Edgar Wright Quotes

The first TV show I worked on was with the guys from ‘Little Britian,’ Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who did a show in 1995 I directed, ‘Mash and Peas.’

I love the Zucker brothers‘ films – ‘Airplane!,’ ‘Top Secret‘ and ‘Police Squad!’ – are my formative experiences.

In a lot of action films, a lot of guys are driving muscle cars or vintage cars, whereas in reality, a lot of getaway drivers would actually choose, like, commuter cars and find a way to blend into freeway traffic as quickly as possible.

I just remember watching ‘Brass Eye‘ and being so utterly blown away by the scope of it and how much it managed to cram into an episode.

There are plenty of movies that you need to chew on a bit. Movies that you return to and see something different in the second time around.

When I was younger, I used to love Tim Burton’s ‘Batman.’ I was, like, 15, and even then, I was aware, ‘This is really the Joker‘s film.’ It’s like, the Joker just takes over, and Batman, you really don’t learn too much about him.

The worst thing you can do after a test screening is slash it for the lowest common denominator.

You cannot put 50 years of the Marvel universe into a movie. It’s impossible.

It’s a very rare and fortunate position to be able to make movies with two of your best friends who happen to be really amazing actors and writers.

I had a chance to do ‘Ant-Man’ in 2011.

When we made ‘Shaun of the Dead,’ it was our first feature, and we were just lucky to make a film, full stop.

Critics should think about how the opening weekend audience might want to discover some surprises for themselves.

If you go back to your home town or you’re reunited with school friends, its always slightly bittersweet because as much as there’s nice things in terms of seeing them again, the town has changed without you, and you’re no longer a part of it.

I’d like to do some things over again. I never want to repeat anything that went well, though – I just want to do better at slightly different things.

What ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘World’s End’ do is smuggle a different movie under the guise of a zombie movie or a cop or alien invasion movie. Even though they all have action and carnage, they are really films about growing up and taking responsibility.

I always liked movies like ‘American Graffiti’ and ‘Gregory’s Girl.’ ‘Gregory’s Girl’ is particularly perfect because it really captures that summer holiday bubble of teenage utopia. Even though it’s got a happy ending, there’s a feeling that these characters may never see each other again.

When you write something, at first you might feel very defensive and protective of every single thing, but after a while, you just see what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes you do test screenings, and an audience tells you that, or sometimes you eventually just go, ‘Let’s cut the joke out.’

I would say ‘American Werewolf in London‘ is like an unconventional buddy movie: even if the buddy dies 20 minutes in, he still remains throughout the picture, and their partnership is one of the best things in the movie.

I remember seeing ‘Gremlins’ and having my mind blown and seeing ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ at 13, and it was this hugely aspirational experience.

If you’re on a road trip, you need driving music.

‘Don’t Look Now’ is a masterpiece. I think it’s the best-edited movie of all time. I adore it.

If you have ever driven around London and seen the amount of one way systems… they basically rubbed out all car chase crime. In fact, if you get bank robberies in the U.K., they’re using scooters.

I think it’s good to have pressure on yourself. The worst crime is to get kind of really complacent.

I love horror, sci-fi and action, or I wouldn’t make these kinds of movies, but those designations are Trojan horses to make these personal comedies.

When I am not working, I try to watch more than one film a day if I can.

Usually if I find a film that’s challenging, that I’m intrigued by, I want to watch it again knowing what the ending is. I found that with something like ‘The Godfather Part II.’ I think it took me three watches to fully experience it in the way it was intended.

Sometimes, some things have to settle, and you have to think about the intention of it.

If you ever watch police chases on, like, helicopter cams, they very quickly become nightmarish when you start to see the police coming in from the edge of the frame. I always find that terrifying.

Whenever I’m writing a script, I’m scoring myself by playing the right kind of music.

When you’re struggling to get a feature film off the ground, there’s no big overarching tenure plan or anything like that.

Television was essentially my college.

Usually in TV… A TV director could be anything from a main grip to just a glorified cameraman, and sometimes a director can be the person who is hired last. It’s very much a producer‘s medium.

I’m very happy with my life and career, but I do find myself having serious attacks of nostalgia, and I don’t quite know why. Even though I’ve got to travel the world and do amazing things, I still want to go back to my teenage years and change little aspects of it. It’s strange, but it does continue to bug me.

I definitely went through a period when I was a teenager when every girl was ‘The One’ and every break-up was the ‘Worst Thing That Had Ever Happened.’

I tire of franchises, remakes, and endless sequels.

When I was at school, I used to end every school day with fountain pen ink all over my hands and face and down my shirt.

I was at art school that had quite a celebrated film course as well. I tried for that film course when I was 18, but they said I was too young. I tried this audio and visual design course instead. Two years later, I reapplied for that higher course, but they said I was still too young and to try in five years.

I’d rather try and cram in another two gags than leave a pause to say, ‘Hey, wasn’t that bit funny?’

I remember when we did ‘Shaun of the Dead,’ and when we were trying to get it off the ground in 2001 before we actually made it, a lot of people just didn’t want to know.

I was never a DC kid – I went through a phase from, like, 11 to 17 where I would try to buy as many Marvel titles as possible. And ‘2000 AD’ was kind of the sort of sci-fi/punk of British comics.

Some actors don’t even read the stage directions at all.

‘The Driver’ wasn’t commercially successful at the time, but when I was a teenager, I had no knowledge of that.

I’d rather try and cram in another two gags than leave a pause to say, ‘Hey, wasn’t that bit funny?’

The sci-fi movies I grew up with, the metaphor was very rich, and they used to really mean something: David Cronenberg’s films, or John Carpenter‘s films, or the Phil Kaufman and Don Segel versions of ‘Invasion Of The Body Snatchers,’ or George Romero’s early zombie films.

Critics should think about how the opening weekend audience might want to discover some surprises for themselves.

There are lots of films I wish stopped at installment number one. I like ‘Back to the Future Part II’ and ‘Part III’ enough, but I still like the ending of the first one better.

I like watching films that can play in any language because they’re essentially silent.

I grew up on Marvel and, like, ‘2000 AD.’

I definitely went through a period when I was a teenager when every girl was ‘The One’ and every break-up was the ‘Worst Thing That Had Ever Happened.’

By the time I got to Bournemouth Art College, I’d been so inspired by Sam Raimi and Robert Rodriguez and their tiny, no-budget films that I decided to do a feature-length version of ‘Fistful Of Fingers.’

If you’re on a road trip, you need driving music.

I love the Zucker brothers‘ films – ‘Airplane!,’ ‘Top Secret‘ and ‘Police Squad!’ – are my formative experiences.

I’m very happy with the response for everything I’ve done, but, you know, sometimes you get things like, ‘Oh, ‘Spaced’ Series One wasn’t as good as ‘Spaced’ Series Two.’ Or ‘Shaun of the Dead’ is not as good as ‘Spaced,’ or, ‘Hot Fuzz’ is not as good as ‘Shaun.’ Or, now, ‘The World’s End’ is not ‘Shaun of the Dead.’

In a lot of action films, a lot of guys are driving muscle cars or vintage cars, whereas in reality, a lot of getaway drivers would actually choose, like, commuter cars and find a way to blend into freeway traffic as quickly as possible.

When you’re doing a car chase movie, you’re sitting in car waiting for places or grips or stuff for quite a while.

There have been recorded cases of people learning how to fly a plane after playing a flight simulator, but there’s never been a case of someone learning to fight by playing ‘Tekken.’

One of the reasons for me that there’s no ‘Spaced 3’ is that I don’t think you can pretend to be 26 for ever.

I think you write the film that you want to see, and you try and do it honestly, and you can’t control people’s responses, really.

If you ever watch police chases on, like, helicopter cams, they very quickly become nightmarish when you start to see the police coming in from the edge of the frame. I always find that terrifying.

The making of documentaries for ‘Humanoids From The Deep,’ ‘Galaxy Of Terror‘ and ‘Forbidden World’ are absolutely fascinating.

I think where the criticism of videogames come from is where videogames are just Xeroxes of films, and when you get a film adaptation of that game, you’ve just Xeroxed something twice. I think that’s where a lot of the criticism comes from – there are ultra-violent games that are already based on a million films.

By the time I got to Bournemouth Art College, I’d been so inspired by Sam Raimi and Robert Rodriguez and their tiny, no-budget films that I decided to do a feature-length version of ‘Fistful Of Fingers.’

When I did ‘Hot Fuzz,’ I tried to get Barbara Steele in the movie, but I was told she had retired.

‘RoboCop,’ when that came out, was like the best comic book movie ever, and it’s not based on a comic book.

Sometimes, some things have to settle, and you have to think about the intention of it.

For 120 minutes, ‘Birdman’ floats from comedy to surrealism to high drama to quiet brilliance. I felt so inspired by watching this movie. It reaches for the sky and never comes back down to earth.

I guess a lot of comic-book adaptations strive for realism. Christopher Nolan is making Batman seem very real and very serious.

The man-child in American comedies is always glorified; they never really show the darker side.

I grew up on ‘Battle of the Planets.’

I used to stay up all night playing ‘Resident Evil 2,’ and it wouldn’t stop until the sun came up. Then I’d walk outside at dawn‘s first light, looking at the empty streets of London, and it was like life imitating art. It felt like I’d stepped into an actual zombie apocalypse.

Tony Scott, Walter Hill, Michael Mann – I’m a big action fan, full stop. And even though Michael Mann is the more celebrated film-maker than Tony Scott, I love them both in different ways.

When I went to college, I discovered the Sega console, and ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ became very dear to me.

My favorite film of all time is ‘Raising Arizona.’ I watched it again as soon as it was over. I had it on VHS, rented it, and I watched it and said, ‘I want to watch that again, right now.’ I think I did the same with something like ‘Goodfellas,’ which is a completely different genre.

Usually, if you read a script by somebody else and there’s a dense page of stage directions, people just skip through it or speed read it.

You get some directors, and I can never understand it – there’s a thing they call the ‘video village‘ where all the monitors are, and you’ve probably seen it on set visits – I hate that! I never, ever like sitting in video village. I get either my own monitor or a hand held monitor, and I stand right by the camera.

Not everybody fantasizes about robbing a bank, but I think most people have that fantasy of being in a high speed chase.

I know it’s become an ongoing thing about whether videogames are art, and I think there’s plenty of examples of things that use the form in a fascinating way. Things that are more surreal or artistic, like ‘Katamari Damacy’ or ‘Vib-Ribbon.’