If Taylor Swift Didn’t Write ‘Argylle,’ Then Who Did?

The main secret of Argylle, an approaching spy thriller starring Dua Lipa as a femme fatale and Henry Cavill as the titular investigator, lies not within the movie itself, however the puzzling book that presumably motivated it. It’s not every day that Apple shells out a reported $200 million for rights to an unpublished book from a newbie author– or goes to terrific lengths to protect stated author’s identity.

Launched on January 9 by Bantam Books and Penguin Random House, the book is credited to somebody called Elly Conway, a name shared by the movie’s primary character, played by Bryce Dallas Howard. Include a couple of digressive ties to the world’s greatest pop star and some specialist question-dodging by director Matthew Vaughn, and a confusing origin story has actually formally been offered.

Before the movie lastly strikes theaters on February 2, let’s evaluate the reports about Taylor Swift‘s participation and think about who is in fact behind the year’s most enigmatic book.

What is Argylle, and who remains in it?

Argylle is a Romancing the Stone— design caper about Elly Conway, “a shy spy author” who gets “drawn into the activities of an ominous underground distribute” played by Howard, according to the movie’s run-throughDirected by Vaughn (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Classthe movie is composed by Wonder Woman scribe Jason Fuchs and includes a star-studded cast consisting of the abovementioned Lipa and Cavill, along with Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cena, Ariana DeBose, Bryan Cranston, Rob Delaney, and Catherine O’Hara.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Vaughn discussed Argylle‘s story-within-a-story conceit: Howard’s Conway, he stated, is “the J.K. Rowling of spy books. She’s agoraphobic. Her concept of a hot date is remaining at home, composing more of her book, with her feline for business. She’s not a victim, since she’s truly effective and truly amusing and truly clever, however she has problems.” Within the movie’s universe, Cavill and Lipa’s characters are not “genuine”– they’re imaginary developments from the onscreen Conway’s brand-new book.

The book on which Argylle is supposedly based, by contrast, is “an uncomplicated thriller with none of the tricksy conceits of the movie,” and for that reason safe for audiences with “a hostility to winking metafiction,” according to The Telegraph

And is Elly Conway an imaginary character, or a genuine individual?

That’s where things get odd. By all accounts, Conway is Howard’s character in the movie, however not a real person. There are no images of her on the web, and her author bio on the Penguin Random House site is strangely short: “Elly Conway was born and raised in upstate New York. She composed her very first unique about Agent Argylle while working as a waitress in a late-night restaurant.”

What’s complete stranger still are online efforts to pass Conway off as genuine. Both X (previously Twitter) and Instagram consist of profiles under this name that have a handful of unclear posts, however there is no other way of verifying who is really publishing from either account. The Washington Post press reporter Sophia Nguyen tried to call services Conway has actually tagged on social networks. All of them, Caffe Reggio to Westsider Books, have actually relatively played in addition to the plot. The latter emailed Nguyen, “We did see that Elly published about the shop, we’re pleased to hear it is a location she feels comfortable!”

There’s very little more to be obtained from the real book’s devotion, which checks out: “For Mom and Dad, who have actually been next to me every action of the method,” or an author’s note, which specifies that the concept for the book pertained to Conway in a “febrile dream” that took place after a “dreadful mishap.”

Have books composed by imaginary sleuths been released before?

Yes, there is precedent for such a relocation. Books have actually been released under the name Richard Castle, the criminal activity author turned amateur investigator played by Nathan Fillion on ABC’s Castlein addition to Jessica Fletcher, Angela Lansbury’s character on Murder, She Wrote. The distinction is that unlike Argyllein those circumstances, both publishers were sincere about the truth that ghostwriters really penned the books.

Okay … however how did Taylor Swift get tangled up in this?

In the middle of the preliminary release of Argylle‘s advertising products last fall, some started digging into Conway’s origins. A look for her name yielded ties to an imaginary character on the long-running Australian daytime drama Neighbours; that character made her very first look on the series on December 13, which likewise occurs to be Swift’s birthday.

With a minimum of one connection developed, Swifties did what they do best, spinning a theory engaging sufficient to drive numerous news cycles. Here are a few of the supporting realities that distributed online: Bryce Dallas Howard shares a similarity, they stated, to the red-headed author Swift dips into completion of All Too Well: The Short Film Swift likewise has actually a recorded gratitude for argyle clothes, which has actually been offered as part of her main merchThe movie’s marketing has actually included a Scottish fold feline called Chip; Swift owns 2 felines of that type and has actually utilized a feline provider knapsack that’s extremely comparable to the one Elly lugs in the movie’s trailer.

While Swift has actually utilized a pseudonym for tunes in the past, Vanity Fair‘s sources validated last October that the vocalist was not, in reality, the author of the book.

If she’s not included, why are the Swifties skeptical?

That might have something to do with the reality that the main Argylle account on X has actually accepted the speculation by tweeting lyrics from numerous Swift tunesIt wasn’t till November 3, after several headings hypothesized about Swift’s involvement, that Conway’s account tweeted“Hello to my brand-new fans. Today I discover myself stating the strangest thing, however here goes. I’m not Taylor Swift! We both enjoy felines and I love her music. I’m sure that when she composes a book she will utilize her name and it will be as dazzling as whatever she does.” (The replies have lots of fans stating that this is precisely what Swift would state to toss individuals off the fragrance.)

The filmmakers must be excited to set the record directly?

Not specifically. Last October, Universal Pictures didn’t react to an ask for remark from Vanity Fair about the Swift speculation. When a VF staffer asked a studio representative after a screening whether the movie itself was in fact based upon the just recently launched book (or if the book was simply a film tie-in), the individual specified, “I can neither validate nor reject!” (Penguin Random House and Apple Television+, which will launch the movie after its preliminary theatrical run, likewise did not offer remark to The Washington Post previously this month.)

Vaughn lastly broke his silence on the reports today, informing Wanderer in a current interview, “I’m not a huge web guy, and it was really my child who came near me– this is the power of celeb and the web– and stated, ‘You never ever informed me Taylor composed the book!'” he remembered. “And I’m taking a look at her going, ‘What are you speaking about Taylor Swift composed the book? She didn’t compose the book!’ And I was chuckling since I resembled, ‘It’s not real! She didn’t compose the book!’ My child was persuaded of it.”

He continued: “There is a genuine book … and it’s an actually excellent book. And there is an Elly Conway who composed the book, however it’s not Taylor Swift. And I state that due to the fact that I think of Taylor Swift has a load of individuals attempting to get on her bandwagon left, right, and center, and I do not wish to belong of that club. I did check out the conspiracies and I resembled, Wow, they do not leave a stone unturned! It’s not Taylor Swift. She absolutely didn’t compose the book.”

Could Vaughn himself be the secret author?

“I want I had Elly’s skill to compose such an incredible book, and I feel extremely fortunate that I got to make the very first Argylle film,” Vaughn stated in an e-mail sent out to the New York City Post through his representative. It’s worth keeping in mind that copyright to the book is held by Marv Quinn Holdings Limited, a business that seems signed up to Vaughn and his other half, Claudia Schiffer, showing that they might have gotten an author to in fact make up the book.

In her reporting, The Washington Post‘s Nguyen spoke to Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, who is among 3 individuals thanked in the recommendations area of Argylle. Throughout their discussion, Massey did offer the name of an author whom he recommended on a manuscript for a contracted Penguin Random House spy thriller. She didn’t go by the name Elly Conway.

Who are the other believed authors?

The name Massey supplied was that of Tammy Cohen, a British author with a lots mental thrillers and historic dramas composed under 3 names– Tammy Cohen, Tamar Cohen, and Rachel Rhys. She did not react to an e-mail from the Post. Neither did her literary representative, Felicity Blunt, who is wed to Stanley Tucci— a star who appeared in Vaughn’s 2021 movie, The King’s Man. The only possible allusion to this task on Cohen’s Facebook page gotten here in February 2023, when she teased “an amazing SECRET PROJECT”– one that has yet to be revealed.

There’s likewise speculation that Argylle might have been composed by Terry Hayes, author of I Am Pilgrim, which was as soon as set to be adjusted into a movie directed by Vaughn. (VF was not able to reach an associate for Hayes for remark.)