Edgar Wright: films and short biography. "Shaun the Zombies" (Edgar Wright)

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Not every viewer knows his name, but true connoisseurs of cinema have long considered him a cult director and master of black comedy. The name of the great creator is Edgar Wright. Unfortunately, the films of the British absurdist and parodist are not widely known and do not gather full houses, but they still have a fairly large audience, consisting of the director's loyal fans. There are not very many full-length films in his filmography, but absolutely every one is worthy of detailed discussion and boundless admiration.

Biography

A talented and outstanding director, screenwriter, producer and actor Edgar Howard Wright was born in Poole, Dorset, but spent his childhood in Somerset, Wales, where he moved with his family. The cinema began to attract the boy from adolescence, and even then he began to take the first steps towards the production of his own paintings. In the 80s and 90s. many short films are born, all the work on which was completely done by Edgar Wright. These films (at least theirmost) did not survive to this day. Even then, the boy has his own style, despite the fact that he filmed mostly parodies of the masterpieces of the classics of cinema with a vivid mixture of genres. The director's first works that won success were Dead Right and A Fistful of Fingers. The latter was even shown on the air, which attracted comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams to the young talent, thanks to whom Edgar Wright began working on television.

Fucked

In 1996, the fateful acquaintance of future inseparable colleagues and friends - Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg - takes place. Together they work in the television project "Psychiatric Hospital". Later, when Pegg and Jessica Hyens start writing the script for the upcoming TV series Freaks, they get the idea to invite Wright to direct. It is thanks to him that this situational comedy is painted with colors that are not inherent in the genre. He uses techniques that are characteristic of horror and science fiction, which gave the series a special charm and uniqueness. On top of that, Edgar Wright never skimped on references, so the show just abounds with them, and quite openly.

"Trilogy of three flavors" Cornetto"

It can be said that this particular series of films, released with long breaks, has become the hallmark of the director. Many authors have the idea to give several different stories with completely different characters, but at the same time with the same actors, some kind of relationship andcombine them under a common name. Edgar Wright used the same technique. Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Hop (2007) and Armageddon (2013) became the director's famous trilogy called Blood and Ice Cream. Each of them is a parody of some well-known, hackneyed genre, and they all ridicule their inherent clichés and clichés. In all three films there are allusions not only to the classic works of cult directors, but also to the other films of the trilogy. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost remained in the lead roles. It is the heroes of the latter in each tape who ask to buy Cornetto ice cream, and it is always of a different taste and color.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

All parts of the trilogy were warmly received by the public and critics, and Edgar Wright even received 2 awards for the film "Shaun the Zombies". However, his next work, unfortunately, was not so successful and failed at the box office, not even recouping the budget. She was the film adaptation of the comic book series by Brian Lee O'Malley about Scott Pilgrim, who must defeat the seven evil ex-boyfriends of the eccentric Ramona in order to start dating her.

The main role in the film called "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" was played by the famous young actor Michael Cera. In addition to him, such famous personalities as Jason Schwartzman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans and Anna Kendrick also starred there. But even they failed to save the project. Probably the reason for the collapse is that the picture is designed for a very narrow audience -geeks who are fond of old computer games and consoles, comics and manga. However, commercial success is not what Edgar Wright counts on in the first place. It is important for him to create and express in the outside world things close to him personally in spirit, as well as to bring the pictures to perfection.

Following and future projects

In 2011, Wright co-wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. But the most time-consuming and time-consuming work of the director was "Ant-Man" about the famous Marvel superhero. He began work on the story and script back in 2006, but a year before the film was released, the sad news appeared on the Internet that someone else would take the director's chair. The most common reason for this was creative differences with the studio, which did not give the author the freedom to translate his ideas. The producers found a new director and hired other writers to fix the plot that Edgar Wright had been creating for so long. The filmography of the outstanding cinematographer does not end there. Now he is actively working on the film "Young Driver". The project is still in preparation for filming, but it is already known that Lily James, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx and Ansel Elgort have received the main roles. No Pegg-Frost duo have been announced this time around, but there is no doubt that it will be no less memorable than the British director's previous films.