WEBVTT - Ep34 - Edgar Wright / "Baby Driver" 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:21.960 You're listening to playback a Variety podcast. I'm your host, 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:25.200 Variety Awards Editor Chris Tapley. It's no easy trick to 0:00:25.239 --> 0:00:27.960 amass the kind of following My guest today has his 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:30.320 many films from Shaun of the Dead to Scott Pilgrim 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:32.479 Versus the World, have carved their own spot in modern 0:00:32.479 --> 0:00:35.879 cinema and attracted a number of movie goers who will 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:38.040 gladly line up for whatever he has next in store. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:40.640 The reason, I think is that there is a clear 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:44.200 voice involved, and that too, is no easy trick. Edgar 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:46.280 Right is here to talk about that, his new movie, 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:48.919 Baby Driver, and a whole lot more. Edgar, thanks for 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.200 coming on today. Thanks for having me. Chris. I say 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.640 that having a clear voice as a filmmaker is no 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:58.320 easy trick because it's kind of I think it's something 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:00.680 that you have to work at. You have to fail, 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:04.520 you have to stumble, you have to hone it, you know, 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:07.920 so it kind of takes screwing up to find your 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:10.640 way in my opinion. Uh so I kind of wanted 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.080 to start there, let's talk about your failures. No no, no, 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:17.160 but but actually early on, just when you were kind 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.600 of trying to find your voice, maybe before you made 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:22.880 a feature. Can you recall any of those early pitfalls 0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:25.440 that started to point you in the right direction? Well, 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.160 funny enough, I mean, I did you know, Like, um, 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:29.800 I felt like I sort of stumbled out of the 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:33.759 gates straight away because although I feel quite much more 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:36.360 fondly about it now, but I made a film when 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:38.759 I was twenty years old. The Shot of the Dead 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:42.720 is not my debut. And I made a film when 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.839 I was twenty which was actually reviewed in Variety, which 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.240 was actually when it was reviewed in Variety, I felt like, oh, 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:52.680 this means it's like a profit film. It was called 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.120 a Fit for the Fingers, and it was like a goofy, 0:01:56.320 --> 0:02:00.240 like zero budget western that I made on sixteen mill 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.600 on the budget of like twenty grand, you know, the 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:05.480 same as like a low budget music video. Shot an 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.959 entire feature on that I say in feature in inverted comments, 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.480 because it is seventy eight minutes long, and even at 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.359 seventy eight minutes, it's kind of pad out, padded out, 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:19.320 with a long credit sequence and a long end credit sequence. 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:23.760 And it was actually something that one of the there's 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:25.919 things that happened on that movie that have like sort 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:30.760 of like you know, basically sort of dictated my working 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.280 methods to the rest of my career because, um, I 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:36.960 prior to that, I just I got my I just 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.200 used to make sort of amateur movies like on Super eight. 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:42.840 And then when I was actually sixteen, I want to 0:02:42.880 --> 0:02:45.720 I want a video camera on national TV in the UK. 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:48.679 I want a competition through comic relief. Then when I 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:50.560 had this video camera, I went sort of like just 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.760 making movies all the time at school. But you know, 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:55.440 I was like the sort of when I was doing 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.320 my own movies, I was like shooting them. I was operating, 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:01.800 you know, and never that great at light lighting or not. 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:03.840 You know, sort of like but I was basically like 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.120 the only person behind the camera. It was like sort 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.160 of directing it, shooting it, sometimes holding the boom at 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.919 the same time, um, and then actually doing my foot 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:14.679 And I went to our college and then sort of 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:19.040 got this meager amount of money together. Although when you're 0:03:19.120 --> 0:03:22.080 twenty years old, twenty grand is a lot of money. Um, 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.400 so you've got this money together to make a sixty 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:28.160 mail feature. But you know, it was the first time 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:29.959 I really working with the crew and first time sort 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:35.320 of delegating the sort of some of the artistic um 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.320 work at other people, and it was just just sort 0:03:38.320 --> 0:03:40.160 of real lesson in terms of like working with a 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:42.600 crew and also just having to sort of get your 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.960 vision across to other crew members. And you know, it 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:47.880 was a movie that we made. I was shot in 0:03:47.920 --> 0:03:50.920 the summer of ninety four. We had no video assist 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.240 and we had no dailies. I think we had dailies 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.440 once in the entire shoot because we couldn't afford it 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.120 completely fine blind. So sometimes when you get into the 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.360 edit suite and it's like, oh, every take is soft, okay, 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:05.280 so I guess this shot is not in the movie, 0:04:05.960 --> 0:04:08.600 or like there's some like action shot, there's like one 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.280 take of it. And at one point, actually it was 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.440 so low budget that I became the assistant editor on 0:04:14.480 --> 0:04:17.559 my own movie because we couldn't people were just working 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:19.800 for nothing, and I was there every day, so I 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:21.520 was like, well, why don't I be the assistant editor? 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.200 And then you know it would be things like you'd like. 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.920 I moved to London to edit the movie and and 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:33.320 the editor was actually um we I say we edited 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:36.839 at PYM with studios. UM. Now that sounds kind of 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.200 fancy to be editing at Pima Studios with your first movie. 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.880 But the reality of it was this, and we were 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:46.520 not there legally. We were there sort of like sneaking 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.640 in and like editing in a broom cupboard, like somebody 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:52.840 in the post production department let us have this broom covered. 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:56.000 And my editor was actually sleeping there at night, so 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.040 come like nine o'clock when the security guards were going around, 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:02.680 he'd get in edit, sleep overnight and have like a 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.120 torch in a book, and I'd see him again in 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.120 the morning. And he'd like to do that five nights 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:11.200 a week. So he was pretty crazy and it was 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:13.159 like a I mean, so the thing that I really 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:16.880 love with that movie is that I basically ended the movie. 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:19.039 I just didn't have enough coverage. I didn't, you know. 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:21.479 The assembly edit of the movie and the assemble editor 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:25.240 is when you put every scene at it's maximum length 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:27.960 that it could possibly be with every take. So most 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:32.320 films like as as for example, say for example like 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:36.320 Hot Fust, the assembly edit would probably be like two 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:38.960 and three quarter hours long, like a good forty five 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:40.920 minutes longer than the finished film, and then you cut 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:44.600 it down. But that the assembly edit of this Finger 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.560 is at its longest possible that it could possibly be 0:05:48.160 --> 0:05:51.279 with seventy two minutes long. And then I realized we 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.960 had a problem, and like, and I remember, like, I 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:58.240 drove my producer, a guy called Daniel Faguero, was so 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.520 mad at me because I called our one investor, who 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.800 was a local newspaper editor who you've seen some of 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.160 my amateur movies, and gave me twenty grand to lose 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.040 on it. He had money to lose on the tax loss, 0:06:10.120 --> 0:06:13.039 and then my film was the tax loss. Um. I 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:14.720 called him up and I told him exactly what I 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:17.160 thought of the film, my own film, you know. So 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:19.760 I completely freaked out the investor cause I said, I 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:21.760 think it's not good enough. I don't think it's kind 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.080 of like you know, like it's it's it's too short. 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:26.960 We should shoot some more stuff. I think it's a disaster. 0:06:27.640 --> 0:06:29.320 And when the producer found out that, I called the 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:31.680 investor and said that, he was so furious at me. 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:35.240 But then it's completely backfired on me because then the investor, 0:06:35.760 --> 0:06:38.360 whose name is Mike, came to London. He was he 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.120 was from my hometown in Somerset, and he came to 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:46.839 London where we moved to edit the movie, so you know, well, 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:48.120 this is this is what happened. This is where it 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:50.520 really backfired on me. The investor watched the movie and 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.279 he says, I think it's great. So then I was like, 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.640 screwed it, Like no reshoots, no additional material, got to 0:06:57.720 --> 0:06:59.640 try and make it wherever I have. The thing that 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:02.840 it did teach me that it was like, gotta have coverage, 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:05.760 over shoot, yeah, I mean over shoot or just make 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.040 sure you can't pace anything if you don't have the shots. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:11.200 You know, and I do a lot of setups in 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:13.800 my movie, but I don't but there's very rarely and 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:15.680 if you ask anybody who works in the movie, there's 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:17.960 very few shots that are not in the movie. It's 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:22.400 not like I'm shooting fifteen cameras and you know, you 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.080 figure it all out in the edit. It's like usually 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:27.760 like one or two cameras. Sometimes in an action scene, 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.440 maybe three or four, but that's it. Pretty much every 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.920 setup is in there. There's really like a lesson alert 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.520 on the first film is that you cannot pace a 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.040 film if you don't have the shots. And I was 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:41.280 left with this kind of rough cut which I had 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:43.680 to release because I had nothing else to cut two. 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:46.280 I had no way of pacing it up, and I 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:49.840 think I've kind of overcompensated for ever since. Well that's good. 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:52.920 You gotta take something away from that. And it sounds 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:54.280 like it was fine the way, and I'm sure you 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.040 had a blast making the movie. Some terrible reviews for 0:07:57.080 --> 0:07:59.920 that movie. Empire gave it one star. All the variety 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.840 variety of it was pretty good. Thank you, Variety said, right, 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.720 shows promise, so thank you Variety. Here and here twenty 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:11.280 two years later to make good on that promise. Bruce 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.160 Campbell was here one time and he was talking about 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:16.880 the review for I guess he was talking about Evil 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:20.320 Dead and he was like, you know, to them making 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:22.080 it was getting in variety, like oh, we wanted to 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:24.280 get into variety. And then they reviewed the movie and 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:27.360 it was a pan and he was like, oh, really 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:32.920 want to be in variety. But talking about that voice, um, 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.319 do you find that you have to fight to maintain 0:08:36.320 --> 0:08:38.120 that voice? I mean, I think you've had great production 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.760 partners on your films, but you still wonder when you 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:45.640 have a voice so specific, so so clear, if it's 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.719 something that the artist has to fight for a lot. Well, 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.720 I think anything any any like original movie or anything 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:55.080 that's like, you know, not previous I p or like 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:57.439 it's not a franchise or something. If you're making any 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:01.040 kind of original movie, just the very act of getting 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:04.480 it made is like just about persistence of vision, because 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.840 there's no like, um, you know, it's not any no 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.120 original film is in the release calendar. It's like something 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:13.720 that's like you know all this, you know, everybody's hoping 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:17.400 it might be good. And I think I've been lucky 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:20.400 in the like, um, you know, I've been I've stuck 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:24.760 with pretty much the same producers throughout. Um, I mean, 0:09:24.880 --> 0:09:28.240 Nira Park is my producer I've worked with since Spaced, 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.199 and then Eric Fowner has produced four of my five movies, 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:35.400 you know, and and for the most part, like there's 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.480 been some kind of continuity and four movies with the Universal. 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:41.600 This one is with like try Starr and MRC. But 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.400 like I have the same producers. That's always great. So 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:47.760 having like sort of you know, Nira and Eric as 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.800 a team is obviously incredibly important. And I think it's 0:09:51.840 --> 0:09:54.800 just about what those guys do is kind of protect 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:56.720 your process. If there's a sort of way that you 0:09:56.760 --> 0:09:59.760 work that's not like other directors then they're there to 0:09:59.800 --> 0:10:02.040 kind of protect that. I mean, it still means that 0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:05.360 you always have to sort of even like six films in, 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.120 you still have to defend parts of what you do. 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:10.000 It's like, oh, this is the way I want to 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:11.240 do it, and this is how I do it, and 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.240 this is the way that I work. Um, but I 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.040 think anything any you know, I think I've been really 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:21.120 inspired actually by other directors who I feel like sort 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.480 of um, you know, sort of double down on their 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.080 own style or they're just, like I said, a persistence division. 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:32.520 I feel like that with Quentin Tarantino and Where's Anderson especially, 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:34.520 I always felt with like Were's Anderson like sort of 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:36.400 this sort of like this, you know, it's something that 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:39.720 he can he can see this thing, and he's going 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.160 to keep sort of powering along with it. And then 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:44.480 you know, like I think eight. I don't know what 0:10:44.520 --> 0:10:47.600 grand Brida Pesto tells his seventh film or a film 0:10:47.679 --> 0:10:49.760 or sure, but like as biggest it, you know, and 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:53.360 and seemingly, if you just looked at title and synopsis alone, 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:57.040 seemingly the most esoteric and idiotsyncratic and it's like massive 0:10:57.080 --> 0:11:01.319 worldwide hit. So I find those things incredibly inspiring, and 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.120 I find like sort of you know, and in funny enough, 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:09.080 I worked on Grindhouse with I did a tiny part 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:13.840 of that with like don't my Finest seventy five seconds. 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.720 But you know, it's interesting on that because that was 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:20.720 I knew, you know, sort of got to know Acquintin 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.480 very well at that point and seeing him, you know, 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:28.439 take responsibility for its failure and also recover from it 0:11:28.800 --> 0:11:30.960 and then kind of rather than sort of retreat and 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:33.640 do something safe, actually kind of then make one of 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.839 his most ambitious films. And that incredibly inspiring. Is that 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.600 sort of this is the thing, like, you know, rather 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:41.920 than kind of like sort of retreat from it, is 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:43.800 actually saying, oh, I'm actually going to like sort of 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:46.360 now now I'm going to like sort of attempt my 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.680 most ambitious movie, Lori's Bustards. So I think that's the 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:52.319 thing with a sort of anybody making the original films, 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:55.319 you know, I really changed my sort of attitude to 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.840 sort of them, And never on in social media, I 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:03.319 never ever talked about um anymore. I never talked about 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:07.120 films being bad UM because I think once you start 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.160 to sort of make them, you realize that nobody sets 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:11.840 out to make a bad movie and that you know, 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:13.640 and and it was a little bit of empathy goes 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:17.280 a long way. Yeah, I mean it's just it's just, um, 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:19.960 especially with any original movie, it's like sort of like 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.320 I think, you know, you're always rooting for them because 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:25.760 like when those things kind of like sort of breakthrough, 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:30.040 it's it's, um, you know, it's good for the soul, 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:34.680 and it's also good for the future of cinema, you know. Yeah, Um, 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:38.120 your movies tend to be, you know, modestly budgeted. Uh. 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:40.040 And I want to talk about Scott Pilgrim, which was 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.160 and maybe combined all of your other movies combined, maybe 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:47.960 this movie cost about what those costs together. It was 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:52.960 like something eighty million, big budget, big scale. Um, it 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.400 didn't work at the box office for whatever reason. And 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.000 I'm sure you've post mortem to this thing to death, 0:12:58.040 --> 0:12:59.760 But I did want to talk about a little bit because, 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:01.880 as you consume, I'm kind of curious about lessons learned 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:08.200 along the way. So what have you taken from that experience? Sense, Well, 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.560 it's a it's a weird one that because you know, 0:13:13.720 --> 0:13:15.600 the only real thing to take away from it, I'm 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.080 very proud of the movie. There's a couple of things 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:21.040 that I change about the movie, but not much, and 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:23.080 I definitely wouldn't change anything about it with the way 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.800 that it looks or sounds or feels. I think actually 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:28.600 that's one of the things that I'm like sort proudest 0:13:28.679 --> 0:13:31.080 of is that he was like a studio movie that 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.520 kind of that doesn't really look and feel like anything else. 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.080 I think that sort of the topest thing with that 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:42.320 is actually where you just in the marketing and I 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.440 don't mean, and I'm going to be very clear about this, 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:47.000 is like even just being on the press tour for 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.040 that movie, you're sort of like aware that, like if 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:53.720 a film is difficult to distill into one sentence, you know, 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:56.200 like when you watch a film in a hotel and 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:58.920 it's got like the one sentence that describes the movie, 0:13:58.920 --> 0:14:00.520 and it's the sort of the film, but it's kind 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:05.680 of like most simplistic description, one sentence synopsis the TV 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:09.239 guide blur, yeah, exactly, and Scott Pilgrim can never comfortably 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:11.559 fit into that. And I always remember doing the press 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:13.920 tour for that movie, and at the start of the 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.400 press tour, you know, people would say, so, how would 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.880 you describe Scott Pilgram And I said, well, you know, 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:23.400 it's like an action and fantasy, romance, martial arts comedy. 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:25.920 And I could always feel the more i'd say that, 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:27.720 I could always feel in my head that once I 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.520 said two genres were like a buzzer was going off, 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:33.400 and then by the end of the press tour, I 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.480 was just saying it's an action company because I think 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.960 and so people are somewhat confused about what exactly is. 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:41.840 So it's that's it's that thing that I think. It's 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.040 unfortunately like a sort of slightly in nature of the 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:48.840 businesses that um, you know, like people want people want 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.160 something fresh. People don't don't want the same old thing, 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.960 but they want to be somewhat kind of like grounded 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.600 in something that they recognize. And I think, you know, 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.360 there was one thing. I mean, it didn't really affect 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:02.520 the writing of Baby Driver, but it was something that 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:04.640 when it came to the marketing, you think, oh, well, 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.960 the good thing here is that we have like lots 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:11.600 of marketable elements and then the sort of the stylization 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:13.720 and the stuff that's a bit more cutting edge and 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:19.080 original is like is um, you know that they are 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.120 they are like complimenting each other where I think with 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.440 sort of Scott Pilgrim. You know, when they cut a 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:27.720 trailer together and I thought, actually the trainer was really good, 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:29.120 I got to say, but you could sort of tell 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:31.400 that some people would watch that and say, oh my god, 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:33.560 best film ever, and other people are like, what is 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:36.320 that Like audience is saying, and a multiplex seeing that 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.600 trailing guys, I don't understand what this is. I mean, 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:41.640 it's interesting though. What's funny is that I think people 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:43.880 over the years I always want me to throw marketing 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:46.160 under the bus, which I always refused to do. And 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:48.120 one of the reasons for that is that Michael Moses 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:51.440 a universal I know that it was like his you know, 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:53.200 he regularly said, he guess this is one of the 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.600 favorite films I've ever worked on it. He was them. 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:57.440 We talked on the Carma car and I mean they 0:15:57.480 --> 0:15:59.560 were they were trying, they were trying some interesting things 0:15:59.560 --> 0:16:02.160 with them. Well, he sent me this really funny email. 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:07.480 And the Monday morning after it came out, Um, he 0:16:07.520 --> 0:16:09.720 sent me this email and it just said It had 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.200 just three words long. It just said yeah, it said years, 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:17.840 not days, which I was very happy with because I 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.040 thought I felt the same way. And I mean it's 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:23.640 if it's a you know, um, I mean the thing 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.720 about it that's nice, I guess is that like and 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.320 it's funny. I remember Ron Meyer did that speech. Remember 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:31.800 when Ron Meyer did this speech at like a film 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:37.360 festival where he savaged the Universal Slate. You remember that? Yeah? Yeah, 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.400 And somebody sent me a link to the story. I 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.880 think it was on like in Variety even said Ron 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:44.400 Mayer savages Universal Slate. As somebody said, if you read this, 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.160 And as soon as I saw the link, I was 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:51.480 like sweating. I said, oh God, like um, and then 0:16:51.600 --> 0:16:53.280 what was funny? And I don't really want to mention 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:54.800 what the other films are because some of my friends 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.080 directed them. But he's sort of savage, like a bunch 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.520 of movies said, Oh, this movie is like mediocre, this 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:02.600 movie last too much, this movie was terrible, didn't deserve 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:04.800 to do well, he said, Scott Pilgrim, that was a 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.200 good film that deserves to do better. And I was thinking, 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:10.120 oh my god, and I email would like run Mayer 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:12.120 and I said thank you for thank you for letting 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:14.359 me off the hook. And I said something I said 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.440 hopefully in thirty years time, it would have done enough 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.199 midnight screenings that it will be in the black. It 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:22.600 has been. I mean, it has the measure of something 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.040 that in terms of being like a catalog title for 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.080 the studio, is how many times has it been reissued 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:31.199 on Blu ray in different special editions? And the answer 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.520 is a lot of times. So maybe at some point 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:36.960 in the future Scott Pilgrim will be you know, like 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:38.640 Rocky Horror or something will be one of those films. 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:41.000 It's like Scott pil was in the black in two 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.480 thousand and thirty seven. Movies like that have a life 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:50.600 that the for extends it's box office life. So yeah, right, 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.480 that's not something obviously on our business side. That's not 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:57.560 something to aspire to because when nobody sets out to make, 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:02.120 you don't set out to make sort of you wanted 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.520 to do well, you know, straight the back, but you 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.400 realize that how many of your favorite films you look 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:09.280 back and you think, oh, I guess, like the Thing 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:11.840 didn't do that well. You know that the Blade Around 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:13.520 I didn't do that well. So like, I mean, I'm 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:15.480 not paying my Scott Pilgrim and Blade Around It on 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.119 the same sort of pedestal. But it is that thing 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:21.480 where you sort of realize that like when you sometimes 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:23.360 actually a lot of films when I was growing up 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.800 that I really loved, you know that you have no 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.400 idea how they did, do you know what I mean? Um, 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.879 And I don't know, So I'm I'm, I'm, you know, 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.719 like sort of I don't know if it taught me anything. 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:38.959 It's just the sort of that you need to um 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.560 for some audiences need to be a bit more grounded. Um. 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.200 You know, you came out of that experience and into 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:50.239 what would become another you know, I guess harrowing might 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:52.200 be the word. Experience with Marvel and ant Man and 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:56.879 trying to make that work with Marvel. You've been working 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:00.720 on that before the rowing. It made the wrong word 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.639 being on heroin or something that's the wrong word. But 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.840 you know, just looking back at that experience with Marvel 0:19:08.560 --> 0:19:12.520 with some distance, do you feel like still there was 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:17.000 absolutely no way forward together on that project? Well? I 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:20.040 think the thing is is that, like I well, also 0:19:20.400 --> 0:19:23.840 I did make another film in between actually, and you 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:26.840 know I made the World's Ending between Scott Pilgrim and 0:19:27.800 --> 0:19:31.600 an air man or rather not a man. So um, 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:36.280 I think the thing that is the most diplomatic, you 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.480 know answer is that, you know, I wanted to make 0:19:39.480 --> 0:19:41.960 a Marvel movie, but I don't think they really wanted 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.960 to make a right movie, or you know, I think 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:46.800 the thing is what kind of happened, and it was 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:51.199 it was a really heartbreaking decision um to have to 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:53.320 walk away after having worked on it for so longs 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:57.080 me and Joe Cornish in some form, you know. I mean, 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.200 it's funny like so people say, oh, they've been working 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.280 on it for eight years, and that was somewhat true. 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:03.119 But in that time I had made three movies, so 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:04.920 it wasn't like I was working on a full time. 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:07.280 But after the World's End, I did work on it 0:20:07.320 --> 0:20:09.119 for like a year. I was going to make the movie, 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.399 but then you know, I was the writer director on it, 0:20:12.480 --> 0:20:14.439 and then they wanted to do a draft without me, 0:20:14.480 --> 0:20:17.560 And you know, having written all my other movies, that's 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.200