Edgar Wright Brings New Flavors To Genre Films

A still from Edgar Wright's latest film The World's End.

BY JACOB FERREIRA

You’ve probably heard the name before, but you might not know where you heard it. Edgar Wright, British filmmaker extraordinaire, is most famous for directing and co-writing the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End) which star Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Wright began his career in filmmaking at 14, first using a Super-8 camera to direct several short films, and later using a Video-8 camera he won in a competition. The majority of his early shorts were parodies of already popular movies. Early in his career, Wright worked on a number of shows for the Paramount Comedy Channel, as well as the BBC, which helped develop his comedic style. What really paved the way for Edgar Wright’s fame however, was his work on the TV series Spaced.

In 1998, Wright was contacted by writers/actors Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, who asked him to direct a sitcom that they were developing for Channel 4. Wright put his own unusual spin on the show, with the use of dramatic camera angles clearly taken from popular movies and TV shows, like The Shining, and Pulp Fiction. Wright packed Spaced to the brim with as many classic references as he could, and people couldn’t get enough of it.

After the critical success of Spaced, Wright, and his new buddy, Simon Pegg, began developing Shaun of the Dead, a self-proclaimed “zom-rom-com.” Shaun of the Dead featured the same kind of jokes that Spaced was known for, although this time with an emphasis on honoring George A. Romero’s classic zombie films and other famous movies in the horror genre. The film’s humor turned out to be popular outside the U.K. and Shaun of the Dead became a transatlantic hit. Realizing the success of their film, Wright and Pegg began planning out the next two movies in what became known as The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, a subtle nod of the head to a running joke between the pair about the British ice cream’s effectiveness at curing a hangover. Unlike a traditional trilogy, the films that make up The Cornetto Trilogy, all star Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, but tell completely different stories, connected only by recurring motifs, and gags.  Hot Fuzz, the second in the trilogy, parodies the typical “hardcore cop” action movie, while the recently released finale to the trilogy, The World’s End, parodies the sci-fi genre.

The Cornetto Trilogy isn’t all that Wright has worked on however, he co-wrote The Adventures of Tintin with Steven Moffat, the head writer of Doctor Who.  Wright also produced, directed and co-wrote Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which despite much praise from other directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith, was not a financial success. Currently, Edgar Wright is working with Marvel Studios to develop Ant-Man, which is set for release in July 2015. Even though he’s bringing The Cornetto Trilogy to an end, Edgar Wright’s career is far from over, and Ant-Man is just one of many films to look out for in the future.