It’s been a busy old year for Edgar Wright. His third feature film as director, the mind-melting pop culture mash up Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, saw the British writer-director reach new career heights while restoring some much-needed pride to the comic book adaptation genre. But what’s next for the cinegeek king? LWLies sat down with Wright recently to find out.
LWLies: As the dust begins to settle on the busiest period of your career, can you describe what it’s like to have bought Scott Pilgrim into reality?
Edgar Wright: I am immensely proud of the film and what we brought to the screen, I still can’t believe we actually made the film we did. It pleases me no end to bring something that crazy to the cinema screens. I have made life long friends in the cast and crew, had an amazing response from fans and people I admire in the industry and I was awarded Honorary Torontonian of the Year. So that’s not so shabby.
What have you learnt from the experience, as a technician and director?
Technically it was 10 times more complex than Hot Fuzz. The combination of stunts, practical effects and digital effects, along with huge lighting rigs, sets, crowds was very complicated, not to mention the crucial balance of comedy, music and romance at the core. I hope I have taken my visual style a little further and I learnt a lot from my world class collaborators behind the scenes.
Anything you’d do differently? Any mistakes? Disappointments?
Absolutely, there’s always room for improvement. I am under no delusion that either Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz or Scott Pilgrim are perfect, but I will always strive to work harder and try to get better at what I do. That said, I am very pleased with how the film looks and I don’t think we could have done any better with the visuals we achieved. It was hard work, but what is onscreen is uncompromised.
What surprised you about the process, particularly on the publicity
trail?
Well press is tricky sometimes. With Shaun and Fuzz you sometimes would end up talking about what the film isn’t, rather than talking about what it is. Scott Pilgrim was absolutely no exception and sometimes promoting the film became overly concerned with addressing preconceptions and stigmas about the movie that didn’t ultimately matter. The whole accusation of it being a film that marked a generational divide was perplexing to me to, I didn’t necessarily agree with that but would find myself asking if it mattered anyway. Why should it be a negative to speak directly to a generation? Certainly many films that I grew up loving were the ones where I felt spoken to, as if the director had made the film especially for me.
How has this affected your standing as a filmmaker?
I don’t know. I have had a very strong response from some quarters, both critically, within the industry and from some very vocal fans. I just hope to be able to keep doing what I love, so we’ll see.
What’s your assessment of the British film industry?
I think any film industry should embrace it’s national identity, its cultural and historical significance. I think sometimes people are too concerned about what might play overseas. Both Shaun and Fuzz were pretty damn British, so the fact that they travelled only makes me prouder. I was watching Comedy Central after Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity and they played a double bill of the two. It was pleasingly surreal to see my home country on US television.
What’s holding it back, propelling it forward?
I think industries that are smaller than Hollywood can afford to take risks. Most of the most exciting cinema in the world is being produced outside the States. There’s no reason the UK shouldn’t be at the forefront.
If you could create a law in the British film industry, what would it be?
This may have changed since made my two films, but I’d love to see it be much easier to shoot in London. There’s a lot of red tape that often stifles seeing our capital city onscreen.
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is out on DVD and Blu-ray December 27.
Edgar Wright (text) by Tom Seymour is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
