Edgar Wright (part 1 of 2) • Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein #126

seem to find it confusing. Yes, Confucius, I hear you. I think it's very straightforward. Every week I invite a special guest over. I tell them they've died. Then I get them to discuss their life through the films that meant the most of them. Previous guests include Sharon Stone, Kevin Smith, Ricky Gervais, and even Ged Grambles, but this week it's the brilliant Filmmaker and Dream guests to Edgar Wright.

This one is a two part of special and a second part next week contains the Patreon section, which I've decided to include for all of you as it's Christmas. But I will not include the Secret. The Secret will only be available to the Patreons over at patreon dot com forward slash Brett Goldstein, where you'll also get extra questions for all the episodes, you get videos of most of the episodes, you get all kinds of bonus stuff, all kinds of treats. Have a look for all of

that over at patreon dot com forward slash Brett Goldstein. Also, if you've not seen it yet, Christmas is the perfect time to watch the whole of season one of ted Lasso on the Apple TV Plus app. You watch it, you can watch it as a family. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll feel good inside. I'll be wonderful. But also, obviously the main thing you have to do at Christmas is watch The Mother Christmas Carol three hundred and forty times. So Edgar Wright, I mean, come on, he s Edgar

fucking right. He's one of the most exciting filmmakers working in the UK. He's an inspiration, he's a hero to many. I've wanted to get him on the show since I started this show, and finally we managed to sort something out. Now, Edgar, being a genuine creative, he wanted to make this episode feel different and special from the others. So he suggested, instead of doing it over zoom, that we meet up face to face and we go for a walk. Because

all this happened during lockdown. I don't know when you're listening to this, but there was a lockdown going on. Hopefully there isn't any more, but you're not allowed to meet up indoors, etc. Etc. So we met up in Regent's Park, clipped some mics to our lapels, and we went for a walk. We walked from day until night. For those of you were interested in actual stats, this podcast was twenty five thousand steps long. Edgar was an absolute delight. Of course, we covered an awful lot of topics.

I think you will love it. So that is it for now. I very much hope you enjoy episode one hundred and twenty six, Part one of Edgar Wrights films to be Buried With, Hello and Welcome two Films to be Married With. It is I Brett Ghostine, and I'm joined today by a filmmaker extraordinary, a actor, a writer, a producer, an exec, a documentarian, a comic book writer, a legend, basically the sort of man I think most people who want to make films want to be Please

welcome to the show. The incredible, amazing, it's been track A right, thank you. There are a couple of credits there where I had to think what you were talking about, and I thought, oh, you're right, there's a comic went writer. I said, I've never written a coment book, and rose, yes I have. Of course you have. On two thousand a D. I wrote me and Simon Peg wrote a special Shawn of the Dead strip for two thousand a D. I think, never the only thing? Right? Are you referring

to something else? Now? I think that was it? An actor is very that's very in youre in films. I have done actually a couple of like more than one voice part in an animation. Now I'm in both sing and sing too. And I also in an episode of Duck Tales. What yes, that's the Pinnacle playing essentially and I suddenly I didn't realize this until I saw the I didn't really realize that I was playing um a Duck version of Christopher Nolan until I saw the drawing

of the character. And by this point I'd already committed. And then I wired that Chris Nolan was going to be mad at me for playing a duck version of him? What are you Dulan was? His name was Alice de bors One. But when I saw the drawing, which is after I'd already recorded it, I was like, oh no, it's it's Chris Nolan as a duck. And then I had to email him to just make sure that I wasn't putting his nose out a joint, saying hey, how's

it going? I played you in details. I didn't know it was going to be you, but I saw the drawing afterwards, and it's very clearly his hair and his scarf, and did he reply? Fuck you? He never spoke about Actually, we've spoken sins about other stuffs that I can only assume that he's either fine with it or so furious that he will never speak of it. That's amazing. Now for the listener, Edgar Wright and I have met up

in Londontown. There is a lockdown going. I'm not going to record this, and Edgar suggested that we meet up and we're allowed to two people are allowed to meet up outside, don't they? Yes? I think so. And so now we are walking around Reason's Part and a lovely time. I've put wind musks on the mics. So hopefully this isn't a nightmare for everyone. So here we are, Edgar. I've got so many questions for you. One is, well, okay, I got two stars. Yes, So you really, on the

surface lived the dream. You always wanted to make films. You did everything when you were little, made stuff, made stuff, made stuff, and then you've got to really make stuff from a very young age from you just sort of made it all happen. Now you're at a level where I imagine it's a little bit easier to get films made. I don't know, maybe not consistently. Yeah, I mean it depends on what the movie is. Maybe they're difficult to make whoever you are, but you're definitely you're big in

the game. Right. That's very sweet of you to say you're doing very well. You've done very well for a long time. My question is, having wanted to do this all your life and done it as a kid, and now you're at the level where you're really, really, really an established guy, do you still love it or in your head is it like system really a job that

I do now? No, No, I think the opposite. I have to remind myself all the time, you know, when you're actually shooting, like sometimes the worst part of the job and I say this in big and very comments because it's an amazing job to have the only bad part of the job is just like it's so stressful. The hours are really like tough and like so sometimes

it's just like a mental and physical strain. And however, yeah, you always have to remind yourself every opportunity in those situations is that this is this is my dream job. I get to do my hobby as as my career, and so many people don't get to do what they love, and so you have to remind yourself. I mean, you

shouldn't have to remind yourself that, but you do. And it's something that I think about a lot whilst I'm shooting, because whenever you get to that moment where it's like it's not like it's ever like I hate this job,

it's only it's like I'm exhausted. It's so stressful. But you also always just have to you always have to default to like I can't believe that this is my career, and I think that there are several times where it just keeps coming floating back to you like that you're sort of reminded of, like, I can't believe this is what I did for a living, you know. Yeah, And so weirdly enough, actually should of the Dead wasn't my

first movie, but it was like the breakthrough movie. And weirdly that in itself was inspired by a day shooting on Space where it's episode three of Space where there's this zombie scene with Simon's character Tim Bisley in the flat running around shooting zombies and it was such a fun scene to shoot that it was one of those days where I felt at the end of the day, I felt like I can't believe that this is my job.

And in a way that was like one of the many inspirations of like, well, what if we did this for a whole movie? Like so, I think I think the thing is that I've never been in a and this might change if I have like kids and a massive tax bill or massive alimony payments or something. Wi Ye. I've never been in a position where I've had to do something for money yet, which is a great position to be in. And and part of that is because when you make a film, it's such an enormous undertaking,

you know, it could take ten years. It could take you know, three years. I mean at minimum at minimum, you're talking like three years at minimum. Yeah. So, like with all that in mind, is that you don't want to do something for like years on end if you're not really really into it. You know, I was thinking about that because it is such a huge commitment, and You're right, it's years of your life. And I'm sure you get lots of offers and there are lots of

potential things you could be making. What's the thing that pulls the trigger for you where you go, all right, I'm going to put years into this one. Well, so far, like I've only made one movie that I didn't like instigate myself as in all of the movies that I've done, I've written myself except for Scott Pilgrim and usually and the thing that made me do that movie is I felt like only only I can do this movie right.

And then sometimes when they've been offers of bigger you know, like commercial prospects and stuff, it's usually I kind of think somebody else could make this movie or this movie is going to exist without me, right. Um, So sometimes when it fits a big franchise movie or something that like you know, the train has already left the station and it has a release date, and it's like or it's on the calendar already. You kind of think this movie is gonna exist without me. Yeah, I don't. They

don't need me to make this X Men movie. Not that I've ever been offered an X Men movie, but that's just an example. Yeah, this week we have to point out that the Regent's Park is busier than we thought it would be. And also, I mean beautiful, though it is beautiful. It's right. I live near Redents Park and it's it's that one weird thing of the pandemic, as the pandemic has made me realize that there are amazing park somewhere I've never really fully explored it. Can't

believe I can Okay nothing. Want to ask about Baby Driver, which is excellent bread. You don't have to go into the why you wanted to make it into the X Believe You've said this before, but the stunts sequences and the you know, the opening car sequence, it's so incredible and so well choreographed, all of that, and I was wondering if the reality of making that sequence was boring, Like was it such tiny bits that you were capturing

such a sort of knnectic exciting sequence. Well, yeah, I think that's the thing that you learn about action films is that you're making them in tiny increments. I would never say it's like boring. It's just like labor intensive, you know. So there were stories about them making of Mad Max Fury Road where people would talk about, Oh, we shot all day and only got like two seconds, right,

and it's like, but that's that's unfortunately. What it takes like to get really good stuff is that you know, like I think that opening chase, I gotta I gotta get throws. So the only Chasing Baby Driver. I think we shot that movie over three months, and that specific chase was broken up into little chunks over maybe about ten weeks of the shoot. And there was one particular bit where we actually had to come back. We closed down the Interstate five in Atlanta. I hope I got

that right. If anybody's listening Atlanta and I got it wrong, I apologize. I think it would the I five anyway. So that was a big deal. And then there was a problem with one of the cameras and we actually had an insurance claim Dave where we got to Luckily got to go back and do it again. So twice we shut down. Well, we didn't shut down the main freeway.

We had what's called the bubble where they have like a literally like a fleet of cop cars at the top and at the back and in the middle it's all of your all of your cars and all the camera cars. And I remember when we were shooting that scene like causing chaos in Atlanta, Kamal Nanjiani was shooting a film in Atlanta at the same time. I think it was that film called Fist Fight, and he was

in Atlanta and we were filming. It was like a Sunday and we had from like five in the morning till like two pm on the on the interstate and Camail whilst I was in the car, like we were resetting. And that's the labor intensive part is that if you fling on a freeway, every take you have to reset takes like forty five minutes because you have to get off the ramp and go all the way back and reset. Anyway, so Camail texted me during that he said, are you

filming on the freeway right now? And I said yes. He goes everybody in Atlanta hates you because it was just all over. It was just all over the radio, God like saying like, oh, the fil baby if you're experiencing any delays, the filt Baby Driver. The same movie Baby Driver is filming on the Interstate five. Right now. I think I got the name of the interstate wrong. This is going to haunt you, isn't it? It It is?

And like it is. I know as soon as I said it out loud, I knew I got the wrong interstate. It's maybe it's sad. Did you ruin everyone's life? Wait? Wait, wait, I gotta for the for the people of Georgia. I gotta get this right. I'm just gonna check on my phone asking that say, how could you forget us so quickly? You've ruined us Sunday, But now you show much more disrespect for the record. I am now googling it main

interstate in Atlanta. No, that's not the one. Oh it was the IAD five, so wrong, discuss it was the IADY five. It wasn't the The five is in Los Angeles. Okay, it was the IADY five. But the story is still the details guy, So oh yeah, it's the story. Okay.

So to answer your question that opening car chase, yes, is like made up of tiny like increments over like weeks and weeks and weeks, and we had to code back and shoot stuff again because we had a camera failure, which was actually like a benefit because second time round, I could show the actors the rest of the chase and I could say do this, do this, do this. But then one poor actor who wasn't run of show on the movie was John Burnthal. He was the only actor.

Everybody else would either run of show or had to be shot out. And John Burnhale, who's only in two scenes in the movie, had to come back to Atlanta like ten times during the shoot, and so he kept dragging him back and then he was done, and then there was a reshoot and he was coming back anyway. So on the last day that John Burnthall was filming, I went up to him afterwards and I said, Hey, I just want to say thanks so much for your time.

I know it was kind of particularly difficult for you because you know, like you had to keep coming back, but you know, it's such a difficult scene and so complicated. And then John Burnthal said, he goes, hey, I get it. Yes, if it was easy, Every asshole would do it. And I think about that all the time. This is that thing whenever you're sort of doing something that's got any level of hardship, there's John Burnthale's words. If it was easy, every ass i would do it. Yes, that's very nice.

Can I ask you, I'm curious at how you deal with the mental side of all of this. So when you made Scott Pilgrim, which is fucking excellent, and I know it was very expensive and it didn't make a lot of money, right, it was critically exclaimed but didn't make a lot of money when it first came out, Like, was that difficult emotionally and because when you were involved in something, can you talk about that a bit? Yeah,

sure it was. Actually there was something with that that was actually that made it very easy to deal with. I mean, there's an enormous amount of work and blood sweating, tears, and also a lot of love and passion that went into it. Yeah, But ultimately, like we all were really happy with the movie, and we knew that a certain audience really loved the movie because we'd had screenings and stuff. Yeah, So the biggest issue with that movie was trying to

sell it to you know, like a mainstream audience. Yeah, and that was something. It was something where like you had to sort of see the movie to really understand it, and like it was difficult to encapsulate the premise and the tone in one poster or one trailer, and so we knew that was a challenge. But we knew from test screenings and preev screens that the people who did watch it really loved it. You know. I see there were things that were like maybe kind of like created

expectations that we could not meet. Like we showed a comic con and it's like a sort of rock concert, but there's an element of that. It was an amazing screening and I wouldn't change it for anything. But you're also on the flip side, you're preaching to the choir. Yeah. And that said so I think the thing is as well, I feel very differently about these things because I know that most of my favorite movies who are not hits

at the time. Yeah, and this Scottium gray and gray and grays and grays, and well that's the thing that I tell you one story that they explained everything about it. Yeah, So it came out on the kind of the weekend in the States and it opened at number five. And I think that weekend I very much did not look at the Internet because I didn't want to read like stories on Box Office Murder and Deadline about what was

number one. It was the Expendables. I mean, I did this EW this article for e W about the tenth anniversary of Scott Pilgrim, and at the end of the article they said, any any closing words. I said, well, you're not doing a tenth anniversary of the Expendables, thought you anyway, So it came out We got trounced by the Expendables and Eat, Pray Love when we opened at

number five. And it's that thing where you know, people who are kind of like it becomes like for some people who maybe haven't seen it or whatever, or or maybe like sort of saying, oh, I told you so that it was two kind of like like um, you know, niche or whatever. And so that was tough to deal with when people like, you know, like Seth McFarland made like a joke about it on Twitter and I was like,

fuck you. But then the funny thing so the next Wednesday we were supposed to have the Big UK premier in Lesser Square, and nearly the entire cast were going to be there. Michael Cereberry, Larson, like Mary, Chris Evans, like nearly everybody was there, Jason Schwartzman, pretty much the entire cast was there. And I remember that I've sort of been dealing with like how it had done and sort of just sort of trying to come to terms

of that. But at the same time, you're still promoting the movie, so in a way you kind of have to kind of just keep your chin up and like just kind of keep plowing ahead, knowing that like, well, if people just watch it, they're gonna I know, there's a lot of people are gonna love it. So I think the worst thing you can do is like run for the hills or try and blame the failure on somebody else. And I've seen other directors that I know do that, and I thought that is not the way

to go. You sort of have to take it on the chin. So a lot of people in the in the aftermath who wanted me to throw marketing under the bu like, you know, you doing interviews, they're saying, do you think the film would have done better with a better poster? And would I would never do that because I knew how hard marketing had worked on it, yeah,

and also how much they loved it. Anyway, it's the London premiere and all of the young cast are there, and I remember thinking, you know, I was like sort of my girlfriend at the time with Anna Hendrick, and I remember saying to her, I think tomorrow, before we go to the premiere, I think I should gather everybody in the hotel. We rented a room. I'll gather all the cast together and I'll do a speech saying, hey, listen,

I know I didn't do very well last weekend. I'm so proud of the film, so proud of you, and it's going to be a great natteral that it's just go and enjoy ourselves. So I had this little speech ready to sort of get everybody like get up and sort of let them know that like to be proud and etc. Etc. So I was ready to give the speech, and then we'd rented this room in the Soho hotel,

like with some drinks and stuff. All of the casts are coming down, and then as the cart started to come down, they were all so already in party mode and so like blithely oblivious did any of those commercial expectations. They were just there in London to have a jolly and having a whale of a time that I sort of like looked at them, I said, they're okay, And I never gave the speech. They did not need inspiring,

they did not need they were like totally fine. And there was a sort of inspiring thing to me is I think maybe maybe I've been over thinking. They don't give a shit. They're just like sort of And there was the thing as we all went onto the carpet, like and it was actually like a really great screening because it was like, you know, like we love the movie and like, you know, I mean also the thing with that movie that we were very lucky is it

more than maybe any of them my other movies. I think that that movie has played in cinemas the most afterwards. Like I think some prints or DCPs of Scott Hilgrim never went out of circulation because like, especially in the States, like within a month it was already doing midnights. So it was that strange thing where like a decade to kind of We're very lucky that people were just kind of like already you know, like a cult had started. Yeah, and I think it makes people love it even more.

It sort of go, this is ours. Yeah, you gain ownership of it. Yeah, and then you look, I mean, listen, I mean. The funny thing is that, like you can also tell like that like something is like doing well when it becomes like a catalog title for the studio, right the number of times it's been rereleased on Blu Ray or the amount of Funko pops there are, you sort of think, at some level, this is obviously an asset to the studio in a way that lots of

other films aren't. And then you sort of think about if you look sometimes at the top ten of the year, there are some films that are in the top ten of the year that year that nobody has ever spoken about since they were released. Do you know what I mean? Or we'll never see a big screen ever again. You know, I'm not going to mention any names. So interesting the

word completely true. I think the same thing of often sometimes they get it right, but often with the uscars, the film that wins the best picture no one talks about ever, you forget You're always better off to be like a best picture of losing. Yeah, the one the people that should have been that one. Yeah, because usually it should have been Maybe Parasite is the exception that

was the best. Whether everybody could agree on everyone, Yeah, absolutely, But then in other situations it's like, I bet in the weird way Kevin Coston with Dancing with Wolves probably gets a bit annoyed. Yes, I won Best Picture that Yeah, listen, I like Good Fellas too, But like is that thing where it's like, yeah, you never read anything about Dances with Wolves. I like that movie, but you never hear anybody talk about it these days saying like, obviously Good

for Fellers should have won. Yeah, well that's going to be shitty for Kevin costing the two I m. But on the flip side of that experience, you then may Baby Driver, which I believe was more successful financially than anyone expected. But I was the biggest Yeah massive, Yeah, it was my. It's my That was a real like it was so great for me because it was like like a movie that I was solely mine. I'd written it. It was also my first probably since my very first

movie that maybe I was spenty. It was my first like soul screenwriting directing credit since then, and it was something that I had the idea for since like the mid nineties. I mean I literally came up with the first like ideas for that movie in like nineteen ninety five in Woodgreen Living and in a Middleton Road shout out to ninety five a Middleton Road shout out very specific. But yeah, I mean, yeah, it was my biggest hit.

And it was also I think sort of you know, in the wake of like maybe Scott Hildam not doing so well or like, you know, my experience with the the film that should be maybe get into that as well. But like it was, it was obviously really it was really important to me to have like a hit on

my own term. So yeah, so it was so it was so great when it was, like, but did you having had I guess what my question is, what I'm fascinated by is that thing of clearly for you and for I think everyone, it's it's art, right, It's a creative thing. You want to make this thing. You want to make this thing, and you make it with all your heart and but there's also a business side to it, and you are kind of required to make a certain amount of money, So make your next thing and somebody said,

like a screenwriter Larry Carris, it's key. He sort of said. I remember he said after Scott Pilgrim, he said, he goes, Yes, the kid newses, it's great. He goes, he goes, you can't have too many of those, and otherwise they take the keys away, And that was a phrase it really stuck with winning of it You maybe, yeah, I mean also I think it also like it. Also, Yes, it's like you have to sort of then come back with

something that has a chance of making money. Yeah, you know, when making the World's End after Scott Pilgrim, it's budgeted at a level where maths wise, in terms of what the other ones made and what they would make on DVD and everything. It's something that everybody's comfortable with. It's not like, you know, if you make a film like Scott Pilgrim and it doesn't do well, nobody's going to give you that money again unless it's an absolute sure

fire franchise hit, you know. So my question to tie all this together, I guess is I hear some people, artists, I hear them say I don't care about any of it. All I care about is am I proud of it? Do I love it? The rest of it doesn't affect me, and I always think I don't believe you. Well, it's a lovely thing to think, but we must affect you

a little bit. But some of my question is having had the Scott Pilrim experience where you made a film is very proud of, its excellent, that financially struggled, and then making babies I ever wish you're very proud of and was excellent and did financially excellently. Having been through the previous one, did it make you like feel differently, as in, do you like we'll have to take the good bit about it it or evens out or was it like fucking yes, No, I mean it definitely made it.

I mean, listen, I mean I think anybody who says it's all about the art and I don't care whether people like it or not. You know, maybe that works if you're a musical artist and you can just put something out on a platform, But with a film at a certain budget level, there's a obviously there's very real like sort of limitations if like you can't like do a couple of flops in a row and expect to keep working, you know, at some point, people aren't going to just give you money to make things if it's

not making anything back. I think I've been lucky. Is that Even with Scott Pilgrim, I felt so I mean, listen, I felt so so fortunate every time I do another movie. I mean, you end up sort of making every movie like it's going to be your last in a way, do you know what I mean? Yeah, because you think like I'm so fortunate. I know how fortunate I am, and obviously the parameters with everything even now keep changing.

So like I did, I did feel like really it was like I felt vindicated, Like I felt like, fuck you, world, why won't you learn it? Just felt I just felt I felt so grateful. I just felt so grateful that I had a movie that really connected in a connected at the time as well. Yeah, and in a sort

of I mean. Also, the interesting thing with that film is that I did think, having done like Sean of the Dead, Hot Fights, Scott Pilgrim at the World's End, is that I was conscious that all of them had done well in English language territories and done badly in

non English language territories. I remember I watched some of Scott Pilgrim in Japan, and they had it with Japanese subtitles, and I remember sitting in the instuma for a little bit and thinking, oh my god, this is so overwhelming if you had to read it and watch it at the same time, it was so intense, and I thought this would just give somebody a ballism trying to like watch this movie and read the dialogue. So I when I was doing Baby Driver, I was trying to come

up with something where the dialogue was less important. You know, It's also a thing about conduct as well, because sometimes if you see directors who fly really high and then have a flop and then they never heard of ever again, it's usually because they're a complete shit, right, and there's a thing where like people are waiting for that downfall, and then when the downfall happens, it's like great, they

never have to work with so and so again. Yeah, because sometimes then there's people who, like you think, you hear stories about somebody being like a real asshole, and then you wonder, wow, how do they keep working. It's like, well, they keep working because they keep making money. But if there's if the kind of like you know, kind of the worm turns, then sometimes it's like you you can you can see with some directors is like, yeah, there's

a reason why they suddenly like didn't work again. It's because people didn't want to put up with their ship anymore. So I think there's also a thing there is, like you really just have to think about especially now in like I mean, I'm like, I'm currently like finishing a movie in the middle of a pandemic, and so yeah, whenever people say to me, like, how's it going, I say, ah, I'm working really hard. It's really exhausting. However, I'm not complaining.

I'm really really, really grateful to be working. And that's genuine. You know, Hey, well, let's very briefly talk about your new film. Now. What I know about your new film and the reason I'm so excited about it is because you've named Don't Look Now as a reference, which is I think that was maybe foolhardy saying that in an indusview, because there's sort of like why as soon as they said why would I mentioned one of the best horror films of all time, it's probably yeah, so carry on.

So that got me like, hello, I was like, hello, so tell me, so this film without spoiling anything. Tell me, is it straight horror? Yes? And no, I mean it's not. It has no sort of comedic element. Although there's some funny bits, it's not like a comedy horror on the deck. It is like a I guess when I mentioned like Don't Look Now or like Repulsion, it wasn't in terms of any real plot element. It's more like those movies that they're sort of on the kind of the cusp

of being psychological thrillers, stroke horrors. Yeah, you know, and and so it's a sort of it's partly that. And I think also like it's something I really wanted to make a film in central London. It's like a place that I've spent like twenty five years of my working life and in the last like five years been living in central London. And it's it's not a location you really see on screen that much for practical reasons most

of the time. So I want us to sort of take the ball by the horns and saying, right, let's make a movie in sohot five. But it's partly those those are good good reference points, just in terms of like maybe the tone of it. And then beyond that, there was a certain type of film that I really love that like just don't really get made anymore. I mean, I wan't say solely Hitchcock movies, but usually like things like influenced by Hitchcock, like I particularly into I'm sure

you've heard of like Italian and Jallow films. Yeah, so like Bird with a Crystal Plumage and like Deep Red and Blood and Black Lace, Suspiria, and tons and tons of other great ones, you know, all with very ornate titles like what Happened to Salons? Or Don't Torture a Duckling? Like they all have like amazing titles death Walks in High Heels. So I wanted to do a like a

London version of one of those movies. And I'd also not that it's an Italian movie, but there are other movies like Hitchcock's Frenzy or Brand Up Palmer's Dressed to Kill, sort of the movies that in this day and age a bit too transgressive in a way. As you'll see

when you see the film. It was trying to find a way to make one of those movies now, and so that's sort of the and in a sense the movie takes place in like the sixties and now to sort of analyze that kind of like a change in kind of sounds like it might be two nights and so well, I mean, it's weird. I won't ever want to talk too much about it, but there is there

is one weird thing. I actually watched the whole thing together yesterday and it really struck me that, like, you know, there's a sixties portion of the film and there's a contemporary portion of the film, but it did struck to strike me that like, oh my god, this is like Soho in the sixties and Soho in twenty nineteen, which is a different thing to what it is today. And I've been working in and then I don't want to spoil it anymore, but there is I'll say, I'll say

one thing. There's one thing that we shot in lockdowns that appears right at the end of the movie, and I'm so glad we did it. And it's sort of something where it's like a way of recording you know, like I mean central London apart from this park. It's like absolutely and I've been having I've been editing and finishing off the movie in Soho and grading and mixing, and my walks home at like nine o'clock at night

are just spooky and like I keep taking. Um, I think people think I'm being like a vampire on like Instagram because I keep taking these like moody nocturnal shots of deserted London and they're sort of like in its like it looks like I'm going out doing these kind of vampiric night shoot where it's like, oh no, this was just my walk home. I saw this street and it looks so spooky with no people, and it's like, oh, Edgar, yes, fuck, oh no, I've forgotten to tell you something. What do

you know? How long have we been walking? Hours? I mean it feels like it also feels like it could have been of all eternity. Is something happened? Um in a way. UH should have told you this up top? What an idiot? How close were you to finishing the film? Very close? You've died? Ah, it is going to be my posthumous movie. Yeah, it's my eyes wide sharp, this might be your eyesword shut, it's you know and whoever.

But I actually managed to finish the score, unlike on Eyesword Hut, where they were left with the temper music tris doors like that yes, that's absolutely true music. And they never finished it. Ah, I explained so much. I'm taking this well, I don't go straight back to movie. Then, so you've died. How did you die? Well? Um, it's quite exciting actually because it's both like a childhood terror

and a dream come true. I was eaten by sharks, which is something that you Yes, it's something that you you know, like sort of I guess it's one of those things that you ass I mean, I never thought I would see the day, but I was, you know, I'm not I'm scared of deep water. I don't really like swimming the ocean. And then I thought, you know, recently I was in Italy and I thought, fuck it, I'll just do it. Let's kind of get this out of the way. I'll do some deep sea swimming. I

was eaten by sharks. And it was like it was like so so, yes, they were. They had come up from They're coming for the wrong stream. Yeah, they sound like George the Revenge, like they actually would see but they followed me. Yes, they were basically after Jews the Revenge. They had like sort of like done as much as they could with the Brody family, and they'd run out of people from the Brody family to kill and bad bad mathing. They heard me bad mouthing jaws for this

time it's personal. Yeah, and they came after me and so one of them got you, then the other one got you. It was like a feeding frenzy. Wow. But but I'm not I'm only like five seven, so I didn't take very long. It's very short feeding frenzy. I think they got me in a couple of wolves. In terms of your your experience of it quite quick. It was. I mean, it was something where I thought, oh, no, you know everything that I was scared of after having seen Yeah, I guess it's that thing of like you

just just I mean, I think that's the thing. I mean, it folds into a later question, but like you can't

swim in the ocean without thinking of sharks. So it's kind of like I was quite happy to be eating by sharks because it felt like this is a very dramatic way to go out, and nobody could say, like, you know, like everybody would everybody going ah, well, you know, because I mean, apart from punching them on the nose or is it in the eyeball of the nose, the nose, right, Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I don't know what else I could have done better. Yeah. Yeah, if you get

punch the eyes is not gonna work. So you do

you worry about death? You know what? The one reason I sort of like, I'll be completely honest about why I brought that up, is that there was this joke that I had in a script that never got made, and I was really proud of this joke, and then then script never got made, so it was it was actually a thing, an animation thing that me and David Williams had written for DreamWorks and it never went anywhere, but it was about part of it was about the son of a secret agent, right, and his dad, who

was like a James Bond figure, had died in the middle of a mission and like he was less sort of a super spy and then he died he was eating by sharks and so, but he was in this mission and so like the guy was talking about him, saying, you know, he died doing what he loved and there was like eating by sharks like that that was his like sort of like the the fact that I had to explain the joke probably means that that's why the film didn't go an each other forward. No, I mean,

I feel responsible for not giving you this setup. No, But also I think it's that thing as you sort of feel like, I mean, a peaceful do I worry about death? I didn't, you know. The times when I think about it is maybe like one of the only times I've gone under anesthetic at hospital right for an operation, and as you're going under, you thinking this might be it.

And also on a plane, like I'm not scared of flying, but you definitely think about it every time you have heavy turbulence, yeah, and you're thinking what if this was it? And I'm not like, so I'm not like scared in the sense of that I don't know. I mean, those are the times that I think about it. Is like going under general anesthetic, which has only happened maybe twice in my life, or on a plane. You can't go

through heavy turbulence without thinking about it. Right now. I'm sure I've told this story before, but I was once on a plane that I think was like in serious trouble because it kept sort of plunging and I saw the hostess crossed herself, Oh no, no, no, and I thought, oh, Okay, I thought that's a bad sign. But I remember it started shaking, shaking, shaking, and the lights went out and it was like made a sound like and ever people were screaming, and genuinely I felt scared. I was on

my own, felt scared. And then I crossed over something and instead of being scared, I was like, fucking, come on, you've had that moment. Yeah, I had a let's do this. D oh my god. Then that sounds like the roy Kent coming out of you, like the whole God, come on. Trying to think there's anytime I haven't felt close to death, like I mean, there's always those things where you get compelled by the idea of like dying like you know, on a cliff, or like doing something like on the

high I've done mantaineering once. And then there's that thing where it's that it's that weird and then what it is, it's not like it's kind of like, um, I'm trying to think, it's not like Turette's where you have that thing. I never you ever had this at school, where that compulsion to shout something else even if you never did it, But that's similar thing like thinking like this, I could just jump right now. I do think that a lot as well, which is very strange. I don't exactly and

maybe I've never seen a psychiatrist about that. But the thing of like if you're on that's the other thing. If you're on a cliff, you always think about either falling or jumping all the time. But I believe that the definition of vertigo is fear of fooling and fear of jumping. Yes, is that you're You're very tempted anyway. What do you think happens when you die? I mean i'd like to. I mean, I'm not religious at all, but there are things where I want to believe that

there's something else. I mean, I don't think there is. I want to believe it in this, you know, Like yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't believe that there's like sort of like a heaven or anything, but but I'm always kind of interested about like near death experiences and the lights and all of that stuff. So I'm kind of like heaven curious. I just I want it.

I am not I don't quite believe it, but i'd like to believe it, you know, And I'm not here to judge he's a little bit heaven curiously, Well, you come to the right pace, because there is a heaven. You're in it very nice. It is nice. Busier than you'd expect. Yeah, a lot more good people. But everyone here obsessed with film. I think you're into film. How

did you get that idea? Well, one of the reasons is but before, when I was emailing at you about this, he sent me a list of films that he'd watched in lockdown. And I mean, I like films, but I don't know how you found the time whilst also making a film to watch the sheer number of films that you've watched in lockdown, because it looks like timing was I'm like, did you watch five films? I don't know

how you. I think actually maybe maybe, Like sometimes there would be occasional days where it'd be four films in a day, yeah, but usually, like I do watch a lot of I mean usually when I'm working, I don't get to watch a lot of films. And definitely it would have been more if I hadn't started doing some shooting at the end of July, but I had over the years. It's that thing where sometimes friends they say, oh, egg has seen every movie, and I'm like, I assure

you I have not. And I'd started to mass it's like list of movies that I have not seen, right, And it was like an aggregate of like other like best of lists, like the Berfi Top one hundred or like the KaiA Cinema like list, or Martin scorsesees like lists of foreign films you must see, or like um Danny Peery's Cult Movies, those books that's like three volumes of it. There's that David Thompson book called have You Seen? Right?

So I eventually had this list that was like over like a thousand movies long, and I put like a I decided in a lockdown. Over the last like decade, I massed quite a lot of those movies on DVD and blue ray, so it wasn't even a thing where people kind of, you know, when people complain saying, oh, there's no old movies on Netflix, I'm like, it doesn't matter. I got them all. I literally have them all in

my study. Don't worry. So I must have like you know, like I haven't massed over the years, like hundreds of DVDs and blue rays. And then there were a lot of ones that I hadn't watched, and they were usually the more challenging ones, and I start to think of them as they were like sort of sitting there on the shelf that because they were all the challenging ones and maybe more kind of serious minded films. So I start to think of them as like coffee table movies.

I absolutely like movies that I had fought to make myself look smart. Yeah, and mayking it lying around like I hope that no one asked you enough questions too. Yeah. So but I decided like I'm going to like put my money away in my mouth as I've already bought them. I didn't watch these movies, and so like a big percentage of that list was exactly that. It's a great list.

It's a really good list. Impressive, just impressive. And do you have if I may you you currently live with the right Yeah, we can talk about do you watch them alone with her other rules? I think very quickly you can figure I can figure out the movies that

she won't be less interested in. And there were on that I'll get up early in the morning and watch on my own, or like that she is Swedish, and so I've actually been watching quite a few Swedish films that so I'd already seen some Ingma Bergman films, but I'd usually seen the ones that were like genre adjacent. There are a few ones that kind of like cross over into horror territory, like Persona and The Hour of

the Wolf and The Virgin Spring. So I actually been watching a lot of Bergman and then what's his name, Lucas Muderson, and I already liked Roy Anderson, but i'd never seen his first film, which is weirdly was the only one that my girlfriend seen, which was Swedish Love Story, which he made like thirty years or twenty nine years before Songs from the Second Floor, And it's an entirely

different prospect. It's a bit like watching like Gregory's Girl or something, and it was so beautiful and so funny, and that completely different to his later films. It's interesting. So yeah, I mean, and then there's things like where, yeah, I can kind of sort of like kind of figure out which films she's enjoying, ones that she absolutely would not. Do you have a rule that no talking lights off

as it work? I definitely like have I mean, I have actually I have no TV in my living room, I just have a drop down projector so there's that thing where it makes a bit of a more of a ceremony of like you know, turning off the lights

of you know, the projects coming down and stuff. And usually the other thing that I do, which is kind of slight anti social and probably like I mean, I'm not a great sleeper, and my like sort of hours I get a night have gone down, like as I get older, so like sometimes I can maybe knock off more than one movie before she even gets up, which is like terror and then also still like going get coffees or something and wake her up having already watched

two movies, which is maybe not drag about, but like I think that's great. So there was a thing where, like I think, you know, like a there was a point in the between like March and like July, I mean like full on lockdown where I was I was sometimes watching four films a day. Yeah, I love it. Right in this heaven they loved film as well. You're going to fit right in, but they weren't know about your life through film. And the first thing they ask

you is what is the first film that you remember seeing? Edgar? Right, Well, this is that it sounds like one of those stories that people say when they're doing the ePK for making one. But I genuinely the first film I ever saw was Star Wars in nineteen Well, i've been thinking about this. I don't think it was nineteen seventy seven, but I think I was like three, because I think Star Wars in the UK came out Boxing Day in nineteen seventy seven, so I think I saw it in early seventy eight.

But I was definitely three and a half and it was definitely the first trip to the cinema for me and my brother. My brother's two years older, and I grew up in the Swanage in Dorset, and so my parents took me to west Over Road and in a bourmous and there was the cinema that's not there anymore now it's the church called the Galaxy. It was that thing where I didn't really know what we were doing, and so I remember like lining up outside the cinema

in this massive queue. It must have been like in the winter, because I remember it was really dark and not really understanding why we were queuing up until we got closer to the cinema, and then I could see the quad poster for Star Wars, and so I must have had some I must have had some awareness of Star Wars, because I know I got super excited about

We're actually going to see this movie. And then that cinema I had a ceiling with stars on it, like fluorescent stars, and so I remember really vividly when there's that opening shot of Star Wars with the Star Destroyer coming over of the camera and also the starfield, know with Star Wars with the fanfare. I just remember like being confused as to where the cinema ended and the film started. It really felt like it was like the

film was like coming out, Yeah, really cool. Yeah. And then and then I lived in Dorset until I was seven. So west Over Road, which used to have like three cinemas and currently having been back to Bournemouth a couple of years ago, has no cinemas and west Over Road there really sad that, like there used to be an ABC and an odeon. Maybe the ABC was also a cannon at one point, but I saw so many movies at those cinemas, and also I think two cinemas that

down there that are open still. There's one in swan Is called the Maulum and there's one in Paul called the Paul Arts Center, which I think still exists anyway, So around that time, like my parents would take me to most sci fi fantasy films that were out between nineteen seventy seven and nineteen eighty one, with the exception of Hawk the Slayer, which I really wanted to see. For whatever reason, my mom and dad would not take me too. And I used to like a like a

complete brat. I would like ball and cry, Oh there's there's the not knowing that it was substandard at that time. I'm sure you have this as like that age. I think about it a lot, from like three to fifteen that I was happy to watch any film. Fifteen mystical critical faculties kicked team, where I realized that not all films are equal, maybe some of them are not as good as others. And I remember that kind of like very profoundly in the year of Ghostbusters two. Really it was.

It was a combination of Ghostbusters two and there's his heresy to say, so some people love it Back to the Future Part two. I know some people think it's superior. They're wrong. What was the other one as well? RoboCop two the next year. Doesn't like a too? Doesn't I do like some too? But those I mean Beast in the Future two is interesting? Is it better than the first one? No? Anybody who says that is trying to be cool. That's a hoopster Back to the Future fan. Yes,

what film made you cry the most? Have you cry in the films? I had two answers for this, Okay, I have a happy one on a sad one. Okay, I'll do the sad one first. Sorry and kind of so well. A recent one that really really got me was this film by Carol Morley called Dreams of a Life. Have you ever seen that movie? Film about the woman who? Yes? Have you seen that movie? I have not seen that movie. Well,

it's devastating. So it's a documentary. It's a documentary with some like reconstruction starring Zarie Ashton from Who's Amazing And Anyway, there's a point. So it's about a woman. I wrote down her name, Joyce Carol Vincent. That was the lady who died in her flat alone in Woodgreen after not having been seen by her friends or family first three years. I think it was found like three years after her desk with the TV still on and Christmas presents wrapped

in the flat and nobody had reported her. And the thing that's the kind of curious thing about it is it wasn't like she was She was a well liked person, right, So it makes it even more of like an enigma of like, how could somebody who actually has family and friends be like missed for so long? And you know, you find out the answer in the documentary to some extent. But there's a bit in the documentary where they are we should point out that we're about to walk parts

two people. I mean we are in heaven. There's some people fencing right here. It feels like they're literally people

fencing in apart. Yeah, in the full gear. Yeah. So there's a point in that documentary where they interview her X this guy called Martin who was obviously deeply, deeply in love with her and I don't think wanted to lose contact with her, but did, right, And in the documentary there's that things sometimes when people in the documentary are keeping a brave face on things, and so he's kind of doing most of his interview talking about how fond he was of her and how much he loved her,

and he's kind of like getting through this, you know, pain of talking about it with a smile on his face. And then there's a point near the end of the film where he breaks down and even listen for the rest even me just thinking about it is making me cheer up because I was watching this thing and then I just explosively started crying because I just sort of seeing somebody really grieving on camera. And obviously like had decided to do the interview and thought, you know, I

can I can do this. I can talk about it without completely but he's like sort of just so destroyed by it. And I actually met Zai Ashton and I said, I talked to her about that, and she said that like, um, you know, she met him at the premiere of the film, and it was like so like just you know, it's difficult to know what to say to combody that you've played them on screen, You've played like this like sort of dead X. Yeah. That movie is like devastating but

really worth watching. But it was that thing, I mean in that way, it was that uplifting in a way that it made you like sort of like think, oh my god, you want to like get in touch with everybody you've ever known and hug all your loved ones and just but it's a that's that's the recent film that I like, remember like going from naught to sixty, like suddenly explosively crying my happy one quickly. And this is a bit sillier is when Jackie Chan's Rumbling the

Bronx came out. I was such a big Jackie Chan fan, and I'd never seen one of his films at the cinema and I saw it the Prince Charles and it was clearly full of other Jackie Chan fans who'd never seen a Jackie Chan from the cinema, and people were listen. That film is not in my top ten Jackie Chan films, however, people were so up for it. It was such an

explosive reaction at the end of the film. If you remember, if you've ever seen Jackie Chan, the final shorts, Jackietan turning to camera and putting his thumbs up and it freezes frame on Jackie tam sumtimes, and I was so happy for Jackie that he had like a proper hit. I started crying. That's the happy tears version. I like that. I like that a lot, so if you're going to watch Dreams of a Life follow you might want to

have a rumble in the Bronx Chaser. It was the only time that those two films that would never be watched in succession. It's a very space bendagra. What what is the film that scared you? Know? You obviously like your horror I do. Here's one thing I was thinking about this when I was like looking at the questions is that I thought most of these films I could answer with America Wealth in London. Yeah, but it's so

like on brand for me. I have to kind of like I could answer America Wealth in London for every category. So I might come back to that later. So I'm gonna it's a split. And it's like it's John Carpenter. There's two films of his that I saw on TV when I was like The Fog is one I must have seen when I like nine on TV and The Thing, which I probably saw on TV when I was twelve

and they absolutely freaked me out. And either Fog is like I feel like whenever I watched that film, I want to try and recapture the very elegant, simple chills of just like dark figures in the fog and the threat of the fog coming to get you and you're going to die if you kind of get enveloped by the fog and the zombie pirates that are inside and when it and the Thing is, that's one of those films like that, like you think whenever, whenever I watch it,

I think, maybe it won't hold up this time, and every time it holds up for me. That's what the other parts of it also, John Carpter, would be the thing which I remember, all you have to back in the pre internet days, the only thing you might have to go on is like a still. Yeah, so I think like the Thing, before I saw it, I had seen like a black and white still of Kurt Russell standing by a block of ice, and maybe i'd seen

the poster which doesn't tell you anything. And so back in those days where you didn't necessarily see trailers online and even the trailer for The Things doesn't show anything, then watching that film on TV, knowing that it was like, I had this anticipation of it being quite strong and

you know, being like really like out there. But as a twelve year old watching with my brother my parents, my parents never used to go out and when I was growing up, but weirdly that one night they were doing something, so we were sitting in the kitchen for various reasons, we'll go into another time. My house was like undecorated for the entire duration from from like eleven

to eighteen when I used to live in Somerset. You my dad never really I think he sort of at some point he decided to sort of do some DIY that he never right, he never denied, and anyway, so we never had a living room, so we would watch films in the kitchen when there was only one like TV.

I remember me and my brother in the kitchen watching the scene and being so excited for it, but being so freaked out by like the first scene with the dog, or the scene on the operating table where with the debate Defibrilla, that we would switch channels when it got really gory to BBC two, which had the snooker on.

So I have this very memory of watching the thing and in the height of the gorious part of the set piece, nah flicking channels and going to like Steve Davis and then back again, and then like watching five minutes of snooker and then saying let's let's go back to the thing. So that was my first viewing of that film was like John Carpenter's mastery of the form with Little Snooker, and I like that a lot. Right,

what is the film that you love so much? People don't really like it cristically, it's not acclaim, but you're like, you're a fucking idiot. Systems amazing. Well, here, this is a tricky one. I have a complicated response to this question because I've sort of changed my tune on this,

and I'm explaining why. I mean, there are some films that get put in this bracket which I always get annoyed when they are like people always say this about something like Flash Gordon, which Flash Gordon is clearly supposed to be funny, and like the screenplay is written by Lorenzo Semple Junior, who wrote the Batman TV series, and it's clearly intentionally funny. And so when people say, ah, Flash Gordon is so bad, it's good to say, no,

so good, it's good. It's supposed to be funny. The same thing can be said of Beyond the value of the Dolls, which again is it would seem like, I mean, somebody said of beyond the value of the Dolls. I forget who said this. It said it teeters maybe John Waters said this, it teeters between being the worst and best movie of all time. But again, beyond the Valley Dolls is supposed to be funny. Yeah, and it is funny, so that doesn't count either. That's like a proper great film.

Now I can name one film that's like not trying to be bad, that's hugely, hugely entertaining. But then there is a caveat to this, and I'll say this is that I used to maybe until this happened about ten years ago, I was definitely one of those people who would watch bad films for enjoyment and maybe like screen them for friends, saying, oh my god, wait till you see this. It's so terrible, it's so fun to watch.

And I see. This thing is is that when you start making films, you realize that nobody sets out to make a bad movie. Yeah, And I think when as soon as you start, and I'm always stunned by people on Twitter who work in films who savage bad movies, And I'm always like, sort of like, you're so close to this, You're so close to doing one yourself. You

wouldn't like it if the shoe was on the other foot. Now, the reason I get into this, and I'm going to come back to this late when you ask me about worse films, Like, so, there's this film called Ricky, Oh, The Story of Ricky, which is a Hong Kong martial

arts futuristic prison revenge saga. It's on an anime and it's like it's it's not supposed to be funny, but it's so ridiculously gory and silly that it just is like just everything you've wanted from like an ultra gory martial arts film and sort of a camp classic at the same time. And it's such a riot to watch

with an audience. And I remember I screened it at the New Beverly Ones and I said, I hate, like, apologies to Mystery Science Theater, but what that TV show has created in terms of, especially in the States, of people like making canny comments about films. I can't stand it for that alone. I know that they're funny people who do that show, And in fact, my friend knows the new version and he knows that I have a problem with it. Jonah Ray, who does them more recent ways,

he's great. He's great. I love Jonah. But I said to him, I said, he's you know. He said, you don't like Mystery Science there to day? I said no, because they put good movies on that they don't deserve it, Like Danger Dive Leak is a great movie, and like This Island Earth is a good movie, and they don't deserve that treatment anyway. So when I showed Ricky O at the New Beverley in Los Angeles, I said, please, nobody make any comments, because there's nothing that you can

say that's funnier than what's on screen. And it is like a riot to watch that movie if you've never seen it. It is so fun, I mean genuinely fun. And I think the only like truly bad films are like boring ones. So if a film is not boring, it's just like, yeah, it's true. It's like if a film is like entertaining intentionally or not, it's not a bad movie. However, here's the thing where something happened which

then changed. I knew this already in terms of like it's too easy to make fun of movies, and when you make movies and you realize how hard they are to do you realize that nobody, not even Edward, nobody sets out to make a bad movie. So I screened Rickyo in Los Angeles. And then when I was making Scott Pilgrim, I took over this cinema called The Glow and I was promming there and Rickyo was one of the movies and I knew it was going to be

a riot. And then Brad Allen, who was my stunt coordinator on Scott Pilgrim, he saw that I was sharing it and he said, he goes, oh, I see you're screening Ricky. Oh at the Blow. I said, yeah, I love that movie. It's so crazy, and he said, he goes, yeah, I know the lead guy, it's it's sort of ruined his career. He's really talented and that film ruined his career.

And when as soon as he said that, I never worked Rickyo ever again because I thought, like I shouldn't laugh at this, because like, what what to some people is maybe like a great camp classic is like to this guy who's started it, the film that like the maybe like ruined things for him. So I just and that's the thing. It just says one person to say something like that and thinking like I can never enjoy it in the same way. So that would be my answer, but I have to I have to put that disclaimer

with it. That's yeah, I've ruined anything. I mean, all you have to do is tell anyone yeah, I know that person and they're really sad, and then you're like, well, you've taken all the fun out of all any possible lot. Shit, what's what's a film? Well, what's the film that you used to love, really loved it, and you've watched it recently you don't love it anymore. It might not be because the film's bad. You just feel differently. You've changed,

not the film. Well, there's to be heresy to some people, but these people need to hear it. The Goonies is maybe not a great movie. Don't Don't Dune? What a cliffhanger to end on Goonies? What no Justify yourself? Edgar? We find out next week. Head over to patreon dot com Forward Slash Prett Goldstein for fun time extras and all the other episodes. Also go to Apple Podcasts. Give

us a five star review. Instead of talking about the show, you could write about the film that means the most to you and why it's a lovely thing to I read them, I love them. Also helps our numbers means more and can have all the tag as you wants this Christmas. Thank you so much to Edgar for going on to stay a long walk with me, thanks to Scrubious Piping the distraction Pizza's Network, Thanks to Buddy Piece for producing it, Thanks to ACAS for hosting it. Thanks

to Adam Richardson for the graphics. At least allow them for the photography. Come and join me next week for part two with the brilliant mister Edgar. Right, So that is it for now. In the meantime, have a lovely week and please, more than ever be excellent to each other across the b