While it’s been too long since we’ve seen an Edgar Wright original (hard stare, sir), the filmmaker always manages to surprise us with something wholly original. The writer/director is gearing up to put out his London-set period horror film Last Night In Soho, starring Queen’s Gambit starlet Anya Taylor-Joy, this year. In the meantime, he’s been reflecting on his cult classic Scott Pilgrim vs. the World following its 10-year anniversary.
The 2010 film was a sharp turn for the filmmaker following his success with Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead prior. And initially, Scott Pilgrim was not a huge talking point within his career. The $60-$85 million project flopped in theaters before becoming an offbeat comic book movie favorite among audiences that features one of the most star-studded before-they-were-big casts of the decade. Wright recently said this about Scott Pilgrim:
I felt like I needed to prove myself beyond Simon [Pegg] and Nick [Frost] and do something without them. Scott gave me the opportunity to take some of the magical realism that was in Spaced and bring it to the big screen in a different [way].
As the filmmaker told SFX Magazine, prior to Scott Pilgrim, he was known for his collaborations with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and he felt like he needed to set himself apart from the pair for his next project. Edgar Wright took inspiration from Spaced to adapt the graphic novel by Bryan Lee O’Malley in 2010. Although he didn’t see the returns right away, the project allowed the filmmaker to challenge himself and set himself apart from Pegg and Frost’s winning humor. He continued:
I loved the premise, Bryan’s artwork, and his way of writing young characters and their dialogue. There was also this overriding idea that was in some of my other work: of characters relating to their own emotional struggles through the pop culture they consume.
Sometimes the best one can do is make a video game-esque romantic comedy about a Canadian band member (Michael Cera) who falls in love with a highlighter-pink-haired dream girl who has seven evil exes. You know? It’s just the classic move sometimes. Scott Pilgrim is still clever and fun a decade later, and it’s kind of insane how the actors behind Captain America, Captain Marvel, Superman and Birds of Prey’s Huntress are all at the center of the film. The Batman’s Robert Pattinson was even close to joining the cast too.
Although a sequel is apparently unlikely following its cult status, the Scott Pilgrim cast came together over the summer to do a reading of the movie to benefit charity. Edgar Wright has continued to explore new avenues with his filmmaking, such as with 2017’s Baby Driver. Last Night in Soho will allow the filmmaker to put his own mark on the horror genre in a mysterious film that will apparently bend between the ‘60s and present day somehow.
Look out for Last Night in Soho on April 23, 2021 and other exciting 2021 movie releases here on CinemaBlend.
