"Everything that I've done so far has had a bigger budget than the last, but I've never ever felt the benefit of the bigger budget because the ideas always exceed the budget."
Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974 in Poole, England) is a British filmmaker.
He is known for making stylish, genre-busting films, usually working with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and for making films that function equally well as both deconstructions and carefully crafted stories. He is One of Us, a very notable example of a film geek-cum-director à la Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith, both of whom he is close friends with. He also cites the films of Jackie Chan as one of his influences to become a filmmaker.
Directed:
- Dead Right - Hot Fuzz without the budget
and with even more genre savviness. - A Fistful of Fingers - A low-budget Clint Eastwood parody.
- Asylum - Short-lived Brit Com about an assortment of odd characters trapped in an asylum in the quiet English countryside. Sadly never released on home media.
- Spaced - Surreal Britcom about a writer and a comic book artist living in a flat. Brimming with references to other TV shows and movies.
- Shaun of the Dead - Guy tries to rescue his friends from zombies. He fails. Mostly.
- Hot Fuzz - Skilled cop is sent to a sleepy town where no murders, but many accidents happen.
- Don't - A trailer from the movie Grindhouse.
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - An adaptation of the comic by Bryan Lee O'Malley. His first non-British film (shot in Toronto).
- The World's End - A group of friends from childhood reunite to finish their epic pub crawl only to find that aliens have infiltrated their old town.
- Baby Driver - His first American film, shot (and set) in Atlanta, Georgia. Takes Mickey Mousing to an extreme. Every scene is completely synced to the music, even the background noise!
- The Sparks Brothers - His first documentary, covering the career of pop/rock band Sparks.
- Last Night in Soho - A psychological thriller about a young girl, passionate in fashion design, who is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer. But 1960s London is not what it appears, and time seems to fall apart with shady consequences…
You can now vote for your favourite Edgar Wright film HERE!
Wrote:
- The Adventures of Tintin (2011) - He has a writing credit along with Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish.
- Ant-Man - He was going to direct, but then left due to Creative Differences.
Acting Roles:
- DuckTales (2017) - Alistair Boorswan (voice)
- Sing and Sing 2 - Additional voices (voice)
- Digman!
Produced:
- Attack the Block
- Scott Pilgrim Takes Off - Executive Producer
Tropes associated with his career include:
- Advertising by Association:
- Sightseers is "From the makers of Hot Fuzz, Paul & Shaun of the Dead". Of course, Wright only produced this film, not wrote and directed it. Note that The World's End isn't on that list because, though complete, hadn't been released yet and that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World isn't because the film was targeted at British audiences, the genre of the film is much more like the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, Rule of Three, and the marketing department may have wanted to noncommittally suggest that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost would be in it.
- With Baby Driver becoming Wright’s first major commercial hit as director, particularly outside the UK, Last Night in Soho has naturally been promoted as “From the director of Baby Driver”, despite the dissimilarity in the two films’ genres.
- Affectionate Parody: The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy is a trio of these for zombie films, action movies, and sci-fi flicks. Much to his fandom and co-workers' chagrin though, being famous for these movies made general audiences label him as a parodist. This mostly stopped after reevaluations clarified that those films were legitimate entries in their respective genres that just happened to be comedies, and Wright had made a name for himself away from overt send-ups.
- Creator Thumbprint: Synchronized head turns, unconventional transitions, smash zooms, whip pans, extremely concise Buffy Speak, heavy-handed Foreshadowing, ridiculous amounts of details in every shot, dramatic close-ups and shots of mundane things...
- Creepy Twins: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim and The World's End all feature menacing twins as minor antagonists (Shaun and Fuzz even use the same pair of twins). World's End even provides the page quote:Sam: Just because they're twins doesn't automatically make them creepy!
Gary: It does a little bit... - Darker and Edgier: Last Night in Soho is his darkest film to date, being a straightforward Psychological Horror with none of his trademark humor and plenty of
blunt social commentary on the rampant misogyny of The '60s. - Foreshadowing: His style is foreshadowing that's designed in such a way that you miss it the first time, but it's blatantly obvious on rewatch.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: His films demand repeat viewings, if only to catch all the blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments.
- Funny Background Event: Which results in his films being great examples of Rewatch Bonus.
- Genre-Busting:
- Shaun of the Dead: Romantic Comedy Zombie film, or "rom-com-zom" as he put it.
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: A Coming of Age Romantic Comedy Kung-Fu Musical In the Style of anime and old style video games.
- Baby Driver: A Romantic Comedy Car Fu Action Heist Musical. Often considered a ballet with guns and cars.
- Last Night in Soho: A Darker and Edgier Psychological Horror about the rampant misogyny of The '60s with virtually no comedy relief. It is also his first film to have a female protagonist.
- Gorn: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Don't have this. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World avoids it altogether giving into the style of the comic book. The World's End has what you could call gorn in the form of blue robot blood which is "more like ink" - there isn't much actual human blood in the film.
- Logo Joke: The Universal sequence in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World? Not the regular one.
- Mickey Mousing: There's always at least one scene in his movies where everything is timed to the music. Baby Driver takes this up to eleven and does it for most of the movie.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Loves treating simple tasks like filing paperwork with the same amount of fast-paced cinematic ecstasy as he would a car chase.
- Offscreen Teleportation/Offscreen Reality Warp: Almost every character written by him can do this. Most notably, all of the characters in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Hot Fuzz.
- Signature Style: Creatively stylized, Genre-Busting films with at least a bit of satire and clever editing. genres are often deconstructed but also work as straight-forward stories. Main characters are likable whether they're a Nice Guy or a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. He homages clips from films into his own. He also takes old fashioned cliches into something overblown and fresh. Main action is not super realistic but creates a awesome movie experience. Also at least one Mickey Mousing scene where the action ties into the rhythem of the soundtrack, especially in Baby Driver.
- Sliding Scale Of Silliness Vs Seriousness: His movies mainly exist for World of Ham style entertainment so they could lean towards the silliness side. With that said, there is enough character drama in his films to not lean too close to one side.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: It's pretty clear his movies lean a little more towards the idealistic end.
- World of Ham: Every character in his films are basically live-action cartoon characters.
