Though this summer's "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" might not have struck it rich in the box office, the film garnered its fair share of critical praise. Happily, high quality and low revenue pair with engrossing, geeky appeal to propel "Scott Pilgrim" down the path of cult classics. The DVD and Blu-Ray of the film arrived in stores yesterday, and director Edgar Wright sat down with the Daily in a roundtable interview on Nov. 1 to discuss his experience with the film.
Question: Were you always a fan of the "Scott Pilgrim" (2004-2010) comic books? If so, what were your major concerns translating the comic book into the movie?
Edgar Wright: I just started reading it as soon as it was published in 2004. I read the first volume when it came out, and, you know, I was already in conversation with [creator] Bryan Lee O'Malley. He wrote the [first] book before the second [volume] was published, and so we were already working on the film as he was writing. And, you know, I just tried to kind of involve Bryan with each step. … There are great things that are in the book that are not in the film. I think the two things were kind of like companion pieces, really. … My concern was really about getting the tone of the books across, of capturing the Katayanagi twins and how to translate that visual imagination to the screen.
Q: [Regarding the special effects,] is that [novelty] something you consciously aimed for when you were making Scott Pilgrim?
EW: One of the things that was irresistible to me making this film was that I felt like nothing quite like it really existed, you know? That was what was kind of fun to me — the idea of making something that … wasn't completely bound to any like reality. The things that you accept in comics, you can't often do on the big screen.
Q: How did you actually plan those action scenes? Did you lift many of the images from the comic books, did you drop the storyboard, or did you just tell someone in computer design, "Give me something dramatic"?
EW: Kind of a bit of a mix of the first two. We didn't really do too many animatics — [the] only time we did kind of animatics was [in] the scene with the dragons. But even that [scene] had been sort of heavily storyboarded before. A couple of the slides strongly matched the comic, like the [Matthew] Patel fight and parts of the Todd Ingram fight. But then other ones, like the fight with Lucas Lee and the Gideon fight at the end, are very different. If you look on the Blu-Ray, you can see the storyboard for every single scene. And you can see, for the most part, how closely they resemble the finished thing.
Q: How would you say that the Internet and the Internet community have helped Scott Pilgrim thrive beyond its initial theatrical run?
EW: I don't know. I mean, it's kind of too early to tell, really — all I can say is that ... it's interesting just hearing people's stories on the Internet of how many times they saw it. There's one guy in Seattle who's seen it 31 times, and he photo-blogged his ticket stubs to prove it. It's nice to also hear the fans' response to the material, really, and what they took away from the film and things they spotted and what people saw on a second and third watch. So that's very gratifying, and it's nice. I feel as if though the Internet has been very kind to me over the years in terms of all the things I've done.
Q: To what degree do you identify with the generation that you portrayed?
EW: I feel like I identified with it a lot, which is what attracted me to the books. I felt like Scott Pilgrim, particularly; I felt like I'd been a lot like him when I was a teenager. I've definitely chased a few Ramonas in my time, and [I was] wrapped up in my own bubble of existence when I was a teenager. So I definitely can vibe with a lot of the books. A lot of people made comments about it being a very young film and being so very contemporary and maybe not appealing to anybody over 30. But most of the interests within the film have all been around for decades. Even the video game references I feel are a lot more nostalgic than contemporary.
Q: You've been hired as one of the writers for [the 2011 film] "The Adventures of Tintin: [The Secret of the Unicorn]," which is being directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson. How awesome does that feel?
EW: It is awesome.