What do Baby Driver and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 have in common? At first glance, not a lot. But the alien movie and the fast-paced heist flick both make the most out of their soundtracks, and that very nearly could have been a disaster. In fact, potentially having the same song in both movies freaked Baby Driver director Edgar Wright out so much that he tracked down Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 director James Gunn to make sure there would be no overlap, as the movies were released just a few months apart from one another.
In a recent interview, Edgar Wright revealed that he panicked earlier in the year when he realized his pal James Gunn often has similar taste in music and may very well have used one of the songs Wright was planning for Baby Driver. If you've seen Baby Driver, you should know that when Baby is listening to tunes, he often coordinates his music to the movements, so changing a song could have been a disaster. So, Wright went out of his way to text Gunn. He said:
So I texted him and we had this funny text conversation...where I said: Hey man I was just panicking that some of my Baby Driver songs are in Guardians 2. And he goes, 'Well, do you have any ELO?' And I was like, 'No. Do you have any Queen?' He said, 'No. Do you have any Sweet? ' And I said, 'No. Do you have any Barry White?' And he goes, 'No. I was going to use a Barry White song but I didn't.' I said, 'Well I'm using Barry White.' Neither of us divulged what the song was... we just went back and forth, and then we figured out that neither of us were using the same songs.
Looking back, the whole concept of the two directors inadvertently trying to figure out what artists would be in each other's movies without actually giving away each specific song choice is really funny. Regardless, at the time, I can kind-of see why Edgar Wright might have been scared when the thought of potentially having the same song in the movie first struck him. Baby Driver would be very different without that Jon Spencer Blues Explosion song at the beginning, for instance. And since Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was getting released first, if both movies had used the same song, Baby Driver may have been out of luck.
Luckily, all is well that ends well. Wright told SCPR he claimed Barry White and James Gunn got his ELO, and both movies premiered to very favorable reviews. Plus, while music is important in both movies, it's used in very different ways, so it never feels as if one director is ripping off another. You can catch Baby Driver in theaters right now and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on Digital on August 8. And to check out what is still hitting theaters during these hot months, take a look at our summer movies premiere schedule.
