Edgar Wright, Vol. V

The only thing Edgar Wright does as well as directing movies is talking about them. Thankfully he's got a new movie out (THE RUNNING MAN) AND he's back on Happy Sad Confused (for the 5th time!) to chat about everything from his favorite Brian De Palma shots to making peace with Kevin Feige. UPCOMING EVENTS Brendan Fraser 11/18 in NYC -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tickets here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Walker Scobell 12/19 in NYC -- ⁠Tickets here⁠ Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:31Speaker 01

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• 0:59Speaker 02

  Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now.

• 1:07Josh Horowitz?

  Hey guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Today on the show, Edgar Wright returns. You know him, you love him. The Cornetto Trilogy, Scott Pilgrim, Baby Driver, and now The Running Man. Hey guys, thanks as always for joining me on the podcast, for listening, for watching. However you're enjoying the show, I appreciate you guys. Yes, Edgar Wright is back. And of course, he's back. He's always welcome on this podcast, one of our favorites. Any film nerd worships this guy. He lives and breathes this stuff. He is, he is cut from our same cloth. We, we have the same reference points, the same movies, although I will say, he knows movies way more than you or I do.

• 1:50Josh Horowitz?

  I will venture to say that unless Martin Scorsese, you're listening or watching to the podcast, Edgar Wright knows movies better than you. But he's always such a great chat. And this movie is such a fun ride. Glenn Powell adapted from the classic Stephen King book. This is a way different movie than the Arnold Schwarzenegger adaptation back And eighty seven. Um, and I think you guys got to take it. It's out in theaters now. So support Edgar, support the running man. Check it out and enjoy this conversation. Before we get to that, though, some quick reminders. Uh, we do have some very cool upcoming events, live events here in New York City. Uh, if you're listening or watching this before Tuesday night, November 18th, still tickets available for Brendan Fraser, talking about his entire career. He's never

• 2:34Josh Horowitz?

  done the podcast, so there's a lot to cover. And also, we're screening his new, very sweet film, Rental Family. It will probably make you cry. Fair warning. Uh, link is in my show notes to get your tickets. And also, we have for the Percy Jackson fans out there. Um, and I know you're out there because these tickets have been selling very well. Um, Walker Scobell, Percy himself is joining me at 92nd Street. Well, I believe that's December 19th. Um, get in on that quickly because that, that is, I think that's going to sell out. That's, that's going fast. Um, some more things to be announced coming soon. As always, patreon.com slash happy say confused for all the announcements,

• 3:15Josh Horowitz?

  the discounts, the merch, early access to the pod. What more can you ask for? Uh, patreon.com slash happy say confused. Um, okay. Not much more preamble for Edgar. I'll toss right to this conversation. Uh, just to say, uh, a conversation with him is always so easy and fun. If you love movies, um, he just speaks our language. He lives and breathes this stuff and has all the reference points. Uh, this is a conversation that dives into Running Man, but also, you know, weaves into our love of Brian De Palma and Paul Verhoeven and potential future projects like the, um, the Baby Driver sequel and Barbarella and more. So, uh, a lot to enjoy in this conversation.

• 4:00Josh Horowitz?

  Edgar's one of the great conversationalists out there in addition to being one of our most, um, unique filmmakers. So, check out the running man and enjoy my conversation with the one and only Edgar Wright. Edgar Wright, here we go, man. You're still alive.

• 4:16Speaker 04

  I know.

• 4:17Josh Horowitz?

  This is your true, this is your running man is surviving this gauntlet.

• 4:21Speaker 04

  It's maybe, uh, this is towards the end of the press tour. I mean, this is like in the last couple of days of what's saying press tour. And I was just saying that I feel like I'm in the conference room from The Matrix. Like at any, at any point, Hugo Weaving is going to come in and tell me that this is all, this is all fake.

• 4:39Josh Horowitz?

  As you, as you know, yeah, press tour is kind of a, a, a bit of a psychological warfare. So I appreciate you. Um, we had a good night last night as we tape this. It was a opening night last night. We did some Q and A's, got to see a live audience feel that energy, which must be, must be a boon on an exhausting press tour as audiences are starting to receive it. And you're feeling, feeling the love. Tom, give me, give me a sense of like your,

• 5:03Josh Horowitz?

  your coping mechanisms, your attitude about opening weekends at this point. Cause you've had like, you know, big successes, you've had disappointments, like all filmmakers. Like where are you at in terms of like how you get through an opening weekend?

• 5:15Speaker 04

  I think if you're smart, and I think I, I, I learned this on Scott Pilgrim. And, and not that I necessarily would have seen that coming, but I remember on Scott Pilgrim, it was the first time I thought, hmm, maybe don't read the internet that weekend becomes out. So I think I just was like, and, and, uh, you know, so whatever deadline articles there were about the box office of Scott Pilgrim, I never read them. I just thought like, stay off the internet that weekend. Um, and you know, I think the thing is, is that,

• 5:49Speaker 04

  I guess, the thing is, there's, there's so much, there's so much put on a movie in terms of how it performs in the first 48 hours of its life. When we as film fans know that that is, you never know what part of the story you're in. And so I, I think there's, you know, listen, and I, I'm guilty of it as well. I read all the sort of like the news sites too, but there's, there's so much put into the idea of film being like a horse race. And, and it being like sports and ultimately, you know, that's not really the kind of story of, of any film, you know? So I kind of, I think over the years, I've sort of tried to sort of like, just try and ring fence myself to just.

• 6:35Speaker 04

  I'm here to promote the movie. I'm really, I'm really proud of it. I'm really proud of the movie. And I think just in terms of making a film that I've thought about since I was a teenager and then, and then actually doing it on a large scale and working with this amazing cast and crew and getting to connect with Stephen King, you know, one of my favorite authors.

• 6:57Speaker 04

  Is just, the whole thing has been sort of like a dream, even as it's been an exhausting marathon at the same time. A sprint, like a marathon rather than a sprint, I guess. I wouldn't, I wouldn't have been able to sprint for, for a year straight.

• 7:12Josh Horowitz?

  Right. That would be impressive. So, so when I saw the film, I immediately hit you up. And I, I think I said something to the effect of like, I knew you were making a Stephen King movie. I didn't know you were making your John Carpenter, Paul Verhoeven movie, which like, I feel like, you know, you know, your films, you know, your filmmakers, you wear your influences on your sleeve, yet somehow your films are all uniquely you. Were those two filmmakers in particular on your mind, among others, in making Running Man?

• 7:40Speaker 04

  Yeah. I think, yeah, absolutely. And I think some of those, and it's interesting, actually, even though, even though there was a 1987 version of this film,

• 7:54Speaker 04

  it's ironic that the, the, the 1987 film that's probably more of an influence would be Robocop, which I think is kind of like just a peerless sci-fi, action, satirical classic. And then weirdly, I think the Arnie film that has more influence on this film than the 1987 Running Man, it is Total Recall, also by Paul Verhoeven. And actually, when me and Glenn met Arnold after he watched the screening and talked about the film at length, you know, he, he really wanted to stick around and talk about it. I was able to say that to him because, you know, the 1987 film, which is like super fun and obviously has its own sort of following, is wildly different from the book. And so the whole reason I wanted to do this in the first place

• 8:36Speaker 04

  is because I'd read the book as a teenager. I love Stephen King. I knew, I knew there was another movie in the source material and I wasn't really interested in doing a remake. There was like karaoke. My favorite remakes are ones that do something wildly different with the source material. The the biggest and best one to me being David Cronenberg's The Fly. You know, like so and John Carpenter's The Thing, another another incredible one. But The The Fly in particular, because I think it deviates from the source material so much and it is is so sort of fascinating, kind of like.

• 9:14Speaker 04

  You know, microcosm of its time. But yeah. The Fly for me is like top 10, like period film of all time. It's a perfect movie. And it really holds up. I mean, two, I'm not not dismissing that as another. But it to go back to what you were saying about John Carpenter, Paul Verhoeven. I think part of it, absolutely yes, an influence and Escape from New York, definitely an influence on this, just in terms of like. What I would call like fun and dystopia.

• 9:44Speaker 04

  It's not all bad. We can have fun in here. Well, listen, like the New York that's in Escape from New York is obviously grim as hell. And Manhattan has been turned into a penal colony. But of course, you know, we've all had fantasies about being in that film and running around. You know, like sort of on a kind of like a a fetch quest in the middle of like crazy inmates. Yeah, Grand Theft Auto lives off of basically. I mean, I I watched it again. Actually, I watched it recently at at the cinema for the first time. I realized I'd never seen on the big screen. And then it was actually just as I was wrapping up the movie.

• 10:24Speaker 04

  I I don't remember recall, I could count count the days off on one hand in the last year. But one of them was as we were coming towards the end of post, it was like a public holiday, like a bank holiday weekend. And my girlfriend was in town and we hadn't made any plans because I'd just been working like 16 hour days, seven days a week. I think at some point I figured out on the calendar I'd worked 30 days nonstop. And then it was like, there's a couple of days off. And I said, what do you want to do? And she said, well, let's just go and watch some old movies at the BFI. And I was like, perfect. And what was the movie that happened to be on that night, Escape from New York? So I was like, it's kismet. It's research. On the big screen. Well, I mean, I've played the movie at this point. But to go back to what you're saying, I will say this is the.

• 11:11Speaker 04

  A thing that I've done throughout my career is I gravitate towards films and genres that I miss.

• 11:19Speaker 04

  And that I miss on the big screen. And I feel like I was kind of spoiled. Growing up in the eighties and nineties going to the cinema because it felt like you got a sci fi action movie every other week. Right. And, you know, and John Carpenter and Paul Verhoeven, like a huge part of that. And you think about all of the, you know, and James Cameron, everybody, like just like the sort of the films that kind of came out, even if you look at nineteen eighty seven alone. The year that Running Man was released, there's so many, and sometimes even on the same opening day, it's just insane. So it is a genre that like has, especially from this, from a studio point of view, that seems to have kind of um, been a bit more fallow of late. So the opportunity to do one,

• 12:04Speaker 04

  you know, uh, with a studio based on a book that I love, you know, on it, on it, on a good budget with like lots of great actors and ILM working on the movie, first time ever with them, like a dream, a gift. I don't take any of it for granted.

• 12:26Speaker 00

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• 12:56Speaker 05

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• 13:29Josh Horowitz?

  Look, we've talked about virtually all of your films throughout our years chatting, and this is your biggest film in terms of budget. And like, you, you know, you've worked with IP in a sense. Scott Pilgrim is obviously IP. And like, you've danced around other projects. But I don't know, it seems like you could have done, you've had opportunities to do things of this scale before, or at least they've been talked about. And it's very telling that like, you know, you did your own thing for as long as you did and waited for like, one that was, like, this is a passion project. This goes back to, you know, like, this is in your bones. You read this book when you were a teenager, informative years. I guess, I'm curious-

• 14:08Speaker 04

  And visualized it as a teenager as well. That's right. You can't not do that when you read it, but when you're, you know-

• 14:14Josh Horowitz?

  Exactly. So I guess my, what I'm curious about is like, having now done it, having done kind of like, the 10th pole, $100 million movie, whatever the budget was, it's a big one. I don't know.

• 14:26Speaker 04

  I think it looks twice as expensive as it was as well.

• 14:29Josh Horowitz?

  Exactly, exactly.

• 14:30Speaker 04

  That's the goal. People say, it's like, they say, I always get asked this question on the press or say, what's the difference between making a big Hollywood movie and making Shaun of the Dead? And I said, basically, your job is no different. Number one, people are giving you the money, you're going to make sure the film's good. Number two, you're going to make sure that money is on screen, and that people don't watch it and saying, and how did this cost this much? Which is a terrible thing. And the third one, ideally, and I think I've hopefully done this throughout my career, make it look more expensive than it actually was. Make it look twice as expensive as it was. And then when you tell people the budget, I said, oh, I would have guessed twice as much as that. I said, well, good.

• 15:09Josh Horowitz?

  Did, so did, I guess, give me a sense of sort of like, where you're at now in terms of like, why this was the time to tackle something this big? Was it just about like, this lined up, the opportunity was there, and yes, you were passionate, as opposed to others that, for whatever reason, didn't click in the right way? And, and what was the experience like finally having kind of some more tools at your disposal?

• 15:33Speaker 04

  I mean, I don't feel like I've been lacking in tools on previous films. I mean, I mean, and actually, a lot of the crew- There are all people returning from previous movies. And to be honest, I mean, we can talk about this separately, but we we had quite a kind of time crunch.

• 15:46Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 15:47Speaker 04

  Which I wouldn't have been able to get through the movie if I wasn't working with a loyal crew that I've worked with several times. But I think the thing that's interesting, I think maybe people, and again, I I I take none of this for granted. I feel very fortunate just to be, you know, kind of working in this business in a time when the sands are sort of shifting and and especially making this movie coming out of the production strikes of two thousand twenty three. I've never felt so much like an employer as well in that like hundreds of people get to work on this movie after like, you know, like there'd been a desert in two thousand twenty twenty three, um, just production of ground to a hole in many countries.

• 16:29Speaker 04

  What I think people don't realize is that directors, unless unless you're certain directors, I think, can kind of write their own check. Most people like they're the order in which their filmography goes is not necessarily up to them.

• 16:44Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 16:45Speaker 04

  There are a number of factors that come into making a movie, especially in this day and age, and it's about like the right timing, the right budget, the right tax break, where you can shoot it, kind of like when you can shoot it like, and those things kind of all have to line up. So the crazy thing is that um, in early twenty twenty four, I wasn't sure what the next movie was going to be. I I'd sort of been working on a couple of other things that were like in a in a finished place. There was actually a smaller film that I was working on. Um, which nearly went, um, um, this adaptation of The Chain by Adrian McKinsey and

• 17:25Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 17:25Speaker 04

  the SAG strike and the WGA strikes that were through everybody's schedules into kind of um, chaos. And so it just fell apart. And and in a weird way, it's telling maybe about the business, the current state of the business, that it was it was easier to get this going than like a small, a smaller movie.

• 17:43Josh Horowitz?

  That's what it is, right? It's the extremes. It's easier to get the hundred fifty million dollar than than twenty million dollar movie now.

• 17:50Speaker 04

  It's wild to say that, but it's it's an unfortunate sort of like nature of the business at the moment. And and um, so listen, given all of that. And the actual opportunity to do this movie, something that I've really wanted to do. And with like, you know, like a a big budget and and, you know, an amazing crew. It's just a gift. It's it's and it's and it feels sometimes you feel these things are sort of that it's. It's it feels miraculous that it came together in the way that it did. And I have to give a lot of credit, not just to my sort of crew, but also to like Simon Kinberg and also.

• 18:31Speaker 04

  Mike Ireland, who was the head of Paramount Pictures and Brian Robbins at the time that kind of greenlit the film. And and not just greenlit the film, but kind of, as I said, in early twenty four. There was a point, I was doing this other movie, it had fallen apart and we couldn't kind of get it going quickly. And I was working on something else that may or may not go, which is all, again, it's all dependent on like. The the numbers and et cetera, et cetera. And Mike Ireland called me and said, and I've never had this experience in my career. He called me and says, why aren't we making The Running Man right now? You could be in production this year and have it out in late twenty five.

• 19:11Speaker 04

  I never had that usually, and not to say that it was easy, but usually you're pushing a project uphill all the time. So for somebody to actually fire the starting gun was really crazy. And and actually, a friend of mine, um, Don McKellar, you know, the great Canadian sort of film legend who, you know, works with Park Chan Wook a lot. I had seen him in Los Angeles in May last year. And and then he watched the film in Toronto the other night, Toronto, I've got to drop the second T, so I apologize. Toronto, Canadians, Toronto.

• 19:43Speaker 04

  He watched the movie and he said, this is just wild to me because I saw you in L A eighteen months ago. And you said, oh, I think this Running Man film might happen, might happen. Like, so it was maybe like less than eighteen months ago that it hadn't been greenlit yet. We were sort of, it was all sort of coming together and suddenly as soon as it came together, we were like working and just didn't stop until. Well, I mean, I haven't stopped working. This is, this is.

• 20:11Josh Horowitz?

  This is still work. Well, there's a good lesson there too for you, you know, a reminder to yourself because, you know, there will be stops and starts for films again. But some of like your probably artistically most rewarding experiences, like I would think Baby Driver is one too, which came out of, you know, the ruins of Ant Man. And this one kind of comes out of the ruins of a film that you wanted to do. And there are other opportunities and things can emerge and you can't beat yourself up too long.

• 20:36Speaker 04

  Oh, no, I mean, listen, it's, it's, you know, like, I, I think that's the thing is that sort of like the business is in such flux and nobody really knows what's going to happen. That, you know, I think honestly, just grateful to be making movies, you know, and, and, and, and getting them out onto big screens. Like exhibition as well means such a, a big thing to me because I never kind of bought into this idea of, uh. I kind of felt that we were sold a lie about streaming, that everybody like treated it like there was this kind of fancy new development. And the way that people talk about that. And it's like, but isn't it just watching movies on the couch? It's not, it's not any different than, than that, right?

• 21:17Speaker 04

  So actually, and obviously in the pandemic, it was such a terrible blow for cinemas. That I found myself that after the kind of the restrictions lifted, I'd probably gone to the cinema even more than I ever had done before. I would just kind of like get off the couch and go watching old movies, watching new movies and just like, I, you know, I, if you practice what you preach.

• 21:42Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 21:43Speaker 04

  And you want to be a filmmaker, you got to go out there and see it with audiences. You know, there's some people that I think work in the industry that once they achieve a level of success, never mix with the great unwashed ever again.

• 21:55Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 21:56Speaker 04

  They go to industry screenings and they go to like, you know, award screenings, but like I sort of pride myself and a lot of my favorite filmmakers do too on like sort of go and go and see it with an audience. You've got to, you have to be the audience member. It's really important.

• 22:10Josh Horowitz?

  And correct me if I'm wrong, you haven't, you haven't done a TV product since Spaced.

• 22:16Speaker 04

  No, not yet. No, I'm not to say I'm not dismissing, I'm not dismissing ever, but people, it's not something that's necessarily like a a move. It's, it would always just be about what the story is. If there was something subject matter wise, that I thought like, yeah, I really want to do this. And this is the perfect outlet to do it. Great. I mean, and, and also I, I mean, and yes, it would be, it would almost be something more like Spaced. The thing that I don't quite get and happens a lot is I'm still really excited about the form of a, of a feature film. And when sometimes you see TV shows that are like, you liked this movie back in the seventies, now watch.

• 22:59Josh Horowitz?

  Here's ten hours of it. Yeah.

• 23:00Speaker 04

  Watch forty hours of it. Like, yeah, but can I, I can also watch the one hundred and five minute version, right?

• 23:07Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 23:07Speaker 04

  Like, so I don't know. I mean, I guess, not to say, and again, I find like I'm sub tweeting a lot.

• 23:14Josh Horowitz?

  There are exceptions, but.

• 23:15Speaker 04

  There are, there are absolutely exceptions. But I, so I still believe in the theatrical experience and I believe in the feature film, you know?

• 23:23Josh Horowitz?

  Do any, you know, we talked about, you know, some of the false starts and some of these films, do any sequences or ideas from any of those films that didn't come to pass ever seep into other projects? Like, are, were there any like sequences from Ant-Man that kind of came into another form in Baby Driver or even Running Man that are still in your brain or still in your brain now?

• 23:44Speaker 04

  Not really, not specifically. I think maybe in terms of an idea of like how to.

• 23:51Speaker 04

  I mean, I definitely kind of found myself from Baby Driver into Soho into this, wanting to kind of do, I guess, more like, I just sort of, you know, you're always trying to push yourself and it's just visual storytelling, the way that you kind of board and the way that you think about things. And I think, I think because of the nature of, of those films, I mean, Soho is a bit of a spoiler, but, but it's got dance sequences. So it's a similar thing. But there's something about kind of like, about choreographing sequences without cuts, where you're creating like a different reality. And, and, and in this, I think it was taking further

• 24:32Speaker 04

  stuff that I'd done on those films where, well, Ben Rich is, is the lead. And he's also kind of the, the subject of the show. So sort of designing these sequences where you could go for longer, um, un, unbroken takes.

• 24:50Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 24:50Speaker 04

  I mean, not specifically, I don't know how any kind of Ant-Man action could find its way into The Running Man.

• 24:56Josh Horowitz?

  Right. That's very specific.

• 24:57Speaker 04

  Saw that sequence where Ben Richard slipped under a door.

• 25:00Josh Horowitz?

  Yes, yes, yes. There you go. You talk about unbroken shots. Maybe we've talked about De Palma in the past. I'm sure we have. I know you, I know you, your Phantom of the Paradise is one of your, your big ones, but I'm sure you love virtually all of his work.

• 25:13Speaker 04

  Well, there's, there's a big one we're missing that relates to, I mean, Carrie is one of my favorite films of all time.

• 25:18Josh Horowitz?

  Of course.

• 25:18Speaker 04

  And it's my favorite Stephen King adaptation, too.

• 25:21Josh Horowitz?

  Any, I was just listening to a podcast talking about Snake Eyes, which is kind of a guilty pleasure. And there's so many like iconic unbroken shots throughout his work, obviously. What stands out to you? I'm just curious from a, a fan of his work. Do you have a favorite?

• 25:36Speaker 04

  I think, um, I mean, what I love it, well, actually, I'll go for like a, a classic, acknowledged classic one, and I'll go for a deep cut one.

• 25:45Josh Horowitz?

  Okay.

• 25:46Speaker 04

  I mean, what, and listen, I'm a big Hitchcock fan as well. So I, I, I, I know sometimes people kind of like sort of sometimes kind of sniff at De Palma as a sort of Hitchcock acolyte. But I think they, they do two different things. And I think the thing that Brian De Palma does that I love is when the films become fully operatic. Yes. Like it, it, it is, it is really just, and it's not, it's not like it's self-conscious, but it definitely has this larger than life feeling. And my favorite is in Carrie is the, the long crane shot leading up like from Tommy Ross and Carrie White on the dance floor. Through the crowd as they go to the stage, going up the kind of the, going up the road to the bucket.

• 26:31Speaker 04

  With that Pino DiNagio score, it's just fantastic. It's just like, and that to me is just like, that is like pop opera at its best. I love it. A more deep cut one that I love is in Raising Cain. There's that amazing exposition scene. I forget the name of the act actress Lynn. Um, oh God, I'd have to look this up. So something screaming that, oh, Frances Stern Hagen, that's an actor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's the scene where she is the doctor and she's basically doing a massive exposition dump about what's happening. It's kind of in the middle of the movie. And it's like Clark Gregg and another actor, I forget, are kind of taking her through this police station.

• 27:14Speaker 04

  Or is it in a hospital, one or the other? Either way, basically it's so kind of meta because it's like, and here's, here's the big exposition dump where we're going to explain what's happening. And it's in a steady cam shot where Brian De Palma does that meta joke of Frances turning hagen keeps turning the wrong way. And they move her the other way. So she's going left and they say, oh, no, no, this way. And it goes, it keeps going down an escalator and then goes all the way to like a dead body on a slab and they pull back the shroud. Perfection. Have you now, have you seen the Raising Cain version that's on the Blu-ray where somebody re-edited it to be in chronological order?

• 27:52Josh Horowitz?

  No.

• 27:52Speaker 04

  It's actually funny enough, name drop alert. I'm not that I had not been doing this already, but I was actually, I went to see John Lithgow in Giant, the play about.

• 28:01Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, yeah.

• 28:02Speaker 04

  Old Dahl. And we started, and I've never met him before, one of my, you know, an incredible actor, but we started talking about that. And he said, oh, I've heard about this. Cause the original version of Raising Cain was in chronological order. And then after a bad test screening, they went nonlinear and put the kidnapping sequence at the start. And I forget the name of the guy who did it, but it was like a fan edit. Where somebody had restored the screenplay and just re-edited the film in chronological order. And Brian De Palma saw and said, oh yeah, it's pretty good. Stick that on the Blu-ray. So if you have the Blu-ray, you can watch the original version, which is pretty, pretty great.

• 28:37Josh Horowitz?

  I'm digging into it. Yeah. For folks who don't know, an amazing out there Lithgow performance or performances.

• 28:42Speaker 04

  Form and fizz.

• 28:43Josh Horowitz?

  Exactly. Um, you know, we always talk filmmakers and like you, you know, I, I love that you are kind of like part of this cadre of like filmmakers that are all supporting each other. They show up for each other. And like I saw, I think at your premiere, Ryan Johnson was there, Macquarie was there.

• 28:59Speaker 04

  Alfonso.

• 29:01Josh Horowitz?

  Alfonso Cuarón. This is a good company to be in. Um. How did you end up being kind of a, a go-to for Macquarie on Mission Impossible? I guess not, not the most recent one. You weren't a consultant too much because you were busy with your own film. Yeah. But.

• 29:18Speaker 04

  I didn't know, actually. It's really, I mean, I got to know Chris, I guess in the last few years and it's very sweet. Like I think, cause you know, they.

• 29:28Speaker 04

  I think it was mostly on like Fallout and Dead Reckoning. I just like invited into the kind of the edit. And I guess because of the way those guys work, that they're kind of constantly chipping away. That you get to see the movie in the longest form. And then as it comes close to release and, you know, and they're really, I mean, I, I actually. It's actually sort of inspired me in a way to kind of do the same thing is that. You know, when you have these what is called friends and family screenings, you want to show it to people to sort of make sure that it's working and also just. Yeah, because there's test screenings, you know, we did two test screenings on The Running Man.

• 30:07Speaker 04

  Um, in New Jersey, which, and, and those, those, you know, test screenings are like nerve wracking as hell. Cause obviously it could not go your way. And I've definitely had some that have gone better than others. Um, and probably the only ones that have like where the first screening has gone really well was probably like Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver and The Running Man. And then, you know, like, I remember like this Scott Pilgrim, the first Scott Pilgrim screen, I think we test screened that five times. And it sort of went from like a, like sixty to like a ninety one. But then, you know, and then, yeah, but it, but it, but it wasn't like the film changed.

• 30:51Speaker 04

  It was more that it just got finished.

• 30:55Speaker 04

  That's a fair. It's like erratically, but those things are sort of like a kind of like, it, it, it's very nerve wracking. A friends and family thing is a bit more, well, it's not low stakes because you're inviting people whose opinion. Opinions you've very. And, you know, and people like who, who, you know, if they're a true friend, they'll tell you exactly what you think. And that might be hard to hear sometimes. Or there might be something where, even if you've got kind of like a, a big note, you can't really do anything about it. Like, so you kind of like know, know that you have a problem with something, but there's not the obvious solve. But I, I, I guess, you know, probably inspired by Chris and, and Tom, who were kind of sort of,

• 31:40Speaker 04

  for like a small group of people, so sort of transparent about it. And we'll show you, you know, it's funny, I remember going to see like Dead Reckoning. And they didn't tell us the, the running time of the movie. And then I watched it and I really enjoyed it, but it was long, but it was, really enjoyed it. It was longer than it was in release. And I said at the end, I said, how long was that? And Chris said, how long did you think it was?

• 32:06Speaker 04

  But yeah, I think that's it's it's um. It is. I mean, on this, what we had to do, we had such a sort of like a. A deadline to hit with the movie. We had to edit. We edited through production. Paul Mathis was editing on set. And to kind of be able to hit the deadline, the key thing that we had to do is hand over like effects to ILM way ahead of time.

• 32:30Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 32:31Speaker 04

  Which, you know, if the film looks kind of. As finished and polished as it does. It is because. We we stuck to what we were doing and didn't deviate. I think problems, if you see a movie like where you think, wow, like the effects really like dropped off in the last half an hour. That's probably because there's been some 11th hour changes and like even the best effects companies in the world can't. Can't do things like with weeks to spare, you know, at the highest level. The the only way to get through this was and and ILM and Andrew Whitehead, this is an amazing work is that we had to kind of like. Um. Be really sure of what we were doing, hand over those sequences early and stick to it.

• 33:14Speaker 04

  You know, and and not deviate. Maybe there was a one like situation where like very like much later, I'd say, Andrew.

• 33:23Speaker 04

  But can I change this take to a different take?

• 33:29Josh Horowitz?

  Ju- just to follow on on the McHugh mission and Tom Cruise front, he Tom also came out to support, which was lovely to see. I could see you you two vibing. Have you ever discussed seriously collaborating on anything, whether it's a mission or something else?

• 33:42Speaker 04

  I I did at one point get. Like um. They talked to me about one of the missions, but it was a sort of kind of just a schedule clash. I I just I wasn't able to do it at that time, but it's very flattering to be asked. I mean, obviously, he's. You know, and also I think he's in an interesting point in his career as well, where I I'm excited that he's doing the film with Inaritu.

• 34:04Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, same.

• 34:05Speaker 04

  Because I think it's like, he's more than proved himself.

• 34:09Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 34:10Speaker 04

  Blockbuster at this point. He's like, literally with Top Gun Maverick, he like saved the whole industry. So he's he's he's allowed himself to kind of like, you know, be the Tom that did Magnolia again. And so whatever he's doing with Inaritu, which is all top secret. I have a feeling it's gonna be pretty wild.

• 34:26Josh Horowitz?

  Um, I just want to, another thing I love about you, we talk about kind of these, all these filmmakers that you know and love, and they love you. Um, next to Soderbergh, I think you're the person that has the most like thank yous and credits, like on the IMDB and other people's films. Um, you were thanked, listen to this like diverse list of films. Mickey Seventeen, Maxine, Tic Tic Boom, The Lighthouse, The Shape of Water, and Snow White.

• 34:49Speaker 04

  Yes.

• 34:50Josh Horowitz?

  Edgar.

• 34:51Speaker 04

  I didn't even know I was thanked on Tic Tic Boom. That's nice.

• 34:54Josh Horowitz?

  I mean, any of those jump out as something that were you, it was fun to kind of like at least drop in to whether it was a friends and families or the edit room or give a thought or a note?

• 35:04Speaker 04

  Yeah, I mean, um, on on The Shape of Water, I'll say this is the, um. And I come, I'm I'm very, very grateful that I got like a thanks credit on that. There's two things about The Shape of Water, just that's funny. Number one is that I felt like I gave no notes. I remember Guillermo sent me the script and said, and he was really, I remember he said, he goes, this is really important to me, this film. Read the script, be brutal, like it it needs to be great. And I read it and I said, I don't know, man, I think it's great. I think you should just shoot it. That was pretty much it. I didn't have any notes at all. So the fact that I got a credit on it is kind of wild. The other thing that's wild about that.

• 35:44Speaker 04

  Is that I was on the jury at the Venice Film Festival when it won best film. And on the jury, and I kind of was like, sort of, I think when my credit came up, I kind of think I went.

• 35:58Josh Horowitz?

  Look over there.

• 36:00Speaker 04

  Look over there. Oh, well, that's a good leg, guys. I think I probably shouldn't be thanked on the credits of a film that then wins, but. I I did, I have to say on Shape of Water, I did nothing. All I said to Guillermo was like, hey, it's great. Go for it. Um, and you know, I think, but that's very sweet. Um. I'm trying to think, I did go into the edit on Maxine, actually. So that was like fun and I love Ty. I mean, all of these people and also, you know, Snow White is like Jared Leboff produced that, who produced Scott Pilgrim. And so, you know, I think me and my brother went in and kind of like sort of like watched it with Mark and Ellie Cottin. So gave notes and stuff. So that that stuff is is is sweet and and I I appreciate it when other people come to see me and sort of like watch the movie early, you know?

• 36:43Josh Horowitz?

  I can't wait to see the credits at the next Avatar movie. Like, big thanks. Edgar Wright, he made it all possible. Sincerely, J C.

• 36:52Josh Horowitz?

  He's he's a, yeah, he's he's he's our icon. The guy can do no wrong, as is George Miller. Where do you stand? Here's a controversial one. Furiosa or Fury Road?

• 37:00Speaker 04

  Well, I mean, why pick?

• 37:03Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, that's true. But what I do love, I'll say this. Furiosa, I feel like immediately that it was kind of like the immediate reaction, and this was frankly for me too, was like, I loved it, but I was like, it's not Fury Road. And that's, but then I was like, a week later, like, it's still amazing and it's still like, the bar is too high.

• 37:24Speaker 04

  Nobody makes movies like he does. And I think it's like, I just think within, you know, anytime an author gets to make a studio movie like that, you know, we we have to kind of stand up and applaud because those sort of like idiosyncratic visions are becoming rarer on on that scale.

• 37:46Josh Horowitz?

  Yep.

• 37:47Speaker 04

  So it just has to be applauded. I mean, I love the movie. I mean, Fury Road, I think, is a very specific sort of,

• 37:55Speaker 04

  you know, I think that's just a sort of like a a classic for the ages. And I think just a sort of a film that I aspire to do something even half as good as Fury Road.

• 38:06Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 38:07Speaker 04

  Furiosa, I think, just just the way it was made and just the sort of the amount of imagination in it. I mean, I just like George's brain, you know, also, you know, just making movies.

• 38:20Speaker 04

  I I I would, if I could be making movies like that in my late seventies, Oh, come on. I was so happy. It's just extraordinary. It's just extraordinary. He's incredible. We like, the world needs more of George. But any, anything like that, when you see a movie, I mean, I felt the same way um when I saw one battle after another on opening day. Um I'd missed the premiere because we were, we were doing one of our sixty hour days. I was so bummed out. I was like, I'm really not gonna make it. But I I got to go opening night. And it was amazing just sitting with that crowd and watching like a cinema crowd who who it was so electric in the room. And you got this feeling like these people have been starved of nutrients.

• 39:06Speaker 04

  Yeah. Now, I'm not talking about international cinema or independent cinema. And when people say about like, um, I think specifically you're talking about studio movies. And just when you have a level of authorship with a studio movie, it's rare in this day and age. And it should, you know, and it has to be celebrated and applauded when it happens.

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• 40:37Josh Horowitz?

  You talked, you know, ad nauseam about, you know, the so-called Cape Break since since Ant-Man. And I'm curious though, like, is there an attitude or thought? Like, James Gunn on his side actually seems to be giving some free rein, more free rein, to filmmakers, you know? Mangold is not going to make a Swamp Thing that is a cookie cutter. Like, he's going to make his film.

• 40:58Speaker 04

  Mangold.

• 40:59Josh Horowitz?

  Exactly, exactly.

• 41:01Speaker 04

  That pun was just sitting right there.

• 41:03Josh Horowitz?

  Exactly. So, I mean, I don't know, is that, does that? I don't know if you've had conversations with James or not, but does that make it hypothetically even more interesting if you can still make your film within that framework?

• 41:15Speaker 04

  I don't know. I mean, I think, again, it's all based on the title. I think it would be something where, I think the thing is, when those things have come up, and actually Ant-Man unfortunately fell into this as well, is the reason I wanted to do that in the first place was because I was inspired by the people who had got to do the first of something and kind of set the pace. I mean, we were talking last night about the age we were when we saw Tim Burton's Batman. And like, and that movie, when that came out, it was both like the biggest movie of the year by far and also so idiosyncratic and specific to Tim Burton.

• 41:54Josh Horowitz?

  Yep.

• 41:55Speaker 04

  And incredibly quirky for a big studio movie. And I think that you felt that in when Sam Raimi did Spider-Man, you felt that when Chris Nolan did Batman Begins. And slightly the, you know, like, without going into it, into the weeds and without breaking my NDA, the sort of the reason that I had to walk away from Ant-Man is because by the time that I had started doing it, which was kind of eight years after I'd started writing it, now there was like a formula and not just in terms of like a continuity within the movies, not just the movies themselves and the stories, but also like a house style and a look and a way of shooting things.

• 42:35Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 42:36Speaker 04

  And sort of all the things that kind of like are less interesting to me where on those movies is like, there's a lot of second unit stuff, there's like a VFX unit.

• 42:44Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah.

• 42:44Speaker 04

  So I basically couldn't, I knew I couldn't make that movie in the same way that I'd made Scott Pilgrim versus the world and or even in the way that The Running Man sort of worked. And so that was definitely something that kind of gave me, well, I wouldn't say gave me pause, I mean, gave me the biggest pause.

• 43:06Speaker 04

  I was like, bye.

• 43:08Josh Horowitz?

  But, but, but the rules, I am saying is like the rules.

• 43:10Speaker 04

  I should say, by the way, me and Kevin Feige have actually made up in, in, in recent years. When I did that Empire magazine, I got him to do a piece for it. And it was actually the first email that we'd had together in like six years. And, and it was actually kind of sweet that we actually started talking again.

• 43:26Josh Horowitz?

  I wanted to imagine like a slow, beautiful hug, like the light, the soft lighting.

• 43:30Speaker 04

  In person since, but I will when I see him.

• 43:33Josh Horowitz?

  Um, this, this film infamously kind of manifested not only from your love, from your childhood, but from a tweet that Simon, the great Simon Kinberg saw and, and love Simon. What a champion. So I feel like that's, I know you've always been reluctant to talk about future projects, but this is proof that talking about things you might want to do actually can manifest them, Edgar.

• 43:57Speaker 04

  No. It's, it's literally, it wasn't the first time I'd answered the question.

• 44:05Speaker 04

  And I think it's like, it's one of those junket interview questions that you get.

• 44:10Speaker 04

  Right after, you know, like, um, well, not even the superhero one. The other one was, would you ever do a Star Wars? Like that's just, it's like.

• 44:16Josh Horowitz?

  I would never ask that. Are you kidding me?

• 44:20Josh Horowitz?

  Me?

• 44:20Speaker 04

  One, I'm in one.

• 44:22Josh Horowitz?

  That's true.

• 44:23Speaker 04

  In effect, I have done a Star Wars. I'm, I'm, I'm, I play a resistance guy in like, um, in, uh.

• 44:30Josh Horowitz?

  Last Jedi, of course.

• 44:31Speaker 04

  You know, sometimes when you kind of go into premieres, you know, you have Autograph Hunters outside.

• 44:36Josh Horowitz?

  Oh no, have you signed?

• 44:38Speaker 04

  I, no, I get asked to sign Last Jedi like posters and I'm like, well, I'm, I'm in it for like two frames, guys. But I, I appreciate it. Thank you.

• 44:45Josh Horowitz?

  That's amazing.

• 44:47Speaker 04

  I mean, maybe at some point cut to like 30 years time, I'll be on the convention circuit like.

• 44:53Josh Horowitz?

  Things have really gone south.

• 44:54Speaker 04

  You might remember me as resistance fighter in the back of the Last Jedi.

• 44:58Josh Horowitz?

  Do you not have a name? Does that character, every Star Wars character gets a name at some point?

• 45:02Speaker 04

  I have to, maybe there's some, I have to ask Ryan, remember there's some random generator on the internet.

• 45:07Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 45:07Speaker 04

  I want to say like, what would the kind of like a rebel name be like, so like, um, um, maybe his name's like Biggie Smalls or something.

• 45:16Josh Horowitz?

  There it is, canon right now.

• 45:17Speaker 04

  Oh, no, no, I get it. I get it. What about like sort of, um, Little Hootkins? R I P William Hootkins. There we go. That's my character name. Let's just put that out as canon now. My character name is Little Hootkins.

• 45:30Speaker 04

  I don't know why I thought Biggie's more, I figured of Biggs, Big Star, what's his name? Biggs, Biggs, um, Starlighter? Am I crazy?

• 45:36Josh Horowitz?

  Well, there were Star Killer, that was Skywalker. I don't know. We're all, we're getting it all confused. Um.

• 45:41Speaker 04

  Biggs definitely has a funny surname. Somebody out there listening to this podcast is screaming at it. It's like, don't you know Biggs's surname?

• 45:48Josh Horowitz?

  Uh, these posers. Okay. So the chain didn't happen. I think it's becoming a TV series, right? Like it's that, that's not gonna happen.

• 45:54Speaker 04

  I'm not sure, actually. That's a good question.

• 45:56Josh Horowitz?

  Okay. But there is a Baby Driver script. There's still an appetite to do that?

• 46:00Speaker 04

  Yeah. I mean, again, that's something I think it's, it, there is. And I think it's also, it's again, it's a matter of like, the, it's, it's, it's the, the biz things that you can't entirely sort of control. So there's a few things that like, you know, like, and, and this is actually the sort of, I think the rest of the year I'm gonna basically nap and, you know, and then the things that are like both written or unwritten to just kind of, I'd like to shoot something next year if I can. I mean, that's the one downside of making these movies that's tough. When I've heard Quentin, Quentin Tarantino, it's such a, it's so terrible.

• 46:37Josh Horowitz?

  No, no last name.

• 46:38Speaker 04

  QT, QT. He's always said this thing, and I know exactly what he means. It's that you make a film, you've got the crew, and then you go, wow, we know how to do this. We have the momentum. It would be great to just roll straight into a second movie right now. But of course, it never happens like that unless you're Steven Soderbergh, who like, seems to have just the knack of, or like, you know, um, who's the other person who just made like three movies in a row? Um, Oscar Perkins, right?

• 47:07Josh Horowitz?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 47:08Speaker 04

  Um, but like, uh, I'd love to do that. And I've never done that. And, you know, I, I, the, the Running Man comes out four years after Last Night in Soho, which was shot in 2019. And, you know, because of the pandemic, everything just kind of like, you know, do you remember the pandemic?

• 47:25Josh Horowitz?

  Um, we did that. I think it was like the first live Q and A I did was with you like during the pandemic.

• 47:30Speaker 04

  Somebody actually last night at the screening came up to me and said, I saw you at BAM for Last Night in Soho. And I said, that was with Josh Horowitz as well. Literally the first public Q and A that I'd done. I remember it vividly. It was really special. Um, so yes, I mean, to answer your question, um. Yeah, I mean, there are there are certain things kind of in the mix and then also things that you just wanna start writing like, for example, I'm gonna beat to another question. Like, you know, working with Simon and Nick again, it's actually it's actually just a matter of me and Simon sitting in a room and coming up with the idea that gets us really excited, you know?

• 48:05Josh Horowitz?

  So you you know my questions. What's the last important question I I need to hit before I let you go?

• 48:09Speaker 04

  James Bond? I don't know.

• 48:11Josh Horowitz?

  I could I could go there. I could go there.

• 48:14Speaker 04

  I feel like those are all the ones that.

• 48:18Speaker 04

  I always say this about Simon, because it's I got asked this all the way through the press tour about, and you guys are writing a film. I said, not yet.

• 48:26Speaker 04

  I think the thing with that, it's like, I would love to work with those guys again, and I'd love to do something that's like a complete outright comedy again. I think the thing that's tricky, and this is something that I think is is it is it is difficult?

• 48:43Speaker 04

  You know, maybe for some fans to understand is that movies are so hard to make, and like all the movies that I made, this one very much included, they have to come from a real place of passion. Because the energy and the commitment and the tenacity you need to make the movie is so huge. And listen, we've all seen movies where we feel like the filmmakers are kind of like going through the motions, and I I never wanna be. You know? You know, I never wanna be doing that. I and so you have to kind of really find the idea that gets you excited. And so I think the thing with like working with Simon again and Nick, you know, is is finding the thing that we're excited about. You never want to feel like it's an obligation.

• 49:28Josh Horowitz?

  Sure.

• 49:29Speaker 04

  Be, you know, like, that would be not fun to feel like, oh, we're doing this because we we feel like we ought to rather than we really want to.

• 49:38Josh Horowitz?

  I'm just saying, it it it just feels like something's wrong in the universe when Simon has made more movies now with Tom Cruise, I think. Than than you, Edgar. Something's wrong in the universe.

• 49:49Speaker 04

  The thing is, is making movies is like, no, just but like, you know, I think that's the thing is, I mean, I'd love to, I used to really envy, well, I still envy. But I mean, the Coen brothers, there was a point where they were making a movie a year.

• 50:01Josh Horowitz?

  I know.

• 50:02Speaker 04

  And and then I thought, oh, but there's two of them.

• 50:06Josh Horowitz?

  And now the output has slowed because they're split. So you see what happens?

• 50:09Speaker 04

  I know. Well, also, I mean, those guys, I mean, here's the here's how you kind of have a filmography like theirs. They don't really do press.

• 50:18Josh Horowitz?

  Right.

• 50:19Speaker 04

  Don't look back like they never look back. I think actually you had the junk interview where you tried to engage them on Big Lebowski two, right?

• 50:27Josh Horowitz?

  I I that might be me. I I've interviewed them once and I'm sure I asked. I'm sure I did.

• 50:32Speaker 04

  And that's a completely unsentimental.

• 50:34Josh Horowitz?

  Totally. No, the last thing I do want to mention, what what is your relationship with Barbarella, like the original film? I'm just curious like whether that happens or not, whether it comes to pass or not like I don't have much of a relationship with it. It's such kind of like an iconic, like the poster I see more than the actual movie. Is is that a remake of the movie or the source material or what? Like, what's your what's your interest there?

• 50:55Speaker 04

  I think if that did happen, it would be more of the latter. I mean, I I love I love the original movie. And actually, I think, you know, I thoroughly watched that at exactly the right age, too young.

• 51:08Speaker 04

  But if that, you know, like the but the the the, you know, the the the scripts, because it's funny, you seen that movie because the script is by Terry Southern. Although you can feel like the Terry Southerness of it kind of starts to sort of it it's it seems like there's there's a lot of that in there. And and it's when it's really sharp, it's it's great. And then the but it's beautiful to look at and it's like and it's fun and it's kind of subversive. And I think it's a sort of nature of the the books themselves are just beautiful and kind of really imaginative and really progressive. And it's also, I think, as well, I mean, it feels like that that is something that's I like those movies of that era.

• 51:50Speaker 04

  Especially and they're all Italian movies, actually, that have that kind of pop art sensibility. I mean, yeah, the Dean is a French director, but it's a Dino De Laurentiis production. But Barbarella, Danger Diabolique, actually a film that weirdly has a relevance to the Running Man, The Tenth Victim. Have you ever seen that movie?

• 52:08Josh Horowitz?

  No, no.

• 52:09Speaker 04

  It's kind of like a proto Running Man. It's directed by Elio Petri. It's nineteen sixty five with Marcelo Mastroianni and Ursula Andress. And it's about a TV game show where the top assassins all have to bump each other off. So it's sort of like if you had Lee Pace's character as the main character in the movie versus everybody else.

• 52:35Speaker 04

  And it's really cool. And there's, there's that particular wave of those kind of like pop arty mod films. Right. I guess if there's an interest in that, it would be doing some, and that kind of lends itself almost more into Scott Pilgrim's sort of world than. Sure. Running Man is very deliberately grounded and gritty and, and we wanted it to feel like you were on the ground with, with, with Ben, but like. That's the thing. I mean, and it goes back to when you're saying about Cape Break. It's not necessarily. It's more just a sort of like, after my experience, I was kind of like, not really interested in superhero movies generally. But that doesn't mean I'm not interested in a comic book movie. And, and, you know, one, one of the great.

• 53:17Speaker 04

  Gifts of my career was working on Brian Liam Ali's book, not just because of the story, but because of his artwork. To sort of, you know, his artwork in those books is so beautiful and, and the, the, the chance to bring that to the big screen was just. Amazing. So I, I, I'd love, I'd love to do another comic book movie. In fact, weirdly enough. And I don't want to say what it is because it's kind of still annoying to me, but one of the reasons that Michael Bakool did this is because we had been working. On a different um comic book adaptation that kind of just all fell apart rights wise. I don't really want to say what it is, just in case it comes back. Fair enough. It was actually the reason that I, he was my first call on the Running Man is we'd written this whole other treatment for something.

• 54:01Speaker 04

  And then the rights got complicated and it didn't happen, but we'd had so much fun. It was the first thing we'd done together. Since Scott Pilgrim and Michael has such a sort of a, I mean, this is the first public, you know, like, um, produced film that he's had. That I think leans into his love of sci fi and even like, you know, kind of. Political, sociological satire. So that was why I wanted him to, you know, write the movie, you know?

• 54:29Josh Horowitz?

  All right, I'm gonna let you go back into your cryosleep chamber.

• 54:32Speaker 04

  Even on the Bond question. Yeah, of course I do one. Are you kidding me?

• 54:36Josh Horowitz?

  See, see, here's the thing. You want to talk about it. You're pretending you don't want me to ask about it. You want to weigh in.

• 54:41Speaker 04

  It's more, it's more story for another time.

• 54:44Josh Horowitz?

  Okay, fair enough. To be continued. It always is. Um, congratulations, man. It wouldn't be-

• 54:48Speaker 04

  Yeah, I am not playing Bond.

• 54:50Josh Horowitz?

  Oh, thank you.

• 54:51Speaker 04

  Five, seven, and fifty-one years old. It's not gonna happen.

• 54:54Josh Horowitz?

  Thank you for clarifying. The internet can rest. Um, Edgar, congratulations on The Running Man. Everybody, check it out. See it as much as possible. We need to support these movies on the big screen. Edgar Wright doing his thing. A marriage with Glenn Powell, Stephen King. What more can you ask for? Um, thank you, buddy. It's always good to catch up. I appreciate you.

• 55:13Speaker 04

  Always fun. Lovely to see you and see you soon.

• 55:16Josh Horowitz?

  Yes.

• 55:18Speaker 02

  And so ends another edition of Happy, Sad, Confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm a big podcast person. I'm Daisy Ridley, and I definitely wasn't pressured to do this by Josh.

• 55:39Speaker 06

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