Edgar Wright - RT's Dinner and the Movies Interview
An hour of chat with the Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz helmer.
Director Edgar Wright is best known for his collaborations with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, which broke through with cult British TV show Spaced. In 2004 they hit the big screen with Shaun of the Dead, the trio's attempt to give birth to the rom-zom-com, and it was the launchpad for their domination of the world. Its success internationally allowed the team to come back with Gloucestershire's answer to Bad Boys II, the hysterically funny Hot Fuzz. They've dubbed the movies the first two parts of a planned Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy - based on a popular brand of ice cream in the UK - which will eventually culminate with a mint-flavoured finale.
Wright cut his teeth on television as a director of shows such as French & Saunders, Is It Bill Bailey and Asylum. Since the phenomenal success of Shaun and Fuzz, he shot one of Grindhouse's fake trailers, for a surreal slasher movie called Don't, and is prepping work on the big-screen adaptation of Jon Ronson's book Them, and adaptations of comics Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life and Ant-Man.
And when he's not doing all of that he has played a zombie in George Romero's Land of the Dead and made frequent appearances in Peter Serafinowicz' devilishly funny TV show Look Around You.
With the Writers' Strike halting work on his American projects, Wright took some time last month to put together a series of special screenings at the New Beverly Cinema in LA. Dubbed The Wright Stuff, the series saw sell-out performances of some of Wright's favourite films including Evil Dead II, Flash Gordon and Raising Arizona.
As part of our ongoing series of Dinner and the Movies conversations - which kicked off with our mammoth chat with Kevin Smith early last year and continued as we took Neil Gaiman out for sushi - RT brought Wright into our London office to sit down with us for more than an hour and talk about his career past, present and future. Alas, we didn't provide Cornettos.
By popular demand we've provided the full version of our chat as an MP3 download for your listening pleasure. For those who prefer their soundbites in text form, we've extracted the juiciest morsels which you can find on the pages of this article.
On McSpaced - the US remake:
I remember having a meeting with Granada when we were making the show and they were going to do a pilot back then. Someone had written a version of the first episode of Spaced and I'll always remember because they said, "We've re-versioned it and it's a very funny writer who's done it." He goes, "Have you seen a show called Dinosaurs?" As soon as that was said I was thinking, Oh...
It's different in the UK as it is in the US; I don't have any format rights over Spaced, and Simon just wrote it. I probably shouldn't go into the full legal thing, but the thing that just really annoyed me about that situation and the reason I spoke out publically against it was that there was nothing I could do to stop another company making it but what I really took offence to is that Wonderland, the company who make The OC and all that stuff, implied in the Variety article that me and Simon were involved when they had no contact with us whatsoever, so I was absolutely furious about that.
And never believe anything you see on Wikipedia or the IMDb, because even now on the page for the US Spaced it has us listed as producers and I've never even met these fucking people. A day after I put the thing on MySpace and it was all over the internet, they rang up my agent saying, "Hey, we'd love to get Edgar in to talk," and it's too late. I don't want to be involved.
That show is so much about the people who made it. Not just Simon and Jess, but myself and Nira. When you boil it down to the plot of the first episode - two twenty-somethings pretend to be a professional couple - that isn't the show. The show is Tim and Daisy and a huge percentage of that is Simon and Jess and it's really personal to them.
It's different in the UK as it is in the US; I don't have any format rights over Spaced, and Simon just wrote it. I probably shouldn't go into the full legal thing, but the thing that just really annoyed me about that situation and the reason I spoke out publically against it was that there was nothing I could do to stop another company making it but what I really took offence to is that Wonderland, the company who make The OC and all that stuff, implied in the Variety article that me and Simon were involved when they had no contact with us whatsoever, so I was absolutely furious about that.
And never believe anything you see on Wikipedia or the IMDb, because even now on the page for the US Spaced it has us listed as producers and I've never even met these fucking people. A day after I put the thing on MySpace and it was all over the internet, they rang up my agent saying, "Hey, we'd love to get Edgar in to talk," and it's too late. I don't want to be involved.
That show is so much about the people who made it. Not just Simon and Jess, but myself and Nira. When you boil it down to the plot of the first episode - two twenty-somethings pretend to be a professional couple - that isn't the show. The show is Tim and Daisy and a huge percentage of that is Simon and Jess and it's really personal to them.
On the third feature with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost:
The third film that me and Simon are going to write is UK set because I think it's very important it's set in the UK, it's intrinsic to what we've done so far.
We have the idea and it was something that came to me during the press tour; I had a spark of an idea that was based on an old idea I'd had and I was thinking about that. And then I started to think of a new spin of it. I remember we were in Australia and I mentioned it to Simon as soon as I got off the plane and we just started brainstorming it immediately.
We haven't started writing it yet but we have the plot worked out.
We have the idea and it was something that came to me during the press tour; I had a spark of an idea that was based on an old idea I'd had and I was thinking about that. And then I started to think of a new spin of it. I remember we were in Australia and I mentioned it to Simon as soon as I got off the plane and we just started brainstorming it immediately.
We haven't started writing it yet but we have the plot worked out.
Read on for more highlights from our chat with Edgar Wright, or treat your eyes to a break and wrap your ears around the audio, which you can download at the link below.
(1-20 of 20 posts) | Reply
on Jan 11 2008 08:33 AM Edgar, Simon, and Nick are the shizzat. Hopefully the third "flavor" is as good as the first two. I'm def diggin the "genre" genre that these guys have been working with. (Reply to this) |
on Jan 11 2008 12:03 PM I LOVE HOT FUZZ AND SHAUN OF THE DEAD! (Reply to this) |
on Jan 11 2008 12:17 PM Hilarious stuff from these guys, and it keeps getting better with each project. I hope we see a lot more from Wright, Hot Fuzz was one of my favorite movies from last year. (Reply to this) |
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on Jan 11 2008 01:23 PM In a Q&A I saw Edgar do after a preview screening of Hot Fuzz last year here in L.A., he told us this trilogy has two themes, "Ice cream and blood". And the color of the ice cream label always has to do with the main theme of the movie. Shaun had a red labeled ice cream which symbolized blood (zombies), and in Hot Fuzz they often ate the ice cream with a blue label for police. For the final installment he told us the ice cream was mint chocolate chip. So take from that what you will. Aliens? The army? I guess we'll see probably sometime next year. Can't wait!! (Reply to this) |
on Jan 11 2008 02:21 PM A Pure Sci/Fi "genre" Film as the last part of the trilogy would be cool. (Reply to this) |
on Jan 11 2008 02:44 PM Glad I caught this interview, Thanks RT. I hope the US Spaced never happens I truly believe it won't work here, just bring us the old ones on DVD. Keep these guys working, they're the funniest out there right now. Like everyone else I'll be in the front of the line for part 3 of the trilogy. (Reply to this) |
on Jan 11 2008 05:26 PM What's a cornetto? (Reply to this) |
on Jan 11 2008 05:28 PM Google it. (Reply to this) |
on Jan 11 2008 05:42 PM EDGAR WRIGHT IS F---ING AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Reply to this) |
on Jan 11 2008 06:31 PM Americans never laugh at the cornetto joke in Shaun of the Dead. (Reply to this) |
on Jan 11 2008 06:47 PM I love Shaun of the Dead , and Hot Fuzz was one of the funniest movies i have ever seen . I would love to see the third movie to be a Sci Fi installment ... Think of an Independence Day meets Signs meets War of the Worlds As seen through the eyes of Edgar, Simon and Nick Could be so effffffing Hilarious (Reply to this) |
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on Jan 12 2008 08:44 AM yeah i would go for Sci-fi... but more space opera than those you just mentioned. Starwars, Startrek and 2001 (Reply to this) |
on Jan 12 2008 09:35 AM Edgar/Simon/Nick are the last funny duo in the movie Industry. I love the movies they have made and I really can't wait for another film. Hot Fuzz was awesome in theatures. (Reply to this) |
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on Jan 12 2008 11:35 AM What about Ant-Man? What's the movement on that? If these guys are making something before Ant-Man, then Ant-Man is years away. (Reply to this) |
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on Jan 12 2008 03:53 PM The last movie in the "Ice Cream and Blood" should make up for the **** peddled by Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg. (Reply to this) |
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on Jan 13 2008 03:46 PM I just can not wait for their new movie to come out. It should be Sci-Fi this time around. (Reply to this) |
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on Jan 13 2008 09:14 PM Incredible movies. Hopeing the 3rd is as good! (Reply to this) |
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on Jan 14 2008 11:10 AM I actually had the luxury to meet all three of those guys and they were indeed freak'n hilarious. I have no doubt what ever they are planning its going to be fantastic. (Reply to this) |
on Jan 17 2008 06:11 PM I want to be an Policeman Officer (Reply to this) |
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on Jan 18 2008 11:47 PM i want him to direct harry potter movies...or at least make a parody out of them (Reply to this) |
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