Edgar Wright | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Wright in 2017 | |
| Born | Edgar Howard Wright (1974-04-18)18 April 1974 (age 51) Poole, Dorset, England |
| Alma mater | Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1994–present |
Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an Englishfilmmaker. He is known for his fast-paced and kinetic, satiricalgenre films, which feature extensive use of expressive popular music,Steadicamtracking shots,dolly zooms and a signature editing style that includes transitions,whip pans and wipes.[1] He first made independent short films before making his first feature filmA Fistful of Fingers in 1995. Wright created and directed the comedy seriesAsylum in 1996, written withDavid Walliams. After directing several other television shows, Wright directed the sitcomSpaced (1999–2001), which aired for two series and starred frequent collaboratorsSimon Pegg andNick Frost.
In 2004, Wright directed the zombie comedyShaun of the Dead, starring Pegg and Frost, the first film in Wright'sThree Flavours Cornetto trilogy. The film was co-written with Pegg—as were the next two entries in the trilogy, thebuddy cop filmHot Fuzz (2007) and the science fiction comedyThe World's End (2013). In 2010, Wright co-wrote and directed the action comedy filmScott Pilgrim vs. the World, an adaptation ofthe graphic novel series. Along withJoe Cornish andSteven Moffat, he adaptedThe Adventures of Tintin (2011) forSteven Spielberg. Wright and Cornish co-wrote the screenplay for theMarvel Cinematic Universe filmAnt-Man in 2015, which Wright intended to direct but abandoned, citing creative differences.[2] He has also written and directed the action filmsBaby Driver (2017) andThe Running Man (2025), the documentaryThe Sparks Brothers, and the psychological horror filmLast Night in Soho (both 2021).
Edgar Howard Wright was born on 18 April 1974 inPoole,Dorset and grew up predominantly inWells inSomerset. He has an older brother, Oscar, who is an artist.[3][4] He attendedThe Blue School, Wells from 1985 to 1992, and is honoured by a plaque at the school. His school drama teacher, Peter Wild, later played acameo role inHot Fuzz.[5]
Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, he directed many short films, first on aSuper-8 camera that was a gift from a family member and later on aVideo-8 camcorder that he won in a competition on the television-programmeGoing Live!. These films were mostly comedic pastiches of popular genres, such as the super hero-inspiredCarbolic Soap andDirty Harry tributeDead Right (which was featured on the DVD release ofHot Fuzz).[citation needed]
From 1992 to 1994, Wright attended the Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and Design (nowArts University Bournemouth) and received anND in Audio-Visual Design.[6]
In June 2018, Arts University Bournemouth awarded Wright an Honorary Fellowship. On receiving the award Wright said that he still thought very fondly of his time there.[7]
Wright made his feature film debut in 1995 with a low budget, independentspoofwestern,A Fistful of Fingers, which was picked up for a limited theatrical release and broadcast on thesatellite TV channelSky Movies.[8] Despite Wright's dissatisfaction with the finished product,[9] it caught the attention of comediansMatt Lucas andDavid Walliams, who subsequently chose him as the director of theirParamount Comedy channel productionMash and Peas. During this time he also worked onBBC-programmes such asIs It Bill Bailey?,Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round andSir Bernard's Stately Homes. In an interview with journalist and authorRobert K. Elder forThe Film That Changed My Life, Wright attributes his edgy and comedic style to his love forAn American Werewolf in London.
I've always been fascinated by horror films and genre films. And horror films harboured a fascination for me and always have been something I've wanted to watch and wanted to make. Equally, I'm very fascinated by comedy. I suppose the reason that this film changed my life is that very early on in my film-watching experiences, I saw a film that was so sophisticated in its tone and what it managed to achieve.[10]
In 1998 writer/actorsSimon Pegg andJessica Hynes were in the early stages of developing their sitcomSpaced forChannel 4 and thought of asking Wright to direct, having fondly remembered working with him on the 1996 Paramount comedyAsylum. Wright gaveSpaced an unusual look for the sitcom genre, with dramatic camera angles and movement borrowed from the visual language ofscience fiction andhorror films.[11] Instead of shying away from these influences Wright makes an active effort to show his referencing, adding a 'Homage-O-Meter' to all of his releases, a device that displays each directorial nod he has made during shooting. In 2002, he made appearances as a scientist and a technician named Eddie Yorque during both series ofLook Around You, a BBC programme created by a member of theSpaced cast,Peter Serafinowicz. He also made two brief appearances inSpaced, one in which he can be seen, along with other crew members on the series, lying asleep in Daisy Steiner's squat as she prepares to leave for her new house. The other is a brief appearance during the montage in the episode "Gone" where Daisy describes to Tim what she thinks would be a fun night out for the two. Edgar issitting on the tube (with a beard) next to Tim and Daisy.
The critical success ofSpaced paved the way for Wright and Pegg to move to the big screen withShaun of the Dead, azombie comedy which mixed a "Brit flick"romantic comedy style with homages to the horror classics ofGeorge A. Romero andSam Raimi. The film was a success critically and financially, and its rooting in American genre cinema helped to make it an international hit.
The pair planned a trilogy of British genre comedies which were connected not by narrative but by their shared traits and motifs. The trilogy was named "The Three-Flavours-Cornetto-Trilogy" by the pair due to a running joke about the British ice cream productCornetto and its effectiveness as a hangover cure. Wright explained to Clark Collis in an interview forEntertainment Weekly, "We put that joke inShaun of the Dead where Nick asks for a Cornetto first thing in the morning. When I was at college, it was my hangover cure—probably stillis my hangover cure. Then we put it intoHot Fuzz because we thought it would be a funny recurring thing. One journalist in the United Kingdom said, 'Is this going to be your theme as a trilogy?' and I said, 'Yes, it's likeKrzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colours trilogy. This is the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.' It was just a joke that stuck." Collis observes that the films also feature "a running gag involving garden fences."[12]
The second installment was the comedy action thrillerHot Fuzz. Production started in March 2006 and the film was released in February 2007 in the United Kingdom and April 2007 in the United States. It revolves around Pegg's character, Nicholas Angel, a police officer who is transferred from London to rural Sandford, where grisly events soon take place. In 2007, Wright also directed a fake trailer insert forQuentin Tarantino andRobert Rodriguez'sGrindhouse, called "Don't".[13] It was a plotless trailer that mocked horror clichés, with lines such as, "If you... are thinking... of going ... into... this... house... DON'T!".
In 2010,Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was released; its over-$85 million budget[14] dwarfed the £8 million budget[15] ofHot Fuzz. The film, based on thegraphic novel seriesScott Pilgrim, was co-written, co-produced and directed by Wright. It took in roughly half its budget in box office,[16] in spite of its critical reception and praise from fellow directors such asKevin Smith,Quentin Tarantino andJason Reitman.[14] In November 2011,The Adventures of Tintin, directed bySteven Spielberg, produced byPeter Jackson, and based onHergé'sThe Adventures of Tintin was released. Wright co-wrote the film with writing partnerJoe Cornish andSteven Moffat. The film also co-starred Wright's frequent collaborators Simon Pegg andNick Frost. The third installment of the Cornetto trilogy,The World's End, premiered in London on 10 July 2013. The film is about several friends who reunite when one decides to repeat a pub crawl they did 20 years earlier. They have to get toThe World's End pub without ending up in the gutter to do this, but some unusual powers are at work and what happens to them may determine what happens to humans as a species.[17]
Wright had been developing alive-action film based on theMarvel Comics superheroAnt-Man with Joe Cornish since 2006.[18] However, on 23 May 2014, Wright andMarvel Studios issued a joint statement announcing that Wright would exit the movie due to creative differences.[19] According to Wright, he had been hired as writer-director but became unhappy when Marvel wanted to write a new script. In 2017, he said: "The most diplomatic answer is I wanted to make a Marvel movie but I don't think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie ... having written all my other movies, that's a tough thing to move forward. Suddenly becoming a director for hire on it, you’re sort of less emotionally invested and you start to wonder why you’re there, really."[20] He was replaced byPeyton Reed as director, withAdam McKay and starPaul Rudd rewriting the screenplay. He and Cornish received both screenplay and story credits, with Wright also credited as executive producer.[21]
In July 2014, Wright announced that his next film would beBaby Driver. Wright has described the film as "kind of like a musical", andDeadline Hollywood described it as "a collision of crime, action, music, and sound". The film starsAnsel Elgort,Kevin Spacey,Lily James,Eiza González,Jon Hamm, andJamie Foxx.[22] The film began production on 11 February 2016 in Atlanta, and was released on 28 June 2017.[23][24][25][26]
In June 2018, Edgar announced he would be makinga documentary on the cultpop rock bandSparks.[27] He had covered the band's concert in London in May at theO2 Forum Kentish Town. This concert would be included in the documentary.[28][29] The film had its world premiere at the2021 Sundance Film Festival on 30 January 2021[30] and was theatrically released in North America on 18 June 2021, by Focus Features.[31]
In January 2019, it was announced that his next film will be ahorrorthriller film set in London and inspired by films such asDon't Look Now andRepulsion.[32][33] In February 2019, it was revealed that the title wasLast Night in Soho, withAnya Taylor-Joy attached to star.[34] In February,Matt Smith andThomasin McKenzie joined the cast.[33] Other confirmed crew members include co-screenwriterKrysty Wilson-Cairns, editorPaul Machliss (who edited four episodes ofSpaced in 2001 and all of Wright's films sinceScott Pilgrim vs. the World) andBaby Driver production designer Marcus Rowland.[35][36][37] The film was scheduled to be released on 25 September 2020[38] but was pushed back to 29 October 2021 owing to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[39]
In 2020 it was announced that Wright had formed a production company with his longtime collaboratorsNira Park,Joe Cornish and Rachel Prior,Complete Fiction. That same day, it was reported that the production company had signed a deal withNetflix to tackle adaptations ofLockwood & Co.,The Murders of Molly Southbourne, andThe City of Brass. The production company is also set to produce another Netflix original series, albeit one that is under wraps and has several feature films in development withWorking Title Films.[40]
In April 2022 Wright was appointed to theBritish Film Institute's Board of Governors for a four-year term, saying he was "excited to see what I can do to help promote their incredible efforts in curating, preserving, producing and educating".[41] In 2023, Wright announced viaTwitter thatScott Pilgrim would be returning as ananime adaptation[42] with the film's original actors as the voice cast.Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was released on 17 November 2023 forNetflix, with Wright as an executive producer.[43]
In February 2021, Wright signed on to directParamount Pictures'new film adaptation ofStephen King'sThe Running Man, which would also be a remake of the1987 film version, starringJosh Brolin andGlen Powell. Wright andMichael Bacall planned to re-imagine the story for a new audience, with Bacall writing the screenplay.[44]
Wright stated inThe Film That Changed My Life that the film that most influenced him wasJohn Landis'sAn American Werewolf in London. He also mentionedSam Raimi'sEvil Dead II and theCoen brothers'Raising Arizona as films that made him want to be a director.[45]
Wright participated in the 2022Sight and Sound Directors' Poll, which is held once every ten years for contemporary filmmakers to select their ten favourite films in no particular order. His selections were:2001: A Space Odyssey (1968),The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966),Psycho (1960),Singin' in the Rain (1951),Don't Look Now (1973),Taxi Driver (1976),Madame de... (1953),An American Werewolf in London (1981),Raising Arizona (1987), andMad Max: Fury Road (2015).[46]
From 2008 to 2013, Wright dated American actressAnna Kendrick, whom he met while filmingScott Pilgrim vs. the World.[47][48][49][50]
In December 2007, Wright began guest programming atRepertory theatre theNew Beverly Cinema following a sold-out screening of his films. He curated a two-week series of his favourite films dubbed "The Wright Stuff", hosting interviews with filmmakers and performers for each screening. The festival concluded with a double-bill ofEvil Dead II andRaising Arizona.[51] Wright returned for additional "The Wright Stuff" events in January 2011[52] and December 2011, the third series consisting of films that had been recommended to Wright by friendsBill Hader,Daniel Waters,Quentin Tarantino,Judd Apatow,Joss Whedon,John Landis andJoe Dante, but that he had never seen. Wright's attempt to narrow the list based on public comment from visitors to his blog "produced another thousand suggestions."[53] In August 2013, Wright programmed an additional double-feature series at the theater, "The World's End is Nigh", consisting of 12 movies that he called "stepping stones to our new movie"The World's End.[54]
Wright has made cameos in every film by his friendGarth Jennings. Jennings made cameos inShaun of the Dead,Hot Fuzz andThe World's End.[45]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | A Fistful of Fingers | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2004 | Shaun of the Dead | Yes | Yes | No | Co-written withSimon Pegg |
| 2007 | Hot Fuzz | Yes | Yes | No | Co-written withSimon Pegg |
| 2010 | Scott Pilgrim vs. the World | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-written withMichael Bacall |
| 2011 | The Adventures of Tintin | No | Yes | No | Co-written withSteven Moffat andJoe Cornish |
| 2013 | The World's End | Yes | Yes | Executive | Co-written withSimon Pegg |
| 2015 | Ant-Man | No | Yes | Executive | Story and original screenplay co-written with Joe Cornish |
| 2017 | Baby Driver | Yes | Yes | Executive | |
| 2021 | The Sparks Brothers | Yes | No | Yes | Documentary film |
| Last Night in Soho | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-written withKrysty Wilson-Cairns | |
| 2025 | The Running Man | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-written withMichael Bacall |
Executive producer only
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | A Fistful of Fingers | Cheesy voiceover artist and two-bit farmer | |
| 2004 | Shaun of the Dead | Rabid Monkeys Newsreader, Prat-falling Zombie, Italian Restaurant Voice, Noel's Friend on phone | Uncredited |
| 2005 | Land of the Dead | Photo Booth Zombie | |
| The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Deep Thought Technician | Uncredited | |
| 2007 | Hot Fuzz | Shelf Stacker and Dave | Uncredited Voices |
| Son of Rambow | Metal Work Teacher | ||
| 2013 | The World's End | Construction Worker | Uncredited Voice |
| 2016 | Sing | Goat | Voice |
| 2017 | Baby Driver | Background Passerby | Uncredited |
| Star Wars: The Last Jedi | Resistance Soldier | ||
| 2021 | The Sparks Brothers | Himself | Documentary |
| Sing 2 | Dog Cop and a Pig Chauffeur | Voice |
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Writer | Producer | |||
| 1988 | I Want to Get into the Movies | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Carbolic Soap | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| The Unparkables | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Rolf Harris Saves the World | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1993 | Dead Right | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2004 | Forced Hilarity | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2007 | Don't | Yes | Yes | No | Fake trailer fromGrindhouse |
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Rolf Harris Saves the World | Rolf Harris | Voice |
| 1993 | Dead Right | The Director | |
| 2001 | Calcium | Scientist |
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Asylum | Yes | Yes | 6 episodes |
| 1996–1997 | Mash and Peas | Yes | No | 9 episodes |
| 1998 | Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round | Yes | Yes | 6 episodes |
| Is It Bill Bailey? | Yes | No | 6 episodes | |
| French and Saunders | Yes | No | Episode: "Titanic" | |
| 1999 | Sir Bernard's Stately Homes | Yes | No | 6 episodes |
| Murder Most Horrid | Yes | No | Episode: "Confessions of a Murderer" | |
| 1999–2001 | Spaced | Yes | No | 14 episodes |
Executive producer
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999–2001 | Spaced | First Sleeping Ex-flatmate, Man on Tube Next to Daisy, Sounds of Despair tape | Uncredited 3 episodes |
| 2002–2005 | Look Around You | Scientist, Eddie Yorque, Floor manager, Technician | 7 episodes |
| 2017 | Tour de Pharmacy | Commentator | TV movie |
| 2019 | DuckTales | Alistair Boorswan (voice) | Episode: "The Duck Knight Returns!" |
| Year | Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "Keep the Home Fires Burning" | The Bluetones |
| 2002 | "After Hours" | |
| 2003 | "Psychosis Safari" | The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster |
| "Blue Song" | Mint Royale | |
| 2004 | "Summer" | Charlotte Hatherley |
| 2005 | "Bastardo" | |
| 2014 | "Gust of Wind" | Pharrell Williams featuringDaft Punk |
| 2018 | "Colors" | Beck |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Death Stranding | Thomas Southerland | Likeness only |
| Year | Title | Brand |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Choose Go | Nike |
| 2022 | Everything to Shell Anything | Squarespace |
| 2023 | Fancy a McDonald's?[55] | McDonald's |
