Edgar Wright Biography

Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English film and television director and writer. He has worked with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Nira Park on the films Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End and on the TV series Spaced. He also co-wrote and directed the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Along with Joe Cornish and Steven Moffat, he co-wrote Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin.

Early life

Wright was born in Poole, Dorset, but grew up predominantly in Wells, Somerset. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wright directed many short films, first on a Super-8 camera which was a gift from a family member and later on a Video-8 camcorder won in a competition on the television programme Going Live. These films were mostly comedic pastiches of popular genres, such as the super hero-inspired Carbolic Soap and Dirty Harry tribute Dead Right (the latter of which was eventually featured on the DVD release of Hot Fuzz).

Career

Early work

Wright made a spoof western, A Fistful of Fingers, which was picked up for a limited theatrical release and broadcast on the British satellite TV channel Sky Movies. Despite Wright's dissatisfaction with the finished product, it caught the attention of comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who subsequently chose him as the director of their Paramount Comedy channel productions Mash and Peas and Sir Bernard's Stately Homes. During this time he also worked on BBC programmes such as Is It Bill Bailey? and Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round. In an interview with journalist and author Robert K. Elder for The Film That Changed My Life, Wright attributes his edgy and comedic style to his love for An 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.

Spaced

In 1998 writer/actors Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson were in the early stages of developing their sitcom Spaced for Channel 4 and thought of asking Wright to direct having fondly remembered working with him on the 1996 Paramount comedy Asylum. Wright gave Spaced an unusual look for the sitcom genre, with dramatic camera angles and movement borrowed from the visual language of science fiction and horror films. 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 of Look Around You, a BBC programme created by a member of the Spaced cast, Peter Serafinowicz. He also made two brief appearances in Spaced, 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 is sitting on the subway (with a beard) next to Tim and Daisy.

The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy

The critical success of Spaced paved the way for Wright and Pegg to move to the big screen with Shaun of the Dead, a zombie comedy which mixed a "Brit flick" romantic comedy style with homages to the horror classics of George A. Romero and Sam Raimi. The film was a great success both critically and financially, and its rooting in American genre cinema helped to make it a transatlantic hit.

The pair subsequently planned out 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 product Cornetto and its effectiveness as a hangover cure. Wright explained to Clark Collis in an interview for Entertainment Weekly, "We put that joke in Shaun 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 still is my hangover cure. Then we put it into Hot Fuzz because we thought it would be a funny recurring thing. One journalist in the U.K. said, 'Is this going to be your theme as a trilogy?' and I said, 'Yes, it's like Krzysztof Kie"?lowski's Three Colors trilogy. This is the Three Flavors Cornetto trilogy.' It was just a joke that stuck." Collis observes that the films also feature "a running gag involving garden fences."

The second installment was the comedy action thriller Hot Fuzz. Production started in March 2006 and the film was released in February 2007 in the UK and April 2007 in the US. 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.

The third installment, The World's End, premiered in London on July 10, 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 to The World's End pub without ending up in the gutter in order to do this, but some unusual powers are at work and what happens to them may determine what happens to humans as a species.

Other work

Wright cites Jon Spencer Blues Explosion as his favourite band: several Blues Explosion songs feature in Wright's film Hot Fuzz, including one written specifically for the film. Wright has directed two videos for his ex-girlfriend Charlotte Hatherley: "Summer" and "Bastardo". He has also directed promos for 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Mint Royale and The Bluetones. Many of these videos have been made available to view on the "Archives" section of his official website.

Wright has a brother, Oscar, who is a comic book artist, contributing storyboards, conceptual art and promotional pictures for Edgar's films. For example he designed comic book interpretations of the characters of Shaun of the Dead and created the animation for the flickbook PC Danny Butterman uses in Hot Fuzz, as well as the art for the "Plot Holes" features on both the Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead DVD releases. Oscar also was on set for the Hot Fuzz poster shoot to help Edgar out with the design. Oscar also directed the Charlotte Hatherley video for "Behave" and also designed the 8-bit Universal Pictures logo at the beginning of the movie, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World along with Edgar.

In 2007, Wright directed a fake trailer insert for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse, called "Don't". 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, Wright was under consideration to direct Mission: Impossible " Ghost Protocol. Later that year, Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was released; its over-$85 million budget dwarfed the £8 million budget of Hot Fuzz. The film, based on the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim, was co-written, co-produced, and directed by Wright. It took in roughly half its budget in box office, in spite of its critical reception and praise from fellow directors such as Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and Jason Reitman.

In November 2011, The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Peter Jackson, and based on Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin was released. Wright co-wrote the film with writing partner Joe Cornish and Steven Moffat. The film also co-starred Wright's frequent collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Future projects

Wright has been developing a live-action film based on the Marvel Comics superhero Ant-Man with Joe Cornish. The film is scheduled to be released on July 31, 2015.

Wright also has numerous other projects in development, including Them, Baby Driver and a film version of The Night Stalker TV series, starring Johnny Depp, which was announced in early 2012.

On July 23, 2012 it was in the news that Wright will direct a mystery sci-fiction film titled Collider for the Paramount Pictures. Screenwriter Mark Protosevich is set to write the script and J.J. Abrams will be producing the film.

Personal life

In 2009, Wright began a relationship with actress Anna Kendrick after meeting on the set of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The couple split in early 2013.

Wright was previously in a relationship with singer-songwriter and former Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley.

Collaborations

Wright has cast certain actors in more than one of his films/TV shows. Simon Pegg is Wright's most frequent collaborator, appearing in six of his films. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World isn't listed because no actor on that film had previously collaborated with him.

	Dead Right	A Fistful of Fingers	Asylum	Spaced	Shaun of the Dead	Hot Fuzz	Don't	The World's End
Lucy Akhurst
Bill Bailey
Paddy Considine
Joe Cornish
Adam Buxton
Martin Curtis
Julia Deakin
Kevin Eldon
Patricia Franklin
Martin Freeman
Nick Frost
Mark Gatiss
Mark Heap
Jessica Hynes
Graham Low	N
Bill Nighy
Simon Pegg
Robert Popper
Lucy Punch
Peter Serafinowicz
Reece Shearsmith
Michael Smiley
Rafe Spall
Stuart Wilson

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Credited as				Role
		Director	Writer	Producer	Actor
1994	A Fistful of Fingers					Cheesy voiceover artist/Two bit farmer cameo
2004	Shaun of the Dead					Rabid Monkeys Newsreader/Prat-falling Zombie/Italian Restaurant Voice/Noel's Friend on phone
2005	Land of the Dead					Photo booth zombie
	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy					Deep Thought Technician
2007	Hot Fuzz					Shelf Stacker/Voice of Dave
	Son of Rambow					Metal Work Teacher
2010	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2011	Attack the Block
	The Adventures of Tintin
2012	Sightseers
2013	The World's End
2015	Ant-Man

Short films

Year	Film	Credited as				Role
		Director	Writer	Producer	Actor
1988	I Want to Get into the Movies
	Carbolic Soap
	The Unparkables
	Rolf Harris Saves the World"
1993	Dead Right					Himself, "Ten seconds later" voice
2001	Calcium					Scientist
2004	Forced Hilarity
2007	Don't

Television

Year	Film	Credited as				Role
		Director	Writer	Producer	Actor
1996	Asylum
	Mash and Peas
1998	Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round
	Is It Bill Bailey?
1999	Sir Bernard's Stately Homes
1999-2001	Spaced					First Sleeping Ex-flatmate / Man on Tube Next to Daisy / Sounds of Despair tape
2002-2005	Look Around You					Scientist / Eddie Yorque / Floor manager / Technician

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Title	Result
2000	BAFTA Awards	Situation Comedy Award	Spaced
2002	BAFTA Awards	Situation Comedy Award	Spaced
2004	British Independent Film Awards	Best Screenplay	Shaun of the Dead
2004	Bram Stoker Awards	Screenplay	Shaun of the Dead
2005	BAFTA Awards	Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film	Shaun of the Dead
2005	Chlotrudis Awards	Chlotrudis Award for Best Original Screenplay	Shaun of the Dead
2005	Empire Awards	Best British Director	Shaun of the Dead
2005	ALFS Awards	Best Screenwriter of the Year	Shaun of the Dead
2005	Online Film Critics Society Awards	Best Breakthrough Filmmaker	Shaun of the Dead
2005	Online Film Critics Society Awards	Best Original Screenplay	Shaun of the Dead
2008	Empire Awards	Best Director	Hot Fuzz
2010	SDFCS Award	Best Adapted Screenplay	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2010	Satellite Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2011	Empire Awards	Best Director	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2011	Empire Awards	Inspiration Award
2011	Hugo Awards	Best Dramatic Presentation	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2011	Online Film Critics Society	Best Adapted Screenplay	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2011	Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America	Bradbury Award	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2011	Satellite Awards	Best Adapted Screenplay	The Adventures of Tintin
2012	Annie Awards	Writing in a Feature Production	The Adventures of Tintin