• last year
“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” director and co-screenwriter Edgar Wright chats with CinemaBlend's Mike Reyes about the 10th-anniversary re-release of "Scott Pilgrim." They discuss why it took so long to get Brie Larson's cover of "Black Sheep" on the soundtrack, why Wright prefers the theatrical ending of the film to the original and more. Plus find out what unexpected 'Scott Pilgrim' requests Jack Black, JJ Abrams and other celebrities make of Wright frequently.
Transcript
00:00 - First of all, thank you very much for sitting down
00:02 to talk about Scott Pilgrim, 10 years after its release.
00:06 - Yes, basically 10 and a half.
00:08 Time has gone elastic with the pandemic.
00:11 - One, two, three, four!
00:12 (upbeat music)
00:15 - Scott Pilgrim at 10 years.
00:18 I'm gonna start with the hard hitting stuff
00:19 that the fans would have wanted to know.
00:22 Why did you wait a decade to get Brie Larson's cover
00:24 of "Black Sheep" released?
00:27 - It's an easy answer, is because initially,
00:31 when we did the soundtrack,
00:33 Metric wanted to have their version on the soundtrack.
00:37 And because it's their song, it was absolutely fair.
00:41 It was gonna be on a soundtrack.
00:44 And they asked, we would prefer
00:47 that our version was on the soundtrack.
00:49 So it was as simple as that.
00:50 - For the record, I am so pissed off for you right now.
00:53 - Shut the (beep) up, Julie.
00:55 - So I wasn't gonna contest that,
00:56 and I thought it was only fair to like Emily Haynes,
00:59 who wrote the song,
01:01 that she should have her version on the soundtrack.
01:03 And it's, you know, her version is great too.
01:06 So then when the idea, the Abco approached me
01:11 about doing a box set soundtrack for the 10th anniversary,
01:16 I said, if we don't have Brie Larson "Black Sheep" cover,
01:20 there's no point in doing it.
01:22 (laughing)
01:23 I said, people give me such shit over the years.
01:26 Why won't you release that version?
01:28 - Oh, I heard that so much.
01:30 - And I never really wanted to answer.
01:32 I said, oh, you know, it's like Metric wanted their version
01:35 on the soundtrack.
01:35 So I called Emily Haynes and I said,
01:39 this is gonna seem so crazy, but 10 years later,
01:43 is it okay if we have the Brie Larson version
01:45 on the soundtrack as well as the Metric one?
01:47 So the new soundtrack has both versions on it.
01:51 And she was like, oh yeah, sure.
01:53 So, you know, they were like totally fine about it
01:55 'cause now it's on there twice.
01:57 So it's like, and so, yeah.
01:59 So the new soundtrack that I think just came out,
02:03 somebody texted me today and said
02:05 that they got their copy before I did.
02:07 I don't even have my copy yet,
02:08 but it has that on it and some other stuff as well,
02:11 which was like, you know,
02:12 'cause there was such a treasure trove of stuff.
02:15 Like one of the things that's on the album
02:17 that hasn't previously been released was,
02:19 I had this demo of Beck working out the "Ramona" song.
02:24 And he basically just like improvises
02:26 like five different versions of that.
02:29 ♪ Ramona ♪
02:31 Song.
02:32 And just hearing him kind of just do it straight to tape,
02:35 just kind of like noodling and working it out.
02:38 I asked Beck, I said,
02:39 "Hey, is it okay to just put all of these on?
02:41 'Cause it's fascinating."
02:42 So there's a lot of good stuff on there.
02:44 - Wait to hear it when it's finished.
02:46 - Finished?
02:47 - That's just sort of the lo-fi aesthetic
02:50 that the musical end sort of embodied in those soundtracks.
02:54 But on the other end of the spectrum,
02:56 in very high fidelity,
02:58 Scott Fogum's coming back to theaters
03:00 in "Dolby Atmos" and "Dolby Vision."
03:03 Was it always the plan to go back to movie theaters?
03:06 - No, you know what?
03:09 So kind of what happened was,
03:11 I knew that like,
03:12 so even though the film,
03:13 when it came out like 10 years ago,
03:15 it didn't do as well as everybody was hoping.
03:17 I knew that like at Universal itself,
03:20 it had a lot of fans.
03:22 And in particular, like,
03:24 I mean, a lot of people really loved the movie
03:26 and were as disappointed as I was
03:27 that it didn't do that well on initial release.
03:30 But very quickly,
03:32 it sort of started to become a cult item.
03:35 It started to play like midnights almost immediately.
03:39 Like within, before the end of the year,
03:41 it was kind of like playing a lot of midnights and stuff.
03:44 And so over the years, like,
03:46 I think that, you know,
03:48 you could see by the kind of the amount of merchandise
03:50 and the number of Blu-ray reissues,
03:52 or like just that there was kind of like a,
03:55 a demand for Scott Pilgrim stuff.
03:58 And Michael Moses, who's like,
04:00 you know, was then the head of marketing
04:01 and, you know, is now like a sort of
04:03 one of the top dogs at Universal,
04:05 we'd always kept in touch about it.
04:07 And he'd actually, on the Monday after the film came out,
04:11 you know, when kind of, I very,
04:14 just for my mental health,
04:15 I decided not to read any of the box office,
04:17 like, trades that week, weekend.
04:21 He sent me this amazing email
04:22 that was one of the best emails I've ever received
04:24 by somebody who's, you know, in the film industry.
04:27 All it said is, it just said,
04:29 "Years, not days."
04:31 That's just what it said, "Years, not days."
04:33 And I was like, yeah, I agree.
04:35 And I said, I know,
04:35 because most of my favorite films were like,
04:38 you know, flops on the initial release.
04:41 Blade Runner, The Thing,
04:42 Big Trouble in Little China,
04:43 like, there's like, you know,
04:45 loads and loads of them.
04:46 One was that people,
04:48 people now think like,
04:49 oh, wait, The Thing wasn't a hit when it came out.
04:51 No, it was number eight
04:53 and dropped out of the top 10 the next week.
04:55 So anyway, so I knew that there was like
04:59 a lot of fondness for the film.
05:01 You know, occasionally people in the studio would be saying,
05:05 is there anything else we can do with Scott Pilgrim?
05:07 You know, trying to figure out a way to sort of like,
05:10 what else could we do with it?
05:12 So there've been various discussions of like,
05:14 what to do with it in different mediums over the years
05:16 and things that still might play out.
05:19 But so I sort of said to him like,
05:21 why don't you re-release it for the 10th anniversary
05:24 since everybody in this cast has become a megastar since?
05:27 And he said, let me get back to you on that.
05:30 And then Michael Moser got back and said,
05:31 Dolby Cinema and AMC would like to re-release it.
05:35 And I said, you know,
05:36 and we'll do a new Dolby Cinema version.
05:40 So it was, you know,
05:43 the people at Universal, AMC and Dolby Cinema
05:47 that basically said, we want to do this.
05:49 So after that, it made my job pretty easy
05:52 in that all I really had to do was kind of
05:54 approve the finished thing.
05:56 And the fortunate thing is that maybe unlike a lot of like
06:00 remasters of movies,
06:03 all of the people involved in the movie
06:05 I was still working with.
06:07 So, you know, Julian Slater,
06:08 who mixed Scott Pilgrim with working with me
06:12 on Soho at that time.
06:15 And then Bill Pope, the DP,
06:17 and the original color is Stephen Nakamura.
06:21 And then also Paul Matchless,
06:23 who edited Scott Pilgrim,
06:25 co-edited it and is editing Soho as well.
06:28 So we were working,
06:29 so we were able to kind of like basically do this as well.
06:31 And so the great thing is,
06:33 is that people like Julian Slater and Stephen Nakamura
06:36 at the top of their game.
06:37 So I had no qualms about leaving it with them.
06:40 And it was like, so they remastered in Dolby Atmos
06:44 from the original stems and he, you know,
06:47 did the amazing 4K version of it.
06:50 So then I just had to watch it.
06:51 So like last year, I guess before Christmas,
06:55 whilst I was finishing up two other movies,
06:57 Fox Brothers and Last Night in Soho,
07:00 one afternoon I had to go in
07:01 and watch Scott Pilgrim as well.
07:04 And I sat in the Dolby Cinema in Soho Square
07:07 and I was like, oh my God, it just looks incredible.
07:10 And it is that nice thing to watching a film
07:11 from 11 years ago,
07:13 that I just watch it and I go like,
07:16 how the hell did we do that?
07:18 Like, and not to sort of brag,
07:20 because I could say this more about the work of Bill Pope
07:25 and Double Negative and Fraser Churchill,
07:28 who did the visual effects.
07:30 I don't really know what I would do differently now,
07:33 like visually, I don't really know
07:35 how you could make it look like better than it does,
07:38 which is an unusual thing to say about a film
07:41 that's 10 years old.
07:42 Like, I don't know how I would better the visual effects
07:44 or the kind of the look of the movie.
07:47 So for me, just watching it like at that remove
07:51 and watching it again,
07:53 better than it's ever looked inside of before,
07:55 I was like, okay, wow, great.
07:57 I'm down.
07:59 - I'm in Lesbians with you.
08:00 - Is there any particular scene that you're looking forward
08:03 to fans rediscovering through this new cleaned up cut?
08:07 - I think one of my favorite sequences in the movie,
08:12 which is one that like maybe,
08:14 like there are other bits of the film that are more famous,
08:18 but I always think that the kind of like,
08:20 for me, my favorite fight scene in the movie
08:22 is the Roxy fight with Mae Whitman in the nightclub
08:25 where like Ramona and Roxy are fighting.
08:28 - Kick her in the balls.
08:30 - I think we shot that.
08:31 I mean, I might be wrong,
08:32 but I remember that we shot that in like four days.
08:35 And when I watched that sequence again, I was like,
08:37 how did we shoot this in four days?
08:38 It looks amazing.
08:40 'Cause I think the lighting and the photography
08:43 and the visual effects in that sequence
08:45 are just like astonishing.
08:47 And like, you know, the girls are so great
08:50 and the choreography is really great.
08:52 And Nigel Godrich's score in that sequence is amazing.
08:55 So, I mean, I'm really like happy with the whole thing,
08:58 but that's one sort of sequence that whenever it comes up,
09:00 I'm like, oh, this looks great.
09:02 It's fantastic.
09:03 - Obviously.
09:04 - It is kind of hard to pick a favorite at times,
09:07 but just personally, I'm waiting for "Threshold."
09:10 I cannot wait to watch "Threshold" again on a big screen.
09:14 - Okay, I'm getting tingles.
09:16 - Good.
09:17 I mean, listen, it's, I'm just happy.
09:22 You know, it's a very nice thing.
09:23 What's interesting about this movie is,
09:25 and I've become more aware of this recently,
09:28 is that there are the people who saw it
09:31 and loved it at the time.
09:32 There are people who then discovered it like afterwards,
09:36 either like at home or watching it in like rep screenings.
09:41 And then more recently, I've become very aware
09:43 of like the people's kids like it.
09:45 And I know that because I get asked to sign
09:48 Scott Pilgrim posters for people's children all the time.
09:52 (laughing)
09:53 And quite a lot from like directors.
09:56 So it's even like, you know, or directors or stars,
09:58 like so, you know, Sam Mendes, JJ Abrams,
10:03 like Jon Favreau, Jack Black the other day say,
10:06 "Oh, will you sign a Scott Pilgrim poster for my son?"
10:09 So that's a really nice sign 'cause it's like,
10:10 oh, it's not just kind of like you or I, you know,
10:14 kind of like talking about a film
10:16 that came out 10 years ago.
10:17 There's a generation who were not old enough
10:19 to see it at the time, who were really enjoying it.
10:23 And that's amazing.
10:25 So, and I got that feeling when I posted the trailer,
10:29 you know, the news about the re-release,
10:31 quite a few people said, "Oh my God, I never saw this
10:34 at the cinema at the time, I'm so excited."
10:36 So it's great.
10:37 And also weirdly, even though it's not really
10:39 the 10th anniversary, it's like 10 and a half,
10:41 like coming out now as like, as you know,
10:46 that I'm a big kind of supporter
10:50 of this cinematic experience.
10:52 And, you know, and "Last Night in Sohaha"
10:55 has a Dolby Cinema version as well.
10:57 Or certainly Dolby Atmos at least,
10:58 it's definitely Dolby Atmos.
11:00 It is a Dolby Cinema, it's definitely Dolby Atmos,
11:02 don't quote me on that.
11:04 So actually coming out now as people are sort of coming back
11:09 to the theatres and also the theatres need our support,
11:12 it's very kind of encouraging to me seeing that like
11:15 Kong versus Godzilla did like what it did
11:19 with only like 50% of the seats or less.
11:22 And I think there's obviously like, as people,
11:24 as the vaccine gets around and people feel safer
11:26 about coming back to cinemas,
11:28 and that there is like an enormous percentage
11:31 of the population and the film world
11:33 who miss going to the cinema.
11:35 You know, if Scott Pilgrim is like a film that people like,
11:38 "Oh, I can't wait to go back to the cinema to see this."
11:41 And it's funny, I got lots of nice responses
11:43 with people saying, "This is gonna be the first film
11:45 I see in a year."
11:46 And it's like, "Well, that's great.
11:47 I mean, I'm happy to help."
11:49 - It's just nice, you know, it's just simple.
11:52 It really just speaks to the enduring quality
11:55 of Scott Pilgrim versus the world.
11:57 And that kind of leads me to something
11:59 that I've always wanted to ask you about.
12:01 Right before Michael Bacall gave you the ending to his book,
12:07 as well as the fact that, you know,
12:08 fate and test screenings kind of intervened
12:11 to get Ramona and Scott together in the end,
12:13 you had shot an ending with Scott and Knives
12:18 ending up together.
12:19 Looking back, which ending do you prefer?
12:22 - Oh, I prefer the version that we, the new version.
12:26 I prefer the version that went out.
12:27 I think the thing, this is what happened,
12:29 is that Brian Lee and Malie,
12:32 by the time that me and Michael
12:35 started working on the screenplay,
12:37 there were like three books out.
12:39 And I remember me and Michael Bacall,
12:42 the co-screenwriter, went to Toronto
12:45 to hang out with Brian and sort of pick his brains
12:47 on what the rest of it was.
12:49 And he had outlines for the other three books.
12:53 And so we knew what the outlines were,
12:55 and there were things that were in there
12:56 that we wrote into the script,
12:58 which then Brian didn't end up doing in the comics.
13:01 Like there was one thing that was in there
13:02 that was neither in the comics nor in the finished film,
13:06 but was in the script and was in the storyboards
13:08 at one point.
13:09 It was one point Gideon was gonna turn into Mecha Gideon.
13:12 (laughing)
13:13 - Music to my ear holes.
13:15 - And that was the one thing where the budget was like,
13:19 there was a point where it was like,
13:21 can we do without the giant robot?
13:22 Like can we get rid of that bit?
13:24 So we kind of came up with the ending
13:26 like that it currently is, which I'm really happy with.
13:28 - I've got a beef with you.
13:29 - So what happened was, is that,
13:31 so we're making the movie,
13:32 Brian is carrying on with the books,
13:34 and then, you know, his book six
13:37 is different from our film,
13:40 but it's also different from the outlines
13:43 that we worked on, which is totally fine.
13:45 And I had no problem with that,
13:47 'cause I felt like, well, this is an adaptation
13:49 and these things are kind of like
13:51 going their different way in like,
13:53 one thing is the book and one thing is the film,
13:55 and that's totally fine.
13:56 - So I guess it all shakes out, huh?
13:58 - The thing is, is that the ending
13:59 that we'd originally done where he ended up with knives,
14:02 we had originally written that
14:06 to be a little like the endings of "The Graduate"
14:10 or "The Heartbreak Kid,"
14:11 which have these slightly kind of bittersweet
14:14 enigmatic endings,
14:16 where in both films, like the kind of,
14:18 the hero gets what he wants,
14:21 but is it what he really needs?
14:24 And so you're left with a question mark,
14:25 it's like, huh, maybe I did the wrong thing.
14:29 Now, that we wrote that,
14:32 but then as we came to film that,
14:35 it didn't feel right.
14:36 And the reason it didn't feel right
14:38 is Ellen Wong is like the most adorable,
14:42 charming kind of actress,
14:44 and Nia's child is such an adorable, charming character,
14:47 that the ending felt,
14:49 if it felt in any way cruel to her,
14:51 it just wasn't right.
14:53 - Poor angel.
14:54 - So we didn't really shoot what we'd written
14:58 'cause it didn't feel like it was the right thing to do.
15:01 And so I think the original ending
15:04 sort of had a slightly kind of like,
15:06 uneasy quality where it was neither one thing
15:11 nor the other.
15:12 And, but we test screened it and like,
15:17 and so it would sort of,
15:18 that particular ending would split people down the middle.
15:22 Some people would like it,
15:23 and some people would say,
15:24 wait, I sat through like nearly two hours
15:28 for like Scott to not end up with Ramona,
15:30 what the hell?
15:31 Or like, you know, or sometimes, you know,
15:33 I remember vividly in the sort of
15:35 the penultimate test screening we did,
15:37 there was one person in the focus group
15:39 who put their hand up,
15:41 this young woman put her hand up and said,
15:42 I love this movie, I love every frame in it,
15:45 I love every character,
15:46 I really, really, really don't like that ending.
15:50 In this screening, we scored like 81, which is good.
15:53 But like, and I think Universal thought
15:56 that I was just gonna be stubborn and saying,
15:58 that's it, that's the movie,
15:59 okay, some people don't like the ending,
16:01 fine, it's divisive, something to talk about,
16:03 let's move on.
16:05 But I went away and it was nagging at me.
16:07 And I think I showed it to like,
16:09 I remember showing it to JJ Abrams.
16:10 And it was the first time I said it out loud,
16:12 I was like, I've been thinking about doing a new ending.
16:14 And he said, what would you do?
16:16 And I said, well, I think maybe it would be
16:18 not that he ends up with Ramona,
16:20 but like he gets a second chance.
16:22 And he goes, why don't you write it and see how it feels?
16:26 So that weekend, I emailed Michael Bacall
16:28 and Brian Lee O'Malley and said,
16:30 hey, let's think, if we did a new ending,
16:33 what would it be?
16:35 And we sort of kind of basically kicked around
16:37 this one final draft file
16:39 and wrote the ending as it currently is.
16:42 And it was Brian Lee O'Malley who wrote,
16:44 I think the key line is Knives' line, which is,
16:49 - I'm too cool for you anyway.
16:50 - And I think that was the thing,
16:52 when he wrote that, I said, that's it.
16:53 That's the line, because it's like,
16:55 you can't have the movie end badly for Knives.
16:59 You've got to let Knives like end kind of like proudly,
17:03 like sort of like with a sense of pride.
17:05 And the idea that she's kind of like matured beyond Scott.
17:09 - You're too good for him.
17:11 Run.
17:12 - So when Brian wrote that line, I was like, that's it.
17:14 That's it.
17:15 And then also I didn't want it to be like
17:16 a super happy ending in the sense of like,
17:18 that they're going to go off and get married.
17:21 He's just asking for a second chance at a first date.
17:26 So they go through the door again,
17:28 almost like the film's going to start again
17:30 and like, he's going to do it right this time.
17:34 But I was most nervous then about calling Ellen Wong
17:37 and telling her that there was going to be a new ending
17:40 where she wasn't going to end up with Scott.
17:41 And I was really, really nervous about this
17:44 because obviously like, she's a sort of
17:46 Asian American actress, Asian Canadian rather,
17:49 in a film and sort of saying like,
17:51 hey, you're not going to end up with the guy
17:53 at the end of the movie.
17:54 So I was really nervous about calling her.
17:56 And then I told her what the scene was over the phone.
17:58 She goes, oh, that's much better.
18:01 Because I was going to say that like,
18:02 I don't think Knives would get back together with him
18:04 after he cheated on her.
18:06 And as soon as she said that, I said, oh.
18:10 I think it's better because it's like,
18:12 she's kind of like, she's too cool for him.
18:14 I love that line.
18:15 And I was like, great, done.
18:17 - Ciao, Knives.
18:19 - Co.
18:20 - So that was really like sort of,
18:21 and I think that's the thing is,
18:22 I think it's actually Knives letting him go
18:26 is the key to it.
18:27 And Brian's line.
18:29 - I'm too cool for you anyway.
18:30 - Is the key to that scene.
18:32 So even though it's interesting to see the old ending,
18:36 and I like the music that's in the old ending a little bit,
18:39 even though I think that's maybe on the new soundtrack
18:41 actually as well.
18:42 The theatrical ending is the one for me.
18:46 I think it's like, it's spiritually the right ending.
18:49 And to have Brian back to write it
18:52 and to have Ellen's blessing
18:53 that she thought it was better than the original ending.
18:56 I was like, great, good.
18:58 - That's just like a perfect story.
19:00 - It's just done very close to the wire.
19:02 It was shot in May, shot in May before it came out in August.
19:05 And I think, like I said,
19:06 the universe wouldn't expect me to change it.
19:08 And I remember like, after we'd written it,
19:10 I emailed Donna Langley with an email that said,
19:13 "Surprise ending."
19:14 And I said, "I've been thinking about it over the weekend.
19:16 What about if we shot this?"
19:18 And then we went and, so it came out in August,
19:20 but we shot, and what, Comic-Con was in July,
19:23 but we shot it in May.
19:24 So we shot in May, we had to like finish that scene.
19:29 And it was so close to the wire
19:31 that I think there were even some critics screenings
19:34 or early online buzz screens
19:36 where it was with the original ending.
19:38 So then some people, when they saw it in release,
19:39 were like, "Wait, wait, when did you change the ending?"
19:41 Like, you know.
19:42 - You pulled a clue on the universe.
19:45 - Yes.
19:46 But I don't, I don't like,
19:49 there's not a glimmer of me
19:50 that thinks that the other one was better.
19:52 - You weren't wrong.
19:54 - I think sometimes, and listen,
19:56 not all films get to do it, like,
19:58 but usually like reshoots is sort of has,
20:01 is considered like a dirty word.
20:03 But sometimes if you've got a studio behind you
20:06 that will pay for you to go
20:07 and do a couple more days of filming,
20:08 it isn't until you've made the film
20:11 that you really understand what the ending should be.
20:13 So it's that thing, so I knew that when we were shooting,
20:16 I knew that there was something that was not quite right
20:18 about the ending that we'd shot,
20:20 but I didn't know what it was.
20:22 I couldn't be that surgical about it.
20:24 You have to almost like, I mean,
20:26 a lot of filmmakers kind of are sort of so down
20:29 on the test screening process
20:31 that somehow it's kind of like lowering themselves
20:34 to even show it to an audience.
20:36 But sometimes you have to show it to the audience
20:38 for them to tell you what the ending should be.
20:40 And this was one of those cases where it's like,
20:42 I knew it wasn't right, or it could be better.
20:46 And I had to kind of go away.
20:48 But it was funny, like JJ, like playing my shrink,
20:50 'cause not like he told me, he said,
20:52 if you did write it, what would it be?
20:54 And I said, maybe something like this.
20:54 He goes, why don't you write it and see how it feels?
20:57 Like, so he was like, you're playing my psychiatrist.
21:00 Anyway.
21:02 - He just randomly pops up in people's offices
21:04 during the edit, and it's like, how do you feel?
21:06 Like he's really taken that Star Wars thing to heart.
21:09 - Those filmmakers who you can sort of call up,
21:13 like sort of, you know, like ask Jeeves,
21:15 like, where they went gold.
21:18 I've been very lucky to be able to call on
21:21 like George Miller recently, who is like,
21:24 I mean, George Miller is a doctor,
21:25 and he's also like kind of the best like script editor,
21:28 or like somebody to watch a cut,
21:31 or like sort of suggest something.
21:33 And I don't know how he finds the time,
21:35 but like, he's been so helpful to me recently,
21:37 where I even sometimes say, like,
21:39 hey, I know you're busy making a movie,
21:41 but do you have time to watch this new edit I did?
21:44 And he goes, oh yeah, it's great.
21:46 What if you just change that?
21:46 I said, that's a great idea.
21:48 And then I go into the edit saying,
21:49 so George Miller suggested.
21:52 (laughing)
21:53 He's famous, and he talked to me.
21:55 - But listen, I mean, I would like to be that person
21:58 for a young filmmaker in 10 years time, 20 years time.
22:02 - I think we're running up on time.
22:04 So I just want to throw in like kind of a last
22:07 sort of curve ball question.
22:09 You are an experienced adapter of material
22:11 from the page to the screen,
22:13 but if you could novelize any of your favorite movies,
22:16 which one would you sign up for in a heartbeat?
22:18 - Novelize?
22:20 - Yeah, because I've just been on novelizations lately,
22:23 'cause it's something that's kind of,
22:25 it feels like it's coming back,
22:27 especially 'cause now Quentin Tarantino's
22:28 got "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"
22:29 coming out as a novelization.
22:31 - Yes, I've read one of the chapters of that,
22:34 and it was extraordinary.
22:36 I haven't read the whole thing,
22:37 but he sent me one chapter of it.
22:39 - Okay, I'm jealous.
22:40 - Which is something that's not in the film at all,
22:43 but it's just like, I can see,
22:45 I think with Quentin as well,
22:46 like it's like perfect for him,
22:48 because like, I think when he finishes a film,
22:51 he's not done with it in the sense of like,
22:53 he's so in love with those characters,
22:55 he wants to hang out with those characters for longer.
22:59 And you notice that a lot of times when he makes movies,
23:01 he sort of says, "Hey, I'm gonna do a sequel to this,
23:04 "or I'm thinking of doing a spinoff with these characters."
23:06 It's because it's like, I think it's tough for him
23:08 to say goodbye to those characters.
23:10 So I'm really looking forward to reading the whole thing,
23:12 but the one chapter that I read about Cliff
23:16 was extraordinary. (laughs)
23:18 - Oh! - I guess,
23:20 soon, so people will enjoy it too.
23:23 And to ask you a question though, I mean, weirdly enough,
23:26 I think probably the new one would be the best novelization
23:30 because sometimes, I read the story for "Last Night in Soho"
23:35 and then I read the screenplay with Christa Wilson Cairns,
23:37 who wrote "1917" with Sam Mendes, it was amazing.
23:40 - Amazing writer.
23:41 - You know, when we were like watching the movie,
23:43 I did say a couple of times, I said,
23:44 "It feels like the film of a book that doesn't exist."
23:49 In a nice way, like, because there are lots of those,
23:52 you know, you used to have a lot of times
23:54 and kind of like, you know, kind of much,
23:57 used to have much more thrillers and horrors
24:00 and genre films that were like adapted from like paperbacks.
24:03 And it sort of feels a bit like that.
24:06 So, I mean, we did talk about at some point
24:08 trying to do that, but like,
24:09 I don't know if that will happen before it comes out.
24:12 (laughs)
24:13 Let me say this, I doubt it will,
24:15 but I would say "Last Night in Soho"
24:17 would probably be the best novelization.
24:19 Even if you do it after the film drops in theaters,
24:22 that just, I want that book.
24:24 I need that book.
24:26 - Big fan.
24:27 - Why wouldn't you be?
24:30 - I used to be a big fan of the "Doctor Who" novelization.
24:33 I used to have many of those books
24:36 and it was always kind of a bummer
24:38 to eventually see the episode.
24:40 And it was like what you saw in your head
24:44 when you were reading the "Doctor Who" novelization
24:46 and what the BBC effects department
24:48 can do at the time with two different things.
24:50 So sometimes I kind of,
24:52 and weirdly enough, there's one "Doctor Who" novelization,
24:55 which is maybe one of the slight germs of an idea
24:58 for "The World's End,"
25:00 but I'd never actually seen the episode
25:03 until after "The World's End,"
25:05 but I had read the book.
25:07 It's one called "The Android Invasion."
25:09 It's a Tom Baker episode.
25:11 And what's weird is in the '70s "Doctor Who" episodes,
25:15 there's lots of '70s "Doctor Who" episodes
25:17 where they're ripping off "Quatermass" and "Hammer" movies.
25:22 So weirdly, there's a film by Terrence Fisher
25:24 called "The Earth Dies Screaming,"
25:26 which is almost exactly the same plot
25:28 as "The Android Invasion," like 10 years later.
25:31 But I had seen "The Earth Dies Screaming,"
25:34 but I had not seen "The Android Invasion,"
25:36 but I had read the book.
25:38 (laughs)
25:40 So I'm with you.
25:42 I haven't read a novelization for a long time,
25:44 but also when I was a kid,
25:46 I used to read novelizations for films
25:48 I was not allowed to go and see.
25:50 - Yeah.
25:52 - I read the Alan Dean Foster "Alien" and "Aliens"
25:54 before I saw the movie
25:56 because I was too young to see the movie.
25:58 - Yeah, you talk to a lot of film geeks in our generation.
26:02 That's just sort of the gateway into those stories.
26:05 It's like, well, I think it was, I forget who it was,
26:08 but there was a film critic that once said on a podcast,
26:12 "My parents wouldn't let me see certain movies,"
26:14 but reading was not out of the question.
26:16 - Yeah, I was the same.
26:19 When I went to see "Gremlins" when I was 10,
26:21 "Gremlins" was a 15 in the UK,
26:24 and I was so, me and my brother were so mad
26:27 that it was a 15 'cause I was 10 and he was 12.
26:30 And we just thought, how the hell can we get into "Gremlins?"
26:32 And it's a bit different in the UK.
26:34 You can't do that trick where you can get a parent
26:36 to take you, a guardian.
26:38 You have to be the age.
26:39 So I went to the cinema manager
26:43 with a copy of the "Gremlins" novelization.
26:47 And I said to the manager, I'm 10 years old,
26:50 and I say, "We want to see 'Gremlins,'
26:53 and we know it's a 15, but we won't be scared
26:55 because we've already read the book and we know the ending."
26:58 And he looked around and it was quiet.
27:02 It was a matinee.
27:03 It was quiet.
27:04 He said, "Get in there."
27:06 So I saw it.
27:07 But amazingly, that guy let us through.
27:10 He was like, "Go on, get in there."
27:12 We had to pay adult prices and he let us in.
27:15 So that was amazing.
27:16 - That's how they get you.
27:17 - He said, "I have to go."
27:18 - Yeah.
27:20 Edgar, thank you so much for not only just making a film
27:24 like "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,"
27:25 but talking to me about it.
27:28 I cannot wait to jump into theater and see this new print.
27:31 Best of luck with everything.
27:33 And let's do this again for the Sparks brothers
27:36 and "Last Night in Soho."
27:38 - Great, sounds good.
27:39 - Bye, Steph.
27:41 (upbeat music)
27:44 (bell dings)
27:47 (upbeat music)
27:49 (upbeat music)
27:52 (upbeat music)
27:55 (upbeat music)

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