"Edgar Wright"

23:24I want to say one thing that, like, this has never been mentioned on this podcast before. I don't think so. But Jason, in the UK, in the sort of mid-80s, they actually showed, and I was a fan of, It's Your Move. Oh. Yeah. It's true. And I remember specifically, and I've mentioned this to you before, the episode that I remember, and this would be a real deep-cut Halloween costume, there's an episode where you have to pretend like a rock band is coming to school. In the dregs of humanity. The dregs of humanity. And then you have fake skeletons. He remembers that. He remembers that. It's insane. Well, I'd like to pitch that next Halloween, the four of us should go as the dregs of humanity to a party and have to explain it to every single person there saying, we're doing a bit from It's Your Move.

24:10Come on, It's Your Move, don't you remember? I loved It's Your Move, too. I watched it. I watched it. I did, too. Me, too. I was like, this kid, he's such a bad kid. He's so sort of, you know, just doing shit. It was cool. It was a cool show. So then after, wait, I did want to, I wanted you to tell me this one thing about Fistful of Fingers. Well, I want to ask about Space Star. just while we're on Spaced, I remember you told me one time, Edgar, and tell me if I'm wrong, that you and Simon were putting it together and Jessica and you didn't know, and Nick had never acted before. Is that true, Nick Frost?

24:42Oh, that's right, yeah. And how that came about? Nick had never acted before and there was a, what's the version of SAG in the UK is like the spotlight, which is like the kind of actors union and there was another actor called Nick Frost in the union because Channel 4 weren't really going to take a chance on somebody who had no credits so we said, oh yeah, no, he's been in all these other shows we pretended he was the other Nick so apologies to the other Nick Frost no fucking way and he could keep his name Yeah, I think, I'm not sure. Maybe the other Nick Frost changed his name. And Simon, maybe you and or Simon told me, like Simon worked with him at a restaurant maybe, and he said he was his funny friend, and he was like, he was funnier than everybody else I knew.

25:38He worked at a Mexican restaurant, which is not really a thing in the UK, as you probably know, called Chiquitos. I remember he'd never acted before, and he would do this thing, and he kept doing this on Shaun of the Dead, that I would sometimes give him a direction, and Nick Frost would walk up to me and whisper in my ear, say, please remember I am not an actor. That's great. And that continues to this day. I love that. So funny. So wait, so the fistful of fingers, you got it, somebody gave you$11 ,000 to make that? Yeah. I mean, it was, I owe it all to a newspaper editor in my hometown, Mike Mathias, who had some, I think he had just come into an inheritance, so he had some tax loss money.

26:24So we made the whole thing on 11 grand, and then we raised another, maybe it was the whole thing cost 22 grand, actually. Wow. It was like, sort of shot it over like 20 days on 16 mil. It was all starring my school friends and my college friends. It didn't actually occur to me that there might be actors around. In fact, the only actor that's in it, who's from Ted Lasso, James Lance is in the movie. And the only reason that he's in the movie is that his mom heard in the local paper that some kids are making a movie. And he said, oh, I'm an actor. And I said, oh, sure, you could be in it. That was how the casting worked.

27:05That's great. It was like 78 minutes long with credits. Here's a good story. I had to pad it out. The movie, as you all know, having directed and written is that you usually have the assemble edit for Tracy, the assemble edit is when all of the takes of the movie are put together. So usually an assemble edit might be hours and hours long, but the assemble edit of Fistful of Fingers, the whole thing with every single shot was like 75 minutes long. And it meant that I couldn't really cut it down, which was, there were some bits I wanted to cut out. All the shitty parts need to stay in. Yeah, so here's what I did.

27:48I needed, there was at least one, but I really wanted to cut out. I mean, now I would probably cut another 25 minutes out. But at the time, to cut some bits out, I basically created a scene in the dark. In the middle of the movie, there's a scene where it's a Western, so there are cowboys around a campfire and they blow out the fire. And so I thought, I could just put a whole scene in black here to pad it out for two minutes. So I just put black film and they just talked for two minutes in the dark and that was my way of padding it out. Oh, wow. That's a good idea. Long end credits, long only credits.

28:22Yeah. So smart. That's great. So from there, after Spaced, you did what's known as the Cornetto trilogy now, which is Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World's End with your friends. I mean, it's a dream for everybody to just kind of work with their friends and you did it three times in these incredible movies, like one after another. Was that working title on all three of them? Yeah. Yeah, Eric Fauna. Tim Bevan. Naira Park, who you well know Jason as well, did all of the movies. Yeah, and Liza Chasen. Yeah, and it was straight after, I'd say after the second series of Spaced, we started writing Sean.

29:00I mean, it was funny. It was never meant to, it's funny, it's called the Cornetto Trilogy because a Cornetto for the American listeners is a brand of ice cream in the UK, in Europe, in fact, in most of the world, except the States. Yeah, is it three layers? It's just a... No, it's not. It's like a pre-packaged ice cream cone, isn't it? Yeah. It's like a drumstick. The only reason it came up as a trilogy is when we did Shaun of the Dead, which mentions Cornetto once, we got free ice cream at the premiere, and I said to Simon when we were writing Hot Fuzz, hey, we should write Cornettos into the second one so we get free ice cream again.

29:38That's great. I love that. How did you and Simon meet? Because that was... You guys, that was, it's been a sort of a lifelong collaboration, you guys. He says we met at the Battersea Arts Centre, and I know the truth is we met at the Riverside Studios. We met at a, he was friends with, there was in the, like, around that time when I first moved to London, like, you know, 30 years ago, and there were a lot of people on the scene who have all now become huge, like the Mighty Boosh guys and, you know, Simon and Matt Lukes and David Walliams and the League of Gentlemen guys. They were all sort of coming up around the same time.

30:12And I met Simon backstage at a comedy gig. And I'd seen him doing stand-up on TV. And he's from the same area as me. We're only like, we grew up like 50 miles away from each other. So we're both from the West Country. And I'd seen him on TV doing a stand-up set about regional TV. So I went up to him and said, hey, I'm from the West Country too. So I think he remembered me as who's that weird kid. Who's that weird kid with the beard? and then you guys and then what happened? Oh, the lights are turning off in my room. I just get the motion sensors on in here. Look at that. SOS. It's okay. I'm in the dark now.

30:51You're definitely not in the US. Are you in a holding cell? No, we're shooting the campfire scene. We're shooting the... Wait, so you guys... We can pab this out for two minutes. So you guys meet and you say, hey, let's do a TV series? No, we... oh somebody's coming in here we go somebody's switching the lights on for me thank you there's motion sensors I'm in a conference room I'm actually mixing The Running Man right now it is not finished it's out on November 14th and it will be finished by then but Simon yeah he was I started doing TV and I did this TV show on like the I guess the British version of Comedy Central the Paramount Comedy Channel at the time and there was a show called Asylum and I got asked to direct it and Simon Pegg was in it and he brought Jessica Hines, who co-wrote Spaced and co-created Spaced, onto that.

31:44So I was working with them for the first time. So I'd already met him and I knew then, it's funny when you meet somebody that you think, I thought even then, and this is eight years before we made the movie, I was thinking, I'm going to make a movie and he's going to be in it. I knew then that Simon was like a great comedy leading man and it was just about then finding the idea of what that was. Yeah, it's so great. I'm so, I'm so, I'm so, I can't believe you're at a mix, right? Have you already given your notes, they're implementing your notes, and in that break, you're doing this podcast? Yeah.

32:18It's very fancy to say, guys, I've got to go and do Smotless right now. Yeah. It's very fancy you're doing a mix. They're like, what? They're like, what? What are you talking about? Yeah, what the hell is that? I'll bet that mix is enormous, right? I mean, it's, well, Sean has seen the movie. Yeah. It's massive. It's a complicated beast. Massive. I'm sure. Yeah, I mean, it's so incredible. Well, before we get to it, and we're going to get to it, the last thing I wanted to say before we get to that is Baby Driver, because Baby Driver is one of my favorite movies of all time and seen it so many times.

32:49And yes, bravo, bravo, bravo. And I did not know this until I... They let the baby drive! This crazy movie, the baby's driving! A bambino driving! I was hoping you were going to say bambino. I was hoping that you did. I did, he did. I didn't know that you had or still have tinnitus. Is that true? No, I had it when I was young. Which is when you hear high-pitched things in your ears and pitch noises. But it was something that actually, you know, tinnitus suffers, or tinnitus as we call it in the UK. It's one of those weird words like... Aluminum. Aluminum. Aluminum. Aluminum. Risotto, risotto. No, I had it when I was young.

33:33But I didn't, you know, like... The thing that the character does in the film to sort of tune out the tinnitus with music was not something, obviously, that I could figure out when I was... It happened when I was probably eight or nine, but I did used to have that. So it was something when that kind of idea came back around. And knowing people, obviously, a lot of people in the music industry have tinnitus. So I had had experience of it, but not anymore. I mean, hopefully not again. And when did you become, and I'll say the word, obsessed with music? Because you sent me, or you still send me, your yearly kind of...

34:12Yes, end of your playlist. Yeah, and I listened to it. And it covers all mediums, all kind of genres of music. When did you first listen to an album or a song and be like, you love it? Well, I think probably just my parents' vinyl. like in the days before like we were all old enough to remember the days before like computers and you know when there was nothing on TV I mean I used to kind of like I'm sure like a lot of people like put the White Album on and just watch it go around and watch the vinyl go around so I've always been a huge music fan I think it's probably one I don't play an instrument and I think it's one of if I have a regret it's that I don't I mean I guess I could still start too late I'll never be a pianist like you, Sean.

35:01Although if I would like to play the piano, that would be the instrument I'd like to play. I can't do it like you. You can, you can, you can. But your films use such a great expression for your sort of musical affinity in film, right? And it's such a great way to use music and you do it always so effectively in your films. Do you get really excited by that, by that process of using music in your films? I think I have the kind of movie music version of Synesthesia where I kind of just imagine it. Like Baby Driver sort of existed in my head for maybe like 20 years before I made it where it was that song that opens the movie, Bell Bottoms by the John Spencer Blues Explosion.

35:42I would like hear the song and I would see the scene. And then I don't know if you guys have this as, you know, when you're writing is you can see the movie in your head and the difficult part is writing it down. So I think Baby Driver is one of those films that I kind of saw in my head, and at some point I had to figure out what it was and how I could make it into a film. So that would have been... I do that sometimes. ...fermenting in my brain for a long time. And the music was always the thing that inspired the sequences. And it's something that, like, in a lot of the movies I've made, is that, like, a song will sort of trigger the entire thing.

36:16What about directing videos? Have you done that? Because I'd imagine that would be a super exciting thing to do in this area. Yeah, I have done music videos. I mean, the sad thing is that the budgets for music videos started going down 25 years ago, and now it isn't a thing in the same way it was, which is a real shame, because obviously there are some music videos, like Michelle Gondry, they're works of art. They belong in a museum. They're incredible. I have done some, not as many as I'd like, but I've done ones for Beck and Pharrell Williams. and I'd like to do more, but they're difficult things to make because they, you know, if you're doing it for - So constrained as a budget, yeah.

37:01Yeah, it's like a lot of pulling favors and you can only do that so many times in a row. I think I did two low budget music videos in a row right after Shaun of the Dead and I realized after the second one, it's like, ah, you can't ask people to work for nothing twice in a row. Or the opposite of that would be a lot of fancy directors like you will, in between projects, will do commercials because the budgets are so high and you can get all the fun gear and work with the cinematographer. Do you do a lot of that at all? Not as much as I'd like to, but I think also the thing with that is also if you've got a crew that you really like is to keep them working.

37:36And so that's a nice thing. It may not even be working with new crew. Sometimes it's working with the crew that, as you know, it can be like three years between movies or four years between movies. So if you have a team of people that you like working with, doing commercials and music videos is a great way to all keep working together. I mean, I think that's the thing, because I write as well. I'm always envious of directors who can kind of do a film a year, because at minimum, it's like three years between movies for me. And usually when you've finished a movie, you kind of think like, oh, we've got this great team, we should just keep going.

38:11But it never works out like that. I've never rolled straight into another movie. Because you're writing everything you direct, yeah. And I need a nap. Yeah, I remember you saying that years ago we were talking about something and you said, no, no, I can only direct the things that I write. It's the only way you can kind of get your brain around it, right? You've always held to that. Yeah, so far. That's not to say that wouldn't change. And I don't write a lot. Baby Driver is actually the only thing I wrote on my own. Everything else I've written with co-writers, which I love that. and I like doing that.

38:50But I wouldn't rule that out. You know, I think it's that thing where you, I mean, it's really difficult as well with like something like Shaun of the Dead was a film where to just read the script without knowing how I would direct it or how Simon and Nick would perform it. I think, you know, some actors passed on it because they were just sort of baffled by it or studios passed on it because they couldn't quite see it. And in a way you really - The way that you guys - Yeah. You had to see Simon and Nick doing it, and you had to see their tone of their naturalistic comedy performance, because you could take exactly the same screenplay and make it really broad and silly, and it would be an entirely different movie.

39:32So it was a thing with that film in particular, and it helped that we had space, and we could show people space and say, hey, this is kind of what it's going to be like. But it wasn't an easy sell for everybody, you know? I'm sure, I'm sure. It's a narrow target if you look at it that way. It's a comedy. It's a horror film. It's all of these things. And it's silly in parts in a way, but you also have to have those. I tell you, man, one of my favorite moments in film history, I swear to you, and I reference it all the time, is when everybody's surrounded and Nick gets up. Fucking Frost gets a fucking phone call and he answers it.

40:07Yeah. Surrounded by zombies. Yeah. Yeah. You all right? How you doing? Yeah. He's just super. talking to his dealer it's so fucking funny in this great heightened moment and then it's completely burst by he gets a phone call and he takes it we'll be right back

40:31and now back to the show is there a comedic tonal like north star for you that I'll bet is British that sort of established what you thought was the funniest kind of comedy when you were growing up? Oh, yeah. I mean, I think there were shows, some of them before my time and they get repeated. I mean, I feel the shows that were really like the groundbreakers. I mean, obviously, Monty Python was before my time, but it was repeated a lot. So that would be something. Like Fawlty Towers? Yeah, Fawlty Towers. I mean, the ones that were on TV when I was, you know, like things like Fawlty Towers and Monty Python and we're slightly before my, Are You Being Silvered was always on.

41:13I love that show. But I think the first one that made a really big impact on me, which is more of a culty show in the States, was The Young Ones, which was only like 12 episodes, which was so punk rock. It was only 12 episodes? I've never seen that. Yeah, it was like one series in 1982, one series in 1984. Every episode ended with them dying. Like it was such a sort of like. I love that show. It was like a total hand grenade of a show. And I remember I was too young to see it the first time at school, but all of the kind of the cool kids at school were talking about the young ones. So when the second series came around, I was all over it.

41:51Remember, nature sows the seed. We plant the seed. Nature sows the seed. I remember that show. That was so good. I want to see it. It was incredible, that show. And it really stands up. They used to have bands on every week. they figured out they could get a bigger budget as a variety show if they had a band on so randomly in the middle of a sitcom like Motorhead would be on all of a sudden it was such a weird the format of it was so alien to what we were accustomed to well certainly I don't know about the US but Canada as well I remember seeing it it was so jarring to watch the first time because it was so unlike anything else I think it was like that on British TV as well when it first came on I mean, it was the start of something.

42:36I mean, alternative comedy, as they called it in the 80s, was like huge. And there were like shows that haven't traveled over to the US that, you know, I mean, I guess in that pre-cable age where things started traveling over like 20 years ago. But prior to that, there'd be things like The Day-to-Day and Brass Eye and Alan Partridge. Brilliant. Those shows were like huge for me. When you were writing comedy specifically, do you find it helpful? Because you mentioned you write with other people and you've written with Simon a lot. Writing comedy, do you find it helpful to write with somebody else?

43:19Oh, yeah. In terms of sort of pace and sort of for tone and all these things and for jokes, obviously. I think writing comedy on your own is a very lonely business. Yeah. I think writing with a co-writer and pinging things off each other or just reading it aloud, I think that's a big thing is just reading the script aloud to each other. And you get to the point where you could almost perform it like a play. I think Baby Driver I wrote on my own, but that was more of an action film. And it was the most difficult script to write because you're constantly looking for affirmation from somebody. like please somebody read the pages at the end of the day but you know obviously with writing with Simon Pegg or Michael Bacall or Joe Cornish you have immediate feedback hanging off each other yeah because if you write something and you're like oh this is kind of a funny bit and if you're writing with somebody else and you sort of go yeah and then the guy blah blah blah and you're writing with goes yeah it's pretty good and you're like okay well yeah that's a terrible idea yeah no I mean I'd like to write something else like that and me and Simon keep talking about writing something else together and I think it really just comes down to just being in the room together really it's just like we've got to do that and just hash it out and have fun with it you know okay speaking of writing with somebody you had a writing partner on The Running Man I want to talk about The Running Man I'm so excited for everybody to see this it's so good I was blown away I have to say Sean P.

44:44Hayes is in this film Sean is in The Running Man I did it to hang out with Edgar and it was a blast it was so fun and you're in the only scene in the movie that Glenn Powell is not in I know right I know. That was in the contract. Do you requested that, Sean? That's an odd. No, Glenn requested that. Oh, Glenn did. Glenn specified. By the way, I spoke to Glenn for a long time yesterday and went on and on about how incredible he is. He is so commanding and so, I said the greatest gift, a compliment I could give you, and I gave it to Jason too on Black Rabbit, is there's nothing lazy about it at all.

45:21There's nothing at all. Fully committed, fully into it. he's like a huge action star, Glenn Powell. I mean, hands down. Like you buy every single thing he says. He's amazing. This movie looks huge. Yeah, it's huge. It's so good. And I remember just to start off the first day, I was so embarrassed. I made some stupid joke. Like I'm going to connect with the crew and make them like me. Not thinking they'd already been there for 14 hours when I came for rehearsal. And I said some stupid joke and nobody laughed. I was like, oh God, this is going to be fucking awful. And then I fell into the hole off the stage.

45:59Nobody remembers that. No. They do now. They do now. And thank God it didn't hurt, but I was like, oh my God. I fell on the... What was the joke that you tried to connect with the crew? I said, the reason the movie got greenlit is here. Oh no. I remember that now. The walking green light has arrived. But anyway, you were great. I have to rectify something, Jason. We have to work together because I've now worked with two of the three people on this call. I'm patient. I'm patient now. Did a voiceover in my Grindhouse trailer, Don't. Yes, that's right. And Sean is in The Running Man. So Jason, I have to complete the set.

46:45Nothing would make me happier. Okay, can I make a picture? Dregs of Humanity, the movie. Dregs of Humanity, or it's your next move. It's your next room. What's that character doing now? Teen Wolf 3 in 3D. Let's do it. How are you spelling three? Yeah, that's a great... Oh, there's a few too many E's on it. Okay, so talk about The Running Man because it was incredible. You shot through November through March, right? Last November through March. Yeah. And what drew you to it? For people who don't know, for Tracy, there was a Running Man movie in the 80s with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I did not...

47:24Richard Dawson. Yes. And Richard Dawson, right? And I did not know it at the time that it was a Stephen King book. I didn't know that. I thought it was an original idea. Yeah, it was one of the books he wrote under his pseudonym, Richard Backman. He wrote like five novels before he got rumbled. Maybe four novels before he got rumbled as Richard Backman. It was a pseudonym that he wrote for like non-horror stuff. And so The Running Man was written in 1982. and the Schwarzenegger 87 version is a very loose adaptation of the books which is one of the things that attracted me because I'd read the book as a teenager I think probably like a lot of people Stephen King was a real gateway author for me in the sense of I was reading his books in my early teens and it was probably some of the first grown-up books I ever read and The Running Man made a particular impression on me and I'd actually read the book before I'd seen the Schwarzenegger film so I was aware that it was drastically different and so I was always interested in doing a new adaptation of it because I thought, well, this is a book that hasn't really been adapted and I also had a dream to adapt a Stephen King book and yeah, so it was I mean, it's difficult for me to talk about when I'm still making it but I mean, you've seen the movie, Sean but it's been such a kind of adventure It's also funny as well, it has some...

48:48One of the things why I want to say Glenn's in every scene except the one that Sean's in. Sean's in a show that Glenn is watching right at the start of the movie. He's a host of a different game show that's not The Running Man. But Glenn is in every scene because in the book, one of the things that was really intense about the book is that you see the entire thing through Ben Richard's point of view. And that was something that I thought, well, that's something that's not in other movies like this. Usually they cut away to the baddies or you go to kind of like another location or somebody else watching the show.

49:18But we stay with Glenn and his, you know, like subjective, intense experience, his point of view. So it was, and you know, so Glenn was on set every day. Yeah. And he really brought it. It was amazing. But it was an amazing cast all around. Like, in fact, I was just talking to a friend of the show, Josh Brolin, who's in the movie, and he said to say hi. The other JB, the real JB, sorry. J.B. We love Josh. We love Josh. Coleman Domingo, Michael Cera. Michael Cera? Yeah, Michael Cera. Your other colleague. First time we've worked together since Scott Pilgrim. Amelia Jones, Jamie Lawson, Sean Hayes is in the movie.

50:00Yes, sure. Sean Hayes. Sure. And Julia Cumming, your amazing girlfriend, who's this, she was in the scene with me. She was in the scene with you, yeah. And she is an incredible singer and I love her music. That's all I wanted to say about that. There you go. Oh, that's all you wanted to say. When do we get to enjoy this film? Yeah. November 14th. Oh, just in time for Thanksgiving. It's coming very soon. I've never made a movie, I don't know if you guys have ever done it, I've never made a movie that's been finished so close to release. Yeah. And it's exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.

50:35But it's crazy that it probably will be finished in a week's time or something like that, which is wild. I can't wait to see it again. And I read that you can only get through directing drinking espresso. Are you still drinking espresso in post? It's way too much. Way too much. It's too much. No trouble sleeping. Yes, lots of trouble sleeping. I have to knock myself out with melatonin and edibles. Oh God, I'm with you. Welcome. come with it, yeah. What do you think, you know, it's funny, you've done lots of, so many things in different areas and, but comedy's always kind of at the heart of what you do.

51:17So whether it's horror action, there's always, you know, comedy's always there. Have you, do you want to get back into, do you have any desire to just go pure comedy again and go into something? Oh, yeah. Yeah? No, I think, and also, you know, as we all know, I'm still, I want to make movies for the big screen. And for some reason at the moment, comedy has kind of like sort of, you know, like not being made for like the sort of the cinema anymore, which is really strange. But I think things are cyclical. I think it will come back. Well, because they always have to have the, and your films have, a lot of your films have these big elements to it.

51:54And they're very, as Jason pointed out early on, you have a great visual style and you have a great, and so that's all part of it. It kind of sort of complements the whole thing. But when I go back and I think about space, even now as I'm thinking about how simple it was and how much it was just on the writing and the direction and the acting and just the pure comedy of all, that must be attractive to you on a certain level to kind of get back to something a little simpler in that way. I think so. Or it's finding what that is that sort of like, I mean, listen, I'm going to flatter you both, but Arrested Development was one of the biggest joke delivery machines on TV.

52:35It had the kind of speed of a Marx Brothers film. And that was the thing that I think when me and Simon would talk about that show all the time. Because also American shows at that time when they were network shows, 22 minutes long, with 22 minutes and 500 jokes. Incredible. And I love those things. I'm still a huge comedy fan and the best comedy films that just like, you know, obviously when I was growing up, things like the Zucker Brothers films. Zucker, Abraham Zucker. I shouldn't leave Jim Abrams out. But, you know, things like Airplane and Top Secret, those films are huge for me. You know, the Python movies, the Marx Brothers, like, just like, I just, I don't know how many times I've watched Monkey Business and Duck Soup.

53:25I watched Duck Soup every New Year's Eve. It's incredible. It's so funny, for me on the extreme is, Edgar, I suspect you've seen it. And I don't, this is not a recommendation for anybody to watch it because it's very jarring and a lot of people have. But I'm a huge fan of it because it's, I've never seen anything so densely packed, more densely packed with jokes, pure just jokes. And again, a lot of it people, I've had people react with tears in their eyes because they feel so jarred by it. Xavier Renegade Angel. Oh, you know what? I have never seen this show, but Bill Hader talks about it all the time.

54:02Hader loves it too. I didn't, like, a lot of the adult swim shows never made it over to the UK. The guys who did Wonder Shows. Oh, yeah, I have seen that. Vernon Chapman and what's his name? John Lee, they did. It is a absolutely, you want to talk about wall-to-wall jokes. There's nothing else but jokes. And it's also very disturbing. This is an animated show? Yeah, I send this with a big warning. There's a big warning on it because people will, they'll end up responding to this episode with tears in their eyes. Like, man, you really fucked me up with that Xavier Renegade Angel. Oh, really? Holy shit.

54:41Anyway, sorry, that's just an aside. Edgar, what's the best, we'll leave on this, what's the best piece of advice you've gotten and the worst? Oh, God, the worst advice. The best and worst was from a guy who used to run a big studio. He said, be patient, just be patient. which is the best and the worst advice and the worst it's both it is um i wish i had a great pithy answer for this i mean i remember somebody said to me like that i mean i say to people all the time is that because sometimes i feel that people make movies and that they're making movies to kind of fulfill a brief i i think you and i don't know if everybody ever says but you have to be the cinema you have to make the movie that you want to see as a as a as a customer and so i'm always and so i mean i i i can't believe i'm like telling you advice that i give myself or give them to other people but it is that thing as i think that's the thing that i i i think about all the time is i want to be the audience member and i think as a film director you're always just chasing that thrill of the of the film that you saw or the film that you want to see that if you didn't make this film yourself you would want to be the biggest fan of it and I think that's something I haven't really answered your question Sean but I think that's always the thing I return to is just try and be sincere in the process of make the movie that you know that you would want to see instead of trying to guess what they want yeah because I think that comes I think you can tell those movies where people are kind of working in genres that they don't necessarily love I think you can tell I think when people like really love what they're doing, it's palpable and it's infectious, you know?

56:23I bet you have those moments. I'm kind of visualizing you having a moment. Like, can you remember moments maybe on Running Man where there was a big moment or a big shot or something happened and when you yell cut, you were like, fuck yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you never, people always say like, I mean, even in comedies especially, they say like, oh, you guys look like you're having such a blast. And you always say, well, you never have time, on a schedule to stand around and high-five each other afterwards. It's like even after the most famous bit in the film, like when the film comes out, on the day it's like, okay, so now we're going to put the camera over here and now we're going to get this shot.

57:00And Jason, you know this, it's just you're always moving on to the next thing. But then you see it in the editing room, but it's just you and the editor. And you're like, oh God, I wish I had them all around to watch this right now. What they've all created. I think the times that you have that moment actually is when you're doing a scene in one take. Because then I think what happens is the whole crew crowds around the monitor because did we get it? Did it work? And there are quite a few oners in The Running Man. So those are usually the times when the crew really bond over something. And Baby Driver, the opening credits of the film is like a three-minute take with lots of choreography.

57:42So everybody crowds around the monitor to see whether it works and whether we got it. So I think those are the moments, I think, where usually everything else is you, or just shooting, shooting, shooting, and then it's the end of the day. Well, you can really tell how much you love what you do, watching your stuff. You're one of the most exciting filmmakers that we have, Edgar. It's truly a joy watching everything that you do. I can't wait to see it. It's been awesome, and you've been so supportive of us. You were one of the first people to text me when we started doing this podcast years ago, and you've always been so sweet about it.

58:19Well, it made me just hanging out with you guys. Well, get back to it. It was in the middle of the pandemic, and then I start texting you saying, oh, I miss you, but then I hear you every week. It feels like I open my life and stuff. Well, finish up your post and get back out here. I'm going to be in London in 10 days, and I'm going to text you. I know. You know what? I have tickets to see, is this thing on? Oh, you'll love it. It's such a good movie. You'll love it. Unless I'm mixing, I'll be there. Great. Please be there. I actually got tickets ahead of time. I was going to tell you that. I'll see you in London.

58:48I can't wait to see you. Oh, good. I hope you come. I hope you come. We always say, like, you know, everybody check out whatever movie or whatever somebody's promoting, but I don't have to tell people to check out The Running Man because just watch the trailer. People are going to come. It's incredible. I'm so excited for The Running Man. It's incredible. I'm so excited to see this film. Let me put it this way. The guy who got the film greenlit is on the call. Hey-oh. Wow. Oh, Sean E.P. Hayes. Bravo, bravo. Wait, really quick. Paramount were like, we're not sure about this at this budget level.

59:17And they said, Sean Hayes is in? Yeah. Okay. Here we go. Check, check, check, check, check. But we did really quick. We saw Giant, a couple of years ago, you're like, let's go see Giant with Rock Hudson and James Dean. At the Vista. At the Vista, right. And we go, and I, because I knew you had a sweet tooth too, because you had Junior Mints sent to the set of Baby Driver. And I go to the lobby and I get a pack of Swedish fish, finish them, I'm going to go get another one, another packet of Swedish Fish. And you turn to me and you go, wow, so it's really true. Oh, the lights have gone out again.

59:49This must be the end. Anyway, we love you. Thank you for being here, Edgar. It's so nice to see your faces. It's so good to see you, man. I'll see you all soon in person. Yes, yes. Thanks for doing this, Edgar. Love you, pal. So good to see you. Love you, pal. Bye-bye-bye. Bye-bye-bye. I'm going to do the traditional slamming of the laptop. Oh, yeah. There you go. That Edgar. I mean, he's just, you know, I called you a stuffed animal with blood on my recent press tour as an attempt to say the most flattering thing I could possibly say about you because you're so goddamn sweet. But he would be the stuffed animal with blood that's sitting right next to you on the daybed.

1:00:28He's such a good guy. Such a good person. Such a good person. So sweet. Always been. He's always so warm. And then it sort of betrays like this incredible talent. Yeah, I know. and that one of our great filmmakers you know I know love him to pieces I love to watch him do his thing on set it's so fun he's so he's so like calm and he brings people together too I mean he did right you know he's introduced us to so many of our friends that we became friends with over the years certainly to me and you know lifelong friends Pete Serafin which obviously we mentioned before and all those guys and Simon he's just such a great people person and you know he's just such a great person Yep.

1:01:10Yeah. Good friend. Jason, you look like... You look like you have to go. I was grinding on a bye right then, but none of them seemed really good enough. Yeah, I know. You got it. Is there anything that was sort of coming close? Well, he's a great person who brings a bunch of people together and makes it really hard to say goodbye to those people, but that's just too literal. That's good. It's a little great. You got to commit. I mean, it's like he lives in England and also in America. No, don't do that one. He's bicontinental. Oh, we haven't used that one. He's bicontinental. I mean, it's loose.

1:01:51It's loose, but it'll work. Talk about loose. Speaking of loose. Smart. Loose.

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