Edgar Wright

1 sketch, 24 claims, and 15 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

The Big Picture: Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright (guest)

Loves Jackie Chan, Shaw Brothers kung fu, music-driven comedy, comics, and the unusual studio film. Revels in craft and in collaborators. Is not a fan of the uniformity of VFX-reel studio movies.

Stances

  • The film could not be made today
  • One-and-done was deliberate; no sequel urge
  • Plan the movie, but credit collaborators for beating the plan

Humor: Self-deprecating and anecdotal, with dry stories like the random Shaun White quote and cast email chain.

In their words

  • “I just don't think that film will get made at all now.” (0:50:00)
  • “I definitely don't like wake up in the middle of the night saying, I must make a sequel of stophill.” (1:28:44)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

The Big Picture

Their claims

Showing 1–24 of 24 claims.

  1. verdict (verdict): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Blade Runner. Edgar says he grew up loving films now called ahead of their time, such as Blade Runner and John Carter, without knowing they had flopped, so the cult-flop reputation does not bother him.
    “I knew that the John Cum, the thing was a flop or Blade Runner, like sort of you consume it in the same way”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 0:48:02 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  2. verdict (verdict): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → John Carter. Same remark: John Carter is cited alongside Blade Runner as a flop he loved without knowing it.
    “I knew that the John Cum, the thing was a flop or Blade Runner, like sort of you consume it in the same way”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 0:48:02 · Edgar Wright (0.90 sure it was them)
  3. lineage (lineage): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Kill Bill. Marc Platt's producers pitched the comic to Edgar as John Hughes meets Kill Bill.
    “they said, it's like John Hughes meets Kill Bill.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 0:51:06 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  4. lineage (lineage): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → John Hughes. Same pitch: the film sits between John Hughes teen comedy and Kill Bill action.
    “they said, it's like John Hughes meets Kill Bill.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 0:51:06 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  5. lineage (lineage): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Spaced. Edgar says the books reminded him of Spaced: young people told in the style of the media they consume.
    “It reminded me of the TV show. I done called Spaced, um, with Simon Pegg and Jessica Hines”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 0:52:01 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  6. career (career): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Shaun of the Dead. Edgar says after Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, returning to the magical realism of Spaced appealed to him.
    “having done showing the dead and then after doing hot fuzz, the idea of returning to this sort of magical realism that had been in space a little bit was really appealing to me.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 0:52:37 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  7. industry (industry): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Hot Fuzz. Edgar says the film cost about four times what Hot Fuzz did, which made Universal nervous.
    “It was like costing like, you know, 4 times what hot 1st cost.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:00:24 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  8. theme (theme): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → The Graduate. Edgar says Scott and Benjamin Braddock are equally flawed young men, and the poster misleads you into expecting a Luke Skywalker hero.
    “I don't think anybody would talk about Scott Pilgrim and the graduate.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:05:31 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  9. lineage (lineage): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Jackie Chan. Edgar says he was a huge Jackie Chan fan going in.
    “I was a huge Jackie Chan fan.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:07:20 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  10. lineage (lineage): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Five Deadly Venoms. Edgar says that before shooting he watched Shaw Brothers mystical kung fu like Five Deadly Venoms to get in the mood.
    “Shaw Brothers type movies like, um, um, 5 deadly venoms”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:07:37 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  11. lineage (lineage): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → The One-Armed Boxer. Part of the same Shaw Brothers viewing list Edgar did before the shoot.
    “one arm boxer”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:07:37 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  12. lineage (lineage): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → King Boxer. Also on Edgar's pre-production kung fu watch list.
    “5 fingers of death”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:07:37 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  13. people (people): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Michael Cera. Edgar says Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ellen Wong were in nearly every scene and were most exhausted by the shoot.
    “for like Michael Sarah and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in particular because they were in the entire thing.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:09:53 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  14. career (career): Chris Evans → Fantastic Four. Edgar says he cast Evans because he was always the bright spot in not-very-good movies like Fantastic Four.
    “he'd already by that point been in like fantastic 4”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:13:14 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  15. career (career): Kieran Culkin → Succession. Edgar says Culkin was always this funny and needed the right part to break through, like Succession.
    “it just needs the right part for him to kind of like really like breakthrough with succession or something.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:14:50 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  16. career (career): Aubrey Plaza → Funny People. Edgar says Scott Pilgrim was the first thing Plaza ever booked, and she had Funny People and Parks and Recreation before it came out.
    “Scott Pilm was the 1st thing she ever booked.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:15:09 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  17. career (career): Ellen Wong → The Glow. Edgar says he loves seeing Ellen Wong in Glow.
    “I love seeing Alan Wong in glow.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:16:49 · Edgar Wright (0.90 sure it was them)
  18. craft (craft): Brad Allen → Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Edgar credits stunt coordinator Brad Allen with making the fights ten times more spectacular, so much that Edgar had to cut a seven-minute concept to three and a half.
    “he'll sort of take something on the page and make it like sort of 10 times more spectacular and complicated”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:17:41 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  19. career (career): Nigel Godrich → Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Wright asked his friend Godrich, a producer who had never scored a film, to do the music so the songs would sound authentic.
    “he'd never done a score before and I asked him if he wanted to do the music for Scott Pilgrim”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:19:38 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  20. craft (craft): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Nigel Godrich. Edgar says Nigel proposed having different artists play different bands so the songs have no single house style.
    “get the find different artists to play the different bands”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:19:58 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  21. programming (programming): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Metric. Edgar says Metric and Broken Social Scene were a no-brainer because the film was shot in Toronto.
    “metric and broken social scene were both like, still are, like, you know, like really important Canadian bands from Toronto.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:20:24 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  22. people (people): Nigel Godrich → Beck. Edgar says Nigel suggested Beck, because Sex Bob-omb style was how Beck started.
    “Nigel was the one who said, what about Beck?”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:21:27 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  23. craft (craft): Scott Pilgrim vs. the World → Beck. The Sex Bob-omb songs are Beck's demos, cut with Brian LeBarton in his garage, the opening theme in a single take, and used as-is.
    “Beck and Brian LeBarton thrashing out one take of that jam.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:23:48 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  24. craft (craft): Max Ophuls → Edgar Wright. Edgar's quarantine discovery was Ophuls, whose intricate camera movement Sean likens to a wedding cake.
    “They're so intricate and ornate. You feel like you're looking at a wedding cake or like a sort of like a clock.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:33:32 · Edgar Wright (0.70 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 1–15 of 15 fun items.

  1. fun, about Edgar Wright: Edgar says he never watches his own films for fun; he rewatched for an Academy tweet-along and was overwhelmed that they did it at all.
    “it's that funny thing when you make something and you build it brick by brick.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 0:49:26 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Edgar says the film was a miracle for a major studio and that today it just would not get made.
    “I just don't think that film will get made at all now.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 0:50:00 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: Edgar says the original pitch from Marc Platt's producers was John Hughes meets Kill Bill, made after a Shaun of the Dead screening in 2004.
    “they said, it's like John Hughes meets Kill Bill.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 0:51:06 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about Universal: At the green-light meeting, the head of production asked whether the film would still work without the special effects in the fights. Edgar did not know what that movie would be.
    “do you think the film would work if you didn't have all the special effects in the fights in it?”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 0:58:36 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  5. fun, about Scott Pilgrim cast: The whole cast is still on a group email chain that has run for 10 years, trading pithy messages.
    “We still have a group email going that's been going there for 10 years.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:11:41 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  6. fun, about Anna Kendrick: Edgar found his old casting notes; next to Kendrick he had written that they would be lucky to have her.
    “we'd be lucky to have her.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:12:46 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  7. fun, about Brie Larson: Edgar showed 19-year-old Larson's video to Donna Langley and predicted she would be a mega star.
    “It's just going to be like a mega star.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:13:08 · Edgar Wright (0.90 sure it was them)
  8. fun, about Chris Evans: Edgar says Evans is a comedy nerd, and morning gym training with him and Cera and Schwartzman was a joy.
    “he's like a comedy nerd, Chris.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:14:06 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  9. fun, about Aubrey Plaza: Scott Pilgrim was Plaza's first booked job, found by casting directors in LA, New York and Toronto.
    “Scott Pilm was the 1st thing she ever booked.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:15:09 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  10. fun, about Brad Allen: The stunt coordinator made a seven-minute concept video of the final fight; Edgar asked for the 3.5-minute greatest hits.
    “what's the 3.5 , she had to do the 3.5 minute greatest hits of this scene”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:18:01 · Edgar Wright (0.90 sure it was them)
  11. fun, about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The final fight's Gideon was boarded as a giant Toho-style Mecha Gideon that Scott and Knives would dismantle, but they never shot it.
    “Gideon's final form was going to be like a robot”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:18:44 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  12. fun, about Beck: Beck got the book art and a scene list, then 72 hours later delivered a 32-track CD of finished Sex Bob-omb demos. They used them as is.
    “Beck's got a CD for us.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:22:43 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  13. fun, about Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The opening-credits Sex Bob-omb theme is Beck and Brian LeBarton improvising one take in Beck's garage, and there was no second take.
    “there was no like sort of 2nd take of that.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:24:10 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  14. fun, about Shaun White: The most random line anyone quoted back to Edgar was from the snowboarder Shaun White, who said the acoustics in here are amazing.
    “the acoustics in here are amazing.”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:25:19 · Edgar Wright (0.95 sure it was them)
  15. fun, about Max Ophuls: Edgar's quarantine find: he rattled off Ophuls films and said he wondered where they had been all his life.
    “where have these films been on my life?”
    The Big Picture · Celebrating ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ 10 Years Later With Edgar Wright · 1:33:20 · Edgar Wright (0.90 sure it was them)