore was technically our Bond,” she said. “The things you encounter in your formative years always stay with you.”

Vaughn agreed: “I was very aware of that history and referentiality in ‘Kingsman.’ I call it a postmodern love letter to the tradition. The best part of shooting the film was when we stopped and Michael Caine could tell us stories about Harry Palmer,” he said, referring to the five films featuring the Len Deighton hero in which Caine (who plays the Kingsman head, Arthur) is a secret agent.