They don’t make movies like 2010’sScott Pilgrim vs. the Worldanymore but then again, they never did.
“Imagine doing a gym class all together with [these actors],” says Wright.
“It was extraordinary.”
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
I only lived in Toronto for three years of my life, from age 22.
Those are theScott Pilgrimyears for me, I guess.
Even Stacey, [Scott Pilgrim’s] sister, my sister’s name is Stacey in real life.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
I think magical realism was having a bit of a moment in those years.
That blew me away.
I guess I just wanted to set it in the streets around me and see what happened.
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Much to my surprise it became an international phenomenon.
I had already done some stuff with Oni Press, who was the publisher.
Then, the following year, I didScott Pilgrim.
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The first book was not particularly successful.
It was a very slow start.
But one of the first readers was Edgar Wright.
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It’s kind of a miracle that he read it.
It was at Raleigh Studios I remember, which is opposite Paramount.
It’s mainly for just normal comic book readers to order their books in advance.
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Then a couple of things happened.
We kind of cornered him at the screening and told him about it.
LEBOFF:I’m sure we said something like that.
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He probably remembers better than I do what came out of anybody’s mouth.
WRIGHT:They sent the book through, which wasScott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life.
I thought, Well, this is great.
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I loved the style ofSpaced, that magical realism and that feeling of anything can basically happen.
WRIGHT:But here’s the thing there was only one book.
It was a book that was one of six.
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And I was like, “Well, maybe we should wait until he’s finished the books?”
This is the thing that no one in Hollywood wants to hear.
That’s weirdly an odd question to ask.
Everything was so competitive, so if something was good you’d snap it up.
I think we managed to get from Bryan some kind of broad summary of what he intended.
O’MALLEY:I was just 25, and I had just started, and Hollywood comes knocking.
I didn’t know what was happening.
But they asked me and I wrote some stuff.
That was the first time I had really thought about it in detail.
So, I kind of just filled in some of the details and sent them to these guys.
WRIGHT:So, I got kind of attached to it, I got in touch with Bryan.
O’MALLEY:I heard from him before the second book even came out.
WRIGHT:[I said] “This is not going to be my next movie.Hot Fuzzis.”
Me and Simon (Pegg) wanted to do another movie.
I’m not going to name directors but it’s possible for you to figure them out.
It’s like, “Ah, I wish I knew what his second movie actually really was.”
Sometimes, they’d erroneously say Simon and Nick cowrote it.
So, at that point they were very hot on doing something with me again.
WRIGHT:I wasn’t going to write the script [ofScott Pilgrim vs. the World] straightaway.
We hired Michael Bacall.
Even though that wasn’t exactly what we made, it was so impressive.
I think it would just be fun if we did it together."
He said, “I totally agree.”
So, we started writing a screenplay based on that.
O’MALLEY:Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall came to Toronto.
We hung out, we had our kind of first preliminary talks about it.
About a year later, they had a draft that was pretty rough.
The Music
“We are Sex Bob-omb!
WRIGHT:The music was obviously a huge part of it.
There are a lot of bad films about fictional bands where it’s not quite right.
It always hurts to counts the years, doesn’t it?
We had met through mutual friends.
We had initially talked a little bit aboutShaun of the Deadactually.
There was a discussion about possibly working together on the score of that, which never really came together.
After that film had wrapped he got back in touch and we have been hanging out on-and-off ever since.
I can do this!
I would love to do this!”
I was the ideal man for the jobIthought.
And he obviously went along with it.
Like, Paul Williams will write all the songs onPhantom of the Paradise.
So it feels really diverse."
GODRICH:If you look at the books, Bryan Lee O’Malley created this non-existent band.
We were trying to create this band thatcouldbe completely crap, you could’t tell.
They’re sort of genius, but it’s just on the edge of being terrible.
So, obviously making the movie, we had to create this band so you can do anything.
I had to think of someone who could write these songs.
That was the first thing.
Nigel was just like, “Beck could do this thing brilliantly.”
And lo and behold he said, “Beck, do you want to do these things?”
He was very enthusiastic about the whole thing and wanted to sort of enact the band as well.
I remember I went to Beck’s house in Hancock Park.
He’s just able to write genuinely good songs very fast.
It was just the ticket.
A CD with 32 songs on it!"
GODRICH:He was trying different versions of the same [songs], different styles.
There was like a “Sebadoh version,” there’s different takes on things.
There was quite a lot to choose from.
In fact, the opening sequence, the titles, was expanded later.
It was actually Quentin Tarantino’s suggestion.
When he saw the movie, he thought it started too fast.
He was totally right.
It just gave it a bit of an overture by having the titles and that music.
So that track is basically Beck jamming with no overdubs or anything.
The band that Brie Larson is in, The Clash at Demonhead, are sort of an amalgam.
So, we went straight to the source [and asked Metric to record the track].
you’re writing to stuff that you might see.
So, there was sort of two phases of it.
It took a long time.
I love Seth, but I couldn’t get my head around that.
Michael Cera was the only person who came to mind.
Edgar was a fan ofArrested Development.
I guess it had a small little following happening in the U.K. early on, which was already nice.
Edgar was a part of that.
WRIGHT:I was living in Quentin Tarantino’s guesthouse.
We were talking about it for two or three years before we ever went into production.
WINSTEAD:I think it had a lot to do with my eyes looking really similar to the drawing.
[Laughs]
WRIGHT:That’s very true.
She has big eyes!
She’s the reluctant femme fatale.
She was just trying to figure herself out.
WRIGHT:Michael and Mary were cast first.
Chris Evans was somebody I went after as well.
I thought he was perfect and I was a big fan of his.
I liked him inSunshineand everything I’d seen him in.
Even inFantastic Four, which I think is a bit wonky, Chris is really good in it.
Chris’s Johnny Storm totally works.
CHRIS EVANS (LUCAS LEE):Dumb luck.
WRIGHT:I feel Schwartzman was definitely high on the list.
SCHWARTZMAN:I had seenShaun of the Deadin the theatre in England when it came out.
He’s passionate about it and we just hit it off at that level just as people.
We would write each other: “Have you heard this album?”
“Have you seen this movie?”
I was so excited as a fan of Edgar’s.
This is something that I would go see it the day that it came out.
And then he said, “Michael Cera’s playing Scott Pilgrim.”
To me, Michael Cera is one of the best I don’t even know what you say.
I was certainly a huge fan.
I mean, What do you say?
You say, “Yes!”
WRIGHT:We finished the script before the writers' strike (which began in November 2007).
That was just an amazing period because I got to meet the next generation of superstars.
I think even Robert Pattinson read for it.
People that I had never met before their audition were Aubrey Plaza, Brie Larson, and Alison Pill.
I was aware of who Alison Pill was but I’d never met her.
This was not the pop in of role that I would be able to even look at.
Part of my audition I had to do a day of training.
The called it a “stunt test.”
It was helpful to have a bit of a martial arts background.
I was training in Taekwondo just before that.
I went in a bunch of times.
It was like a six-month period of coming in and waiting.
WRIGHT:Anna Kendrick, I had seen inRocket Scienceat the cinema.
I don’t know what part, but she needs to be in the movie."
KIERAN CULKIN (WALLACE WELLS):They didn’t send anything on the [script] cover letter.
For all I knew, they wanted me to audition for Scott Pilgrim.
I had no idea.
I went, Yeah, got it.
[Laughs]
WRIGHT:We had read a lot of people for Wallace.
He really picks and chooses.
But he was really good doing the role.
We flew him to L.A. to do a chemistry read with Michael that was great.
He’s cast in the movie.
The weird thing about this audition is that there was barely any information.
At the first audition I really didn’t know anything about it.
I was presented with these audition materials.
I was like, “Wait, I’m sorry, what?”
Like, “What’s going on in this scene?
And who is this person?
And it’s a songanda fight?
And,whaaat?”
WRIGHT:Brie Larson’s auditionwas just ridiculous.
It was just amazing.
She basically did what she does in the film.
There’s no question about it.
MOSES:Edgar had such a talent of discovering early talent who have gone on to such amazing careers.
You know, now there’s Captain AmericaandCaptain Marvel in the bunch.
How would you pitch it?"
Usually, when you have studio meetings, you want to mention movies that are hits.
Or maybe it’s not a good idea to mention only foreign films.
[Laughs]
There was definitely some nervousness in terms of the fact that it straddled genres.
It was a comedy, and it was an action film, and it was a special effects film.
So like, “Scott Pilgrimis going to have the cinematographer fromThe Matrix!”
I loved working with him so much.
But initially I was really trying to quell any uneasiness about the project.
That’s the thing.
The fact that it doesn’t quite fit into one box, there was definitely a concern.
EVANS:It almost felt like a movie in itself, the making of it.
WINSTEAD:The training was really intense.
I was training for something like six months before shooting.
I started training in L.A. on my own.
SCHWARTZMAN:Was I a physical person?
Well, I think we’reallphysical people.
But, no, no, not in this context.
It was actually like, oh, I don’t know how to throw a punch.
CERA:No, I was not [a physical person].
There’s many layers of humbling that happen along the way.
Brad Allan was the stunt choreographer and the fight choreographer on this movie.
He’s just got this air about him.
The next day they had a little edited version of our fight.
We were like, “Oh my God, wow, look at us!”
We were just like, “Oh my God.”
WINSTEAD:It was pretty unfamiliar.
I had done a little bit [of stuntwork] here and there.
Like, I got to throw a punch maybe in theDie Hardfilms.
But nothing like choreographed fight sequences.
That was a totally new thing.
PILL:In my tiny East Village apartment I had a practice drum set to get the basics going.
I had a wonderful drum teacher who’d meet me in a studio in Midtown for drum practice.
I just had zero experience.
The coordination required is pretty significant.
WINSTEAD:They got us together in Toronto before we started shooting.
It was all of us in this giant warehouse.
It was really fun.
It’s like we were a team.
Even Edgar did it.
It was really wonderful and I loved it so much.
There’s something really fascinating about the way that Bryan wrote it.
But to actualize that is easily done on pen and paper.
It really was like a summer camp.
It was really fun and it was a really cool team-building exercise.
I found that really really bonding for us, to be able to have that experience together.
It was so much fun.
It was sort of a dance we would learn over time.
EVANS:That little training period was like an initiation.
You do these group exercises and drills with medicine balls, and push-ups and sit-ups.
Then we split into our own specialized stuntman sequences.
They’d hit the same invisible mark in space.
It felt like a train had hit my hand.
I can’t even describe the pain.
It hurt for about three weeks.
Obviously, Chris Evans is an exception, nerdy hipster at heart that he might be.
EVANS:My stuff was more about the skateboarding, my character has to look pretty effortless.
I was brand new at it, but determined.
It’s so unnatural at first, especially playing guitar, it’s just so weird.
You expect it to be so intuitive and it’s just really not.
WRIGHT:There was a lot of hanging out with the bands that were involved in the film.
Emily Haines and Jimmy (Shaw) from Metric and Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning from Broken Social Scene.
So, that was really fun.
PILL:They were going through serious tortuous personal training and flight school for all the wire work.
We just had band practice.
And that was just a thrill for high-school me.
It was such a happy time.
WRIGHT:It was so shocking.
CULKIN:I kind of dropped off the face of the map.
I basically didn’t answer my phone for a few weeks.
I said, “Well, we’ll just wait ‘til the last minute.
The message came back that Kieran is in mourning and doesn’t want to do the movie.
All I’ll say is, if you change your mind for any reason, let us know.
And we’ll all really miss you, because we were all looking forward to working with you.”
CULKIN:The part went away.
We hadn’t gone back to them to [officially] say they got the part.
Do you think it’s too late?"
I think I grabbed Alison and said, “Hewhat?”
“Yeah, he was thinking maybe he should have done the movie.”
I was saying, “We haven’t made a call to the agent yet!”
CULKIN:Edgar called me right away.
WRIGHT:I went out in to the street and called Kieran.
CULKIN:He was like, “Are you serious?”
I was like, “Yeah, I do want to do it.”
He said, “Okay, yeah, I want to do it, I’ll come.”
He goes, “I should tell you something.”
CULKIN:He was like, “Can you get on a plane tomorrow morning?”
WRIGHT:I said, “We’ve got trainers up here!”
I said, “Get up here, we’ll get it off!”
Don’t worry."
Go do that movie!
And within 12 hours I took my fat, green-haired ass on a plane up to Toronto.
WRIGHT:Kieran flew out the next day.
They all knew the situation with Kieran, so they were all totally fine about it.
It was kind of extraordinary.
And, also, you know, he was having fun.
He was getting out of his head.
WINSTEAD:Kieran is so funny and dry and odd but in the best way.
But I loved him, I absolutely loved him.
But that was it.
I was one of the only cast members that didn’t have to learn any choreography or any instruments.
There were people that were doing prep formonths.
WRIGHT:I remember Jason Schwartzman had this stalling technique where he would ask a lot of questions.
He was always stalling to get more rest time between exercises.
SCHWARTZMAN:I was stalling for time to catch my breath for sure.But, can I say something?
No one seemed to have a problem with it!
I was catching my breath, they weresaying, under their breath, “Thank you.”
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The Shoot
Principal photography began in Toronto in spring 2009.
I never went away to camp, so I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.
WRIGHT:I had a blast making that film, I’ve got to say.
She was really discovering the cool parts of Toronto.
I felt I was on that journey with her.
So that felt really cool.
Also it was extra special to be at home with my family and my good friends as well.
And to be able to have that support there.
BHABHA:[Shooting the fight scene with Michael] was crazy.
You know, that was a solid two or three weeks, just to shoot that little scene.
The shooting of the scene was really fun.
We were sort of bouncing between very precise physical stuff and then quite loose, frivolous character-comedy.
WINSTEAD:[Chris Evans] was so much fun.
EVANS:Edgar spoke about a scene in a Steven Seagal movie [as reference for Lucas Lee].
It was just such a fun microcosm of what that character’s career could look like.
WRIGHT:It must have been something likeOut for Justice.
PILL:Chris Evans taught us to high-five.
Generally, nerds aren’t awesome at high-fiving.
The elbow is key.
If you look at somebody’s elbow while you’re high-fiving, you will make contact every single time.
That’s a fact.
Not that it’s of any use now.
CERA:The most difficult fight?
The people that weren’t on camera were wearing big winter coats while we were shooting that sequence.
I remember that being kind of grueling just because all of that.
They built this skateboard out of balsa wood; I’m wearing a helmet under my hat.
But this thing would not break.
I felt myself getting a concussion.
They did it with a CG effect in the end.
WINSTEAD:Michael was such a sweetheart.
I just remember him being this real sort of gentle soul.
I think he easily bonded a lot with Alison and Mark and all the whole Sex Bob-omb crew.
When they were all together, it was a real kind of comedic energy.
LEBOFF:The shoot had a kind of college feel.
EVANS:There was more camaraderie on that set than most movies I’ve done.
It’s a shame.
He just was so in tune with it.
EVANS:Edgar is an incredibly fastidious director.
WINSTEAD:[Working with Edgar] was incredibly specific.
Everything was thought out, everything was detailed.
There wasn’t a lot of “Oh, just explore it.”
It was, “Turn this way on this word, turn back this way on this word.”
Even the scenes in terms of dialog had quite a lot of choreography every single moment.
It was extremely specific.
PILL:The most specific I’ve ever worked with.
The most technical I’ve ever worked with.
CULKIN:Edgar had the entire movie in his head.
It was in his noggin.
And it was already edited.
Every cut and every music cue and everything.
He just needed to go through the process of actually physically making the movie.
“No, your chin was up, your chin needs to be down.”
There was a lot of that, because it was framed exactly in his head.
Sometimes that can feel restricting.
And there’s freedom in that.
And I think he did.
He knew every single shot, every single moment, every single music cue.
You’re not worried about how that material will be used or misused.
I mean, poor guys, they were sitting and watching the whole thing from onstage.
PILL:If you recall, [the band] are in the background of every single fight sequence.
[Laughs] We had a weirder job than most on that movie.
SCHWARTZMAN:I was there for maybe two months or something.
They were there the whole time.
[Laughs] They were very patient people.
BHABHA:One of the things that I’ve always said aboutScott Pilgrimis there were no parents around.
We all were of a very similar age young.
I was probably the least established, or close to the least established, film and TV actor.
CULKIN:I was there for about two-and-a-half-to-three months.
I had a lot of days off.
I just enjoyed Toronto.
I had a lovely time.
That was he first three months too.
I heard towards the end it got really tough.
You know you do a long shoot like that, it’s going to get tense.
WRIGHT:There was a weird thing where there were major changes at the top of Universal.
Then there were all these changes of management.
There was suddenly radio silence.
We went over schedule by at least 10 days, maybe more.
It was a big deal and the studio had to come out and sign off on the overrun.
WONG:Oh my god, [filming the final fight] was ablast.
So that huge fight scene in the end happened maybe six months after the training.
But it was really fun.
And I said, “Well, okay, so what are you thinking?”
He says, “Well, you’rereallynice.”
When he said that it was like, okay, I think I get where you’re going.
Just so nice that it’s infuriating."
It was a lot of fun but it was also a lot of work.
We were all really really exhausted at the end of every day.
WRIGHT:At one point a stuntman got his teeth knocked out.
I remember that vividly.
And he goes, “Yeah, I’m fine, man, this happens all the time.”
WRIGHT:We had gone over by at least 10 days and Jason Schwartzman was getting married.
He was going to rearrange his honeymoon, so he could finish the film, which was extraordinary.
SCHWARTZMAN:I actually flew home in the middle of that fight scene.
So, I started the fight scene unmarried and by the time it’s done, I was married.
I said, “What do you mean?”
Do you think it will ruin continuity?"
[Laughs]
SCHWARTZMAN:Edgar was so panicked about [the audience being able to tell].
“They can’t know!”
No, I’m just kidding.
WONG:I did [injure Mary Elizabeth].
I’m confirming it!
It was just the timing of it.
My sword came down and it kind of nicked her maybe on her cheek.
It definitely was scary moment.
I literally dropped my knives and went, “Oh, my god.”
I was mortified and just so horrified by what happened.
Because we spent so much time practicing over and over and it’s always perfect and it worked out.
And then here we are.
We had an amazing crew and stunt team that were there and we readjusted and Mary was totally fine.
[But] my heart fell from the top of the pyramid to the very bottom when that happened.
I said, “Oh, that’s Okay, we’ll get you set up again.”
And he goes, “I’m wearing ladies underwear.”
SCHWARTZMAN:It occurred to me that this character would wear the underwear of whatever person he was with.
I wore multiple pairs of these red silk panties the whole shoot.
During the fight scene, my pants ripped completely, open in the back.
Now, Schwartzman decided, for some reason, that he was going to really swallow chewing gum.
Like, he wasn’t going to fake it, he was going to really do it.
I said, “You really don’t have to do this.”
He goes, “No, I want to, I want to, it would be better.”
I think he did about 10 takes.
Jason swallowed like 10 bits of gum.
So, as a wrap present for him, I got him a colonic session.
Test audiences did not approve.
Which is fairly accurate I guess.
WRIGHT:There’d been some sort of disagreement about the ending generally.
It’s a bit likeThe Heartbreak Kidwhere Scott Pilgrim isn’t happy at the end.
It seems like it’s a happy ending but it’s not.
So some people liked it.
Anything that felt even slightly negative towards Knives felt a bit off.
I remember I kept showing it to other directors.
I showed it to J.J. Abrams and I said, “I’m thinking about changing the ending.”
O’MALLEY:The books were not finished.
The fifth book had been [published] as the movie started production.
I didn’t know exactly how it would end.
It just felt like a hard reset, like he didn’t learn anything, no one learned anything.
It wasn’t satisfying to me.
WRIGHT:I think in total we did five test screenings.
And basically, every time the numbers went up.
I donotlike that ending.
[Laughs] It’s one of those things where somebody says itlike that.
It made me think.
And we brought Bryan Lee O’Malley into it.
O’MALLEY:The three of us worked together over email on the new scenes for the ending.
We had to get Knives out of the picture but in a positive way.
I think I wrote the line, “I’m too cool for you anyway.”
WRIGHT:That’s Bryan Lee O’Malley’s line.
O’MALLEY:I think that kind of sealed the deal.
WRIGHT:I remember being really nervous about calling Ellen Wong,reallynervous about calling Ellen Wong.
WONG:Really?Why was he nervous?
What did he say?
I was thinking, my character, I don’t think I’d take him back after that."
[Laughs]
WONG:We had a long conversation about it.
To be honest, I remember being really ecstatic and happy.
But she needed him for her journey.
She needed him for her growth.
WRIGHT:I think we shot the new ending in May.
We’d [already] had some long lead screenings.
WINSTEAD:I like both endings.
I could understand either one, so it’s sort of hard to choose.
It’s nice that you’re able to see both.
Ramona sort of found her own journey, her own independence through that as well.
And Kniveswastoo young for him.
[Laughs] And she was too cool for him.
CERA:What do I think about it personally?
I have no idea.
I don’t know.
Maybe he shouldn’t really have ended up with anyone.
The Reception
Scott Pilgrimpremiered at Comic-Con in July 2010 and was released Aug. 13.
While reviews were mostly positive, the film earned a disappointing $31 million at the domestic box office.
CULKIN:That’s the only time I’d ever been there.
BHABHA:Comic-Con was completely mental.
With Comic-Con, you could have been forgiven for thinking thatScott Pilgrimwas the biggest film sinceStar Wars.
WINSTEAD:That was a huge experience for me.
It just felt like a huge deal.
At Comic-Con it felt like it was the biggest film of all time.
PILL:Nobody knew who I was, so I was just walking the floor and checking it out.
BHABHA:You felt a massive amount of responsibility.
And Comic-Con was really that.
You realize, oh, this thing existed before me, it will exist after me.
O’MALLEY: That was my biggest Comic-Con.
It’ll probably always be my biggest Comic Con.
People were just screaming and going crazy.
That was a huge fascinating moment of my life.
WRIGHT:Quite a lot of the trade reviews were at the Comic-Con screening.
I think it actually resulted in some negative reviews.
I think some of the reviewers felt like, oh, you’re like preaching to the converted.
MOSES:As a consumer and as a film-lover, I loved [the film].
As a marketer, it certainly didn’t come without its challenges.
We started by going to the people who were likeliest to love it.
You put all those pieces together and it has this very loud, very loyal core following.
It was interesting, because every time we put something out the response from social would be huge.
It would be celebratory and loud.
It was in stark contrast to the more shaggy improv comedies that were out at the time.
I thought that was something that would go down well.
The thing is, it was a little difficult to market.
I even saw some versions of that trailer which made it look like it was aJuno 2.
There was no mention of Evil Exes or fights or anything otherworldly.
CERA:I didn’t really expect it to be a big success.
I didn’t expect itnotto be a big hit, but you just never know.
It always comes down to a weird stew of factors.
But that didn’t translate initially.
It opened at No.
CERA:We got annihilated by Sylvester Stallone.
BHABHA:I think it was actually Julia Roberts who twisted the knife.
WRIGHT:It opened the same weekend asThe ExpendablesandEat Pray Love.
I remember getting those emails on the Friday.
You know howDeadlineandVarietyhave already made the prediction for the weekend on Friday morning?
It was the first time I was ever really aware of that.
And naively I thought, well, it’s only Friday morning, how could they know?
O’MALLEY:It was tough.
I mean, obviously, the studio was bullish about it the whole time.
“This is going to be a big four quadrant hit!”
You feel in the brouhaha around these things that it’s already happened.
That is what we’re doing this for.
We’re not doing this for the articles or the interviews or the photographs.
We’re doing this to get people in.
O’MALLEY:That afternoon into the evening, you start to realize it’s not going to happen.
We were going to get together for dinner and drinks in L.A. at this bar near the Arclight Theatre.
I remember I saw Michael Cera drive by.
We all kind of felt that way.
Our party just kind of ended prematurely.
And I looked back and I was like, “You guessed right!”
He was like, “Yeah, awesome.”
He just quoted the movie with me.
I never really follow the numbers.
I heard that it wasn’t such a financial success.
I don’t really know that s—.
you’re able to see the production value in it.
WRIGHT:It’s that thing where it becomes a bit of a punchline.
I was like, f— you.
I didn’t tweet anything because I’m not a total monster.
[Laughs]
Monday morning Michael Moses sent an email with three words.
It was one of the sweetest emails I’ve ever gotten from anybody in the industry.
It said, “Years, not days.”
But I wouldn’t have traded the experience for anything.
“It’s something else’s fault.”
“It was the day.”
“It was the poster.”
“Oh, the studio decided to do this.”
I never did that.
Even though people in interviews were always asking me, “Do you think the marketing was the thing?
Or do you think the poster?”
But obviously it was tough at the time.
“Let’s say itdoesn’texplode on Thursday night, what are the next steps?”
I don’t know.
It’s the right question and I hate that I don’t have an answer for you.
It may have just been truly a movie that was ahead of its time.
You see what’s happened with gaming and that population.
[Laughs] That might have been the right play in this case!
I think if you put out that movie now, it has a much different destiny.
BHABHA:It certainly was a harsh awakening to the realities of Hollywood.
WRIGHT:We had to fly to London to do the London premiere.
By this point, the movie had come out [in the U.S.].
I know you love the movie.
We met in a private room at The Soho Hotel for me to give this speech.
All of them came down.
I was looking at them and thinking, Oh, they’re fine.
[Laughs] They’re having a whale of a time!
I never gave that speech.
[Laughs]Scott Pilgrimbasically never left release.
MOSES:The midnight showings on the repertory circuit started pretty quickly afterwards.
It wasn’t 10 years andthena discovery.
It moved quickly that second life cycle, faster than usual.
Multiple, multiple times we did this.
As I think back on that: how amazing!
It really formed a community both within the audience and within us as a cast and a creative team.
Would that have happened if the movie had slayed at the box office?
I really don’t know.
With most of the movies we love there’s a tortoise-and-a-hare aspect.The Thingopened at No.
8.Big Trouble in Little Chinadidn’t even crack the top 10.
I don’t know why I picked two John Carpenter movies, no disrespect to him.
PILL:It put us all on the radar.
We were put on studio radars that we wouldn’t have been without the movie.
WINSTEAD:I just rewatched it with some family.
It’s totally one of a kind I think.
There’s nothing else quite like it.
I think a whole new generation has discovered it now, which is so cool.
WONG:I really think this is the most fun coming-of-age movie you could ever watch.
[Laughs] Basically, people’s kids just love that movie.
WRIGHT:I thought I was going to be in director jail after, and I wasn’t.
But I knew that I’d have to do something smaller again next.
But nobody’s going to give you the money to make another original.
LEBOFF:It was really the cast put it together themselves, particularly Alison Pill and Satya Bhabha.
The actors were really gung-ho and fantastic.
And we’ve raised a great amount of money for this really important organization.
The plan is to stillrelease it at the cinemaswhen cinemas are back and running.
CERA:I don’t think a sequel is a reality.
But in my heart of hearts I don’t expect that to happen.
I sketched Scott early in the pandemic with a huge beard.
I think that would be a funny image.
It’s being discussed as we speak.
LEBOFF:Uh, you know, there’s nothing we have to say at the moment publicly.
[Laughs]
WINSTEAD:It probably follows me around more so than anything else I’ve done.
ButScott Pilgrimis still the thing that people seem to remember the most.
I love it, I love that people connect me to that character and that world.
That’s the thing about great pieces of art is that they continue to connect down the line.
GODRICH:It’s like a weird calling card.
Which is quite nice.
WRIGHT:Of course I would love to work with that cast again.
All of them are just a joy.
The other thing is that we’ve all stayed friends.
SCHWARTZMAN:The entire cast is on it.
To this day, everyone still “replies all” to a lot of emails.
WINSTEAD:It feels like such a big chunk of my life, you know.
So, it feels like almost three years of my life.
It was just huge for me to be a part of that and it had such a lasting effect.
Every minute that we were all together in Toronto, it stayed with me in one way or another.
You know, Ellen Wong is still one of my best friends.
WONG:We’re really good friends.
So, screw you Scott!
[Laughs]
WRIGHT:I’m incredibly proud of the movie.
The fact that you’re not doing a 10th-anniversary article aboutThe Expendablessays it all.
Dolby Cinema will celebrate the 10-year anniversary ofScott Pilgrim vs. the Worldwith an upcoming theatrical re-release.
it’s possible for you to donate to Water for People attheScott Pilgrimpageon the charity’s official website.
