0:00

Look his only films to

0:02

be buried with. Hello,

0:16

and welcome to Films to be buried with.

0:18

My name is Brett Goldstein. I am a comedian,

0:20

an actor, a writer, a director, an air

0:22

traffic controller, and I love films. As

0:25

Confucius once said, life

0:27

is really simple, but we insist on making

0:29

it complicated. M Holland Drive

0:31

is a simple story of a woman descending into a

0:33

psychotic feud stake dream because of the guilt

0:36

and horror of her actions towards her ex girlfriend.

0:38

But for some reason people seem to find it confusing.

0:40

Yes, Confucius, I hear you. I think it's

0:43

very straightforward. Every week I invite

0:45

a special guest over. I tell them they've died. Then

0:47

I get them to discuss their life through the films

0:49

that meant the most of them. Previous guests include

0:51

Sharon Stone, Kevin Smith, Ricky Gervais,

0:54

and even Ged Grambles, but

0:56

this week it's the brilliant Filmmaker

0:58

and Dream guests to Edgar

1:01

Wright. This one is a two

1:03

part of special and a second part next

1:05

week contains the Patreon section,

1:08

which I've decided to include for all

1:10

of you as it's Christmas. But I

1:12

will not include the Secret. The Secret will

1:14

only be available to the Patreons over at

1:16

patreon dot com forward slash Brett Goldstein,

1:18

where you'll also get extra questions for all the episodes,

1:21

you get videos of most of the episodes, you get all kinds

1:23

of bonus stuff, all kinds of treats.

1:25

Have a look for all of that over at patreon

1:28

dot com forward slash Brett Goldstein. Also,

1:31

if you've not seen it yet, Christmas is

1:33

the perfect time to watch the whole

1:35

of season one of ted Lasso on

1:37

the Apple TV Plus app. You watch

1:39

it, you can watch it as a family. You'll laugh,

1:42

you'll cry, you'll feel good inside. I'll

1:44

be wonderful. But also, obviously

1:47

the main thing you have to do at Christmas is

1:49

watch The Mother Christmas Carol three hundred and forty

1:51

times. So Edgar

1:54

Wright, I mean, come

1:57

on, he s Edgar fucking right. He's

1:59

one of the most exciting filmmakers working

2:01

in the UK. He's an inspiration, he's

2:03

a hero to many. I've wanted to get

2:06

him on the show since I started this show, and

2:08

finally we managed to sort something

2:11

out. Now, Edgar, being a genuine creative,

2:13

he wanted to make this episode feel different

2:15

and special from the others. So he suggested,

2:17

instead of doing it over zoom, that we meet up

2:19

face to face and we go for a walk. Because

2:21

all this happened during lockdown. I don't know when you're listening

2:24

to this, but there was a lockdown going on.

2:26

Hopefully there isn't any more, but you're

2:28

not allowed to meet up indoors, etc. Etc. So

2:31

we met up in Regent's Park, clipped

2:33

some mics to our lapels, and we

2:35

went for a walk. We walked from day

2:37

until night. For those of you were interested in actual

2:40

stats, this podcast was twenty

2:42

five thousand steps long. Edgar

2:45

was an absolute delight. Of course, we covered an awful

2:47

lot of topics. I think you will love

2:49

it. So that is it for now. I very

2:52

much hope you enjoy episode one

2:54

hundred and twenty six, Part

2:56

one of Edgar Wrights films

2:59

to be Buried With, Hello

3:11

and Welcome two Films to be Married With.

3:13

It is I Brett Ghostine, and I'm

3:15

joined today by a

3:17

filmmaker extraordinary,

3:20

a actor, a writer,

3:23

a producer, an exec, a

3:26

documentarian, a

3:28

comic book writer, a

3:31

legend, basically the

3:34

sort of man I think most

3:36

people who want to make films want to

3:38

be Please welcome to the show. The

3:40

incredible, amazing, it's been track

3:42

A right, thank you. There

3:45

are a couple of credits there where I had to

3:47

think what you were talking about, and I thought, oh, you're right,

3:49

there's a comic went writer. I said, I've never written a coment

3:51

book, and rose, yes I have. Of course you have. On

3:54

two thousand a D. I wrote me

3:56

and Simon Peg wrote a special Shawn

3:58

of the Dead strip for two thousand a D. I think,

4:00

never the only thing? Right? Are you referring to something

4:02

else? Now? I think that was it? An

4:06

actor is very that's very

4:08

in youre in films. I have done

4:10

actually a couple of like more

4:12

than one voice part in an animation. Now

4:15

I'm in both sing and sing

4:17

too. And I also in

4:20

an episode of Duck Tales. What

4:22

yes, that's the Pinnacle playing essentially

4:25

and I suddenly I didn't realize this until I

4:27

saw the I didn't really realize that

4:29

I was playing um a

4:32

Duck version of Christopher Nolan until I saw

4:34

the drawing of the character. And by

4:36

this point I'd already committed. And then I wired that Chris

4:39

Nolan was going to be mad at me for playing a

4:41

duck version of him? What are you Dulan was?

4:44

His name was Alice de bors One.

4:46

But when I saw the drawing, which is after I'd

4:48

already recorded it, I was like, oh no, it's

4:51

it's Chris Nolan as a duck. And then

4:53

I had to email him to just make sure

4:55

that I wasn't putting his nose out a joint,

4:57

saying hey, how's it going? I

4:59

played you in details. I didn't

5:01

know it was going to be you, but I saw the drawing afterwards,

5:03

and it's very clearly his hair and

5:06

his scarf, and did

5:08

he reply? Fuck you? He never spoke

5:10

about Actually, we've spoken sins about other stuffs

5:12

that I can only assume that he's either

5:14

fine with it or so furious

5:17

that he will never speak of it. That's

5:19

amazing. Now for the listener, Edgar

5:22

Wright and I have met up in

5:25

Londontown. There is a lockdown going. I'm not going

5:27

to record this, and Edgar suggested

5:30

that we meet up and we're allowed to two

5:32

people are allowed to meet up outside, don't they? Yes? I

5:34

think so. And so now we are walking

5:36

around Reason's Part and a

5:39

lovely time. I've put wind musks on the

5:41

mics. So hopefully this isn't a nightmare

5:43

for everyone. So here we are, Edgar.

5:45

I've got so many questions for you. One

5:48

is, well, okay, I got

5:50

two stars. Yes, So you

5:53

really, on the surface lived

5:56

the dream. You always wanted to make films.

5:58

You did everything when you were little, made stuff,

6:00

made stuff, made stuff, and then you've

6:02

got to really make stuff from a very young age

6:05

from you just sort of made it all happen. Now

6:07

you're at a level where I

6:10

imagine it's a little bit easier to get

6:13

films made. I don't know, maybe not consistently.

6:16

Yeah, I mean it depends

6:18

on what the movie is. Maybe they're

6:20

difficult to make whoever you are, but

6:23

you're definitely you're big in the game. Right.

6:25

That's very sweet of you to say you're

6:27

doing very well. You've done very well for a long time.

6:30

My question is, having wanted to

6:32

do this all your life and done

6:34

it as a kid, and now you're at the level where

6:36

you're really, really, really an

6:38

established guy, do you

6:40

still love it or in your

6:42

head is it like system really a job that I

6:44

do now? No, No, I think the opposite.

6:47

I have to remind myself all the time,

6:50

you know, when you're actually shooting, like sometimes

6:53

the worst part of the job and I say

6:55

this in big and very comments because it's an amazing

6:57

job to have the only bad part of the job

6:59

is just like it's so stressful.

7:02

The hours are really like tough and

7:04

like so sometimes it's just like a

7:06

mental and physical strain. And however,

7:09

yeah, you always have to remind yourself

7:11

every opportunity in those situations

7:14

is that this is this is

7:16

my dream job. I get to do my

7:19

hobby as as my

7:22

career, and so many people don't

7:24

get to do what they love, and so you have

7:26

to remind yourself. I mean, you shouldn't have to remind

7:28

yourself that, but you do. And it's

7:31

something that I think about a lot whilst I'm shooting,

7:33

because whenever you get to that moment

7:35

where it's like it's not like it's ever like I hate

7:37

this job, it's only it's like I'm exhausted.

7:40

It's so stressful. But

7:42

you also always just have to you

7:45

always have to default to like I can't

7:47

believe that this is my career,

7:50

and I think that there are several times where

7:53

it just keeps coming floating back to you like

7:55

that you're sort of reminded of, like, I

7:58

can't believe this is what I did for a living, you know. Yeah,

8:00

And so weirdly enough, actually

8:03

should of the Dead wasn't my first movie, but

8:06

it was like the breakthrough movie. And weirdly that

8:09

in itself was inspired by a

8:11

day shooting on Space where it's

8:13

episode three of Space where there's this zombie

8:16

scene with Simon's

8:18

character Tim Bisley in the flat running

8:20

around shooting zombies and it was such a

8:22

fun scene to shoot that it

8:24

was one of those days where

8:27

I felt at the end of the day, I felt

8:29

like I can't believe that this is my job.

8:32

And in a way that was like

8:34

one of the many inspirations of like, well,

8:36

what if we did this for a whole movie? Like

8:39

so, I think I think the thing is that I've

8:41

never been in a and this might change if I

8:43

have like kids and a massive tax bill

8:46

or massive alimony payments or something.

8:49

Wi Ye. I've never been

8:51

in a position where I've had to do something for money

8:54

yet, which is a great position to be in.

8:57

And and part of that is because when you make a film,

8:59

it's such an enormous undertaking,

9:02

you know, it could take ten years. It could take you

9:04

know, three years. I mean at minimum

9:06

at minimum, you're talking like three years

9:09

at minimum. Yeah. So, like with

9:11

all that in mind, is that you don't want

9:13

to do something for like years on end

9:16

if you're not really really into it. You know, I

9:18

was thinking about that because it is such a huge

9:21

commitment, and You're right, it's years of your life.

9:23

And I'm sure you get lots of offers

9:25

and there are lots of potential things

9:28

you could be making. What's the thing that pulls

9:30

the trigger for you where you go, all right, I'm going

9:32

to put years into this one. Well,

9:34

so far, like I've only made one

9:36

movie that I didn't like instigate

9:38

myself as in all of the movies

9:40

that I've done, I've written myself except for Scott

9:42

Pilgrim and usually and the thing that made

9:45

me do that movie is I felt like only

9:47

only I can do this movie right.

9:49

And then sometimes when they've been offers

9:51

of bigger you know, like commercial

9:53

prospects and stuff, it's

9:56

usually I kind of think somebody

9:58

else could make this movie or this movie is

10:00

going to exist without me, right. Um,

10:03

So sometimes when it fits a big franchise

10:05

movie or something that like you

10:08

know, the train has already left the station

10:10

and it has a release date, and it's like or

10:12

it's on the calendar already. You kind of think

10:14

this movie is gonna exist without

10:16

me. Yeah, I don't. They don't need

10:18

me to make this X Men movie.

10:21

Not that I've ever been offered an X Men movie, but

10:23

that's just an example. Yeah, this week

10:25

we have to point out that the Regent's Park is busier

10:28

than we thought it would be. And also, I

10:31

mean beautiful, though it is beautiful.

10:33

It's right. I live

10:36

near Redents Park and it's it's that one weird thing

10:38

of the pandemic, as the pandemic

10:40

has made me realize that there are amazing park somewhere

10:43

I've never really fully explored it. Can't believe

10:47

I can Okay nothing.

10:49

Want to ask about Baby Driver, which is excellent

10:52

bread. You don't have to go into the why you wanted

10:55

to make it into the X Believe You've

10:57

said this before, but the

10:59

stunts sequences and the you

11:01

know, the opening car sequence,

11:05

it's so incredible and so well choreographed,

11:07

all of that, and I was wondering if

11:09

the reality of making that

11:12

sequence was boring, Like was

11:14

it such tiny bits

11:17

that you were capturing such

11:19

a sort of knnectic exciting sequence.

11:21

Well, yeah, I think that's the thing that you

11:23

learn about action films is that you're making them

11:25

in tiny increments. I would never

11:27

say it's like boring. It's just like labor intensive,

11:31

you know. So there were stories about them

11:33

making of Mad Max Fury Road where

11:35

people would talk about, Oh, we shot

11:37

all day and only got like two seconds, right,

11:40

and it's like, but that's that's unfortunately.

11:42

What it takes like to get really good

11:44

stuff is that you know, like I think that opening

11:47

chase, I gotta I gotta

11:49

get throws. So the only Chasing

11:51

Baby Driver. I think we shot that movie

11:53

over three months, and that specific

11:56

chase was broken up into little chunks

11:58

over maybe about ten weeks

12:00

of the shoot. And

12:02

there was one particular bit where we actually had

12:04

to come back. We closed

12:06

down the Interstate five

12:09

in Atlanta. I hope I got that right.

12:11

If anybody's listening Atlanta and I got it wrong, I apologize.

12:14

I think it would the I five anyway.

12:18

So that was a big deal. And then there was a problem

12:21

with one of the cameras and we actually

12:23

had an insurance claim Dave where

12:25

we got to Luckily got

12:27

to go back and do it again. So twice

12:30

we shut down. Well, we didn't shut

12:32

down the main freeway. We had what's called the bubble

12:35

where they have like a literally like

12:37

a fleet of cop cars at the

12:39

top and at the back and in the

12:41

middle it's all of your

12:44

all of your cars and all the camera cars. And

12:47

I remember when we were shooting that scene

12:50

like causing chaos in Atlanta,

12:53

Kamal Nanjiani was shooting

12:55

a film in Atlanta at the same time. I think it was that film

12:57

called Fist Fight, and

13:00

he was in Atlanta and we were filming. It was

13:02

like a Sunday and we had from like

13:04

five in the morning till like

13:07

two pm on the on the interstate

13:10

and Camail whilst

13:12

I was in the car, like we were resetting. And

13:14

that's the labor intensive part is that if you fling

13:16

on a freeway, every take you have

13:18

to reset takes like forty five minutes because

13:21

you have to get off the ramp and go all

13:23

the way back and reset. Anyway,

13:25

so Camail texted me during that he said, are

13:28

you filming on the freeway right now? And I

13:30

said yes. He goes everybody in Atlanta

13:32

hates you because

13:34

it was just all over. It was

13:36

just all over the

13:39

radio, God like saying

13:41

like, oh, the fil baby if you're experiencing

13:43

any delays, the filt Baby Driver.

13:46

The same movie Baby Driver is filming on

13:48

the Interstate five. Right

13:50

now. I think I got

13:52

the name of the interstate wrong. This is going

13:54

to haunt you, isn't it? It It is? And like it

13:57

is. I know as soon as I said it out loud, I

13:59

knew I got the wrong interstate. It's maybe

14:01

it's sad. Did you ruin everyone's life? Wait?

14:03

Wait, wait, I gotta for the for the people of Georgia.

14:06

I gotta get this right. I'm just gonna check on my phone

14:09

asking that say,

14:12

how could you forget us so quickly?

14:15

You've ruined us Sunday, But now

14:17

you show much more disrespect for the

14:19

record. I am now googling

14:21

it main interstate in

14:23

Atlanta. No, that's not

14:25

the one. Oh it was the IAD

14:28

five, so

14:30

wrong, discuss it was the IADY

14:32

five. It wasn't the The five is in Los

14:34

Angeles. Okay, it was the IADY

14:36

five. But the story is still the

14:40

details guy, So

14:43

oh yeah, it's the story. Okay.

14:45

So to answer your question that opening

14:47

car chase, yes, is like made up

14:50

of tiny like increments

14:52

over like weeks and weeks and weeks, and we had

14:54

to code back and shoot stuff again because

14:56

we had a camera failure, which was actually

14:58

like a benefit because second time round,

15:00

I could show the actors the rest of the chase and

15:03

I could say do this, do this, do this. But

15:05

then one poor actor who wasn't

15:08

run of show on the movie was John

15:10

Burnthal. He was the only actor.

15:13

Everybody else would either run of show or had

15:15

to be shot out. And John Burnhale,

15:17

who's only in two scenes in the movie, had

15:19

to come back to Atlanta like ten times

15:22

during the shoot, and so he kept dragging him

15:24

back and then he was done, and then there was a reshoot

15:26

and he was coming back anyway. So on the last

15:28

day that John Burnthall was filming, I went

15:30

up to him afterwards and I said, Hey, I just want to

15:32

say thanks so much for

15:35

your time. I know it was kind

15:37

of particularly difficult for you because you

15:39

know, like you had to keep coming back, but you know, it's

15:41

such a difficult scene and so complicated.

15:44

And then John Burnthal said, he goes, hey, I

15:46

get it. Yes, if it was easy, Every

15:48

asshole would do it. And I think

15:50

about that all the time. This is

15:52

that thing whenever you're sort of doing something that's got any

15:55

level of hardship, there's John Burnthale's

15:57

words. If it was easy,

16:00

every ass i would do it. Yes, that's

16:03

very nice. Can I ask you,

16:05

I'm curious at how you deal with the

16:08

mental side of all of this. So when you made

16:10

Scott Pilgrim, which is fucking excellent, and

16:13

I know it was very expensive and

16:15

it didn't make a lot of money, right, it was

16:17

critically exclaimed but didn't make a lot

16:19

of money when it first came out, Like, was

16:21

that difficult emotionally

16:24

and because when you were involved in something,

16:26

can you talk about that a bit? Yeah, sure it was.

16:30

Actually there was something with that that was

16:32

actually that made it very easy to deal with.

16:34

I mean, there's an enormous amount of work and blood

16:37

sweating, tears, and also a lot of love and passion

16:39

that went into it. Yeah, But ultimately,

16:42

like we all were really happy with the

16:45

movie, and we knew that a certain audience

16:47

really loved the movie because we'd had

16:49

screenings and stuff. Yeah, So the biggest

16:52

issue with that movie was trying to sell

16:55

it to you know, like a mainstream

16:57

audience. Yeah, and that was something.

16:59

It was something where like you had to sort

17:01

of see the movie to really

17:03

understand it, and like it was difficult

17:06

to encapsulate

17:08

the premise and the tone in

17:10

one poster or one trailer, and so

17:12

we knew that was a challenge. But we knew from

17:14

test screenings and preev screens

17:17

that the people who did watch it really

17:19

loved it. You know. I see there were things that were

17:21

like maybe kind of like created

17:24

expectations that we could not meet. Like we showed

17:26

a comic con and it's like a sort of

17:28

rock concert, but there's an element of

17:30

that. It was an amazing screening and I wouldn't change it

17:32

for anything. But you're also on the

17:34

flip side, you're preaching to the choir. Yeah. And

17:37

that said so I think the thing is

17:39

as well, I feel very differently about these

17:41

things because I know that

17:44

most of my favorite movies who

17:46

are not hits at the time. Yeah, and this Scottium

17:48

gray and gray and grays and grays, and well that's

17:50

the thing that I tell you

17:53

one story that they explained everything about

17:55

it. Yeah, So it came out on the kind

17:57

of the weekend in the States and it opened at number

17:59

five. And I think that weekend I very

18:02

much did not look at the Internet because

18:04

I didn't want to read like stories

18:06

on Box Office Murder and Deadline about what

18:09

was number one. It was the

18:11

Expendables.

18:14

I mean, I did this EW this

18:16

article for e W about the tenth anniversary of Scott

18:18

Pilgrim, and at the end of the article they said,

18:20

any any closing words. I said, well,

18:22

you're not doing a tenth anniversary of the Expendables,

18:25

thought you anyway, So

18:27

it came out We got trounced

18:29

by the Expendables and Eat, Pray

18:32

Love when we opened at number five. And

18:34

it's that thing where you know, people who are

18:36

kind of like it becomes like for

18:38

some people who maybe haven't seen it or whatever,

18:41

or or maybe like sort of saying,

18:43

oh, I told you so that it was two kind of like

18:45

like um, you know, niche or

18:48

whatever. And so that was tough to

18:50

deal with when people like, you know, like

18:52

Seth McFarland made like a joke about it on

18:54

Twitter and I was like, fuck you. But

18:59

then the funny thing so the

19:01

next Wednesday we were supposed

19:04

to have the Big UK premier in Lesser

19:06

Square, and nearly the entire

19:08

cast were going to be there. Michael Cereberry,

19:11

Larson, like Mary, Chris

19:13

Evans, like nearly everybody was there,

19:15

Jason Schwartzman, pretty much the entire cast

19:17

was there. And I remember that I've

19:20

sort of been dealing with like how

19:22

it had done and sort of just sort

19:24

of trying to come to terms of that. But at the same time, you're

19:27

still promoting the movie, so

19:29

in a way you kind of have to kind of just keep your chin

19:32

up and like just kind of keep plowing

19:34

ahead, knowing that like, well,

19:36

if people just watch it, they're gonna I know,

19:39

there's a lot of people are gonna love it. So I

19:41

think the worst thing you can do is like run for the

19:43

hills or try and blame

19:46

the failure on somebody else. And I've

19:48

seen other directors that I know do that, and

19:50

I thought that is not the way to go. You

19:53

sort of have to take it on the chin. So a

19:55

lot of people in the in the aftermath who wanted

19:57

me to throw marketing under

19:59

the bu like, you know, you doing interviews, they're

20:01

saying, do you think the film would have done better with

20:03

a better poster? And would

20:06

I would never do that because I knew how hard

20:08

marketing had worked on it, yeah, and also

20:10

how much they loved it. Anyway, it's the London

20:12

premiere and all of the young cast

20:14

are there, and I remember thinking,

20:17

you know, I was like sort of my girlfriend

20:19

at the time with Anna Hendrick, and I remember saying to her,

20:22

I think tomorrow, before we go to

20:24

the premiere, I think I should gather everybody

20:26

in the hotel. We rented

20:28

a room. I'll gather all the cast together and

20:31

I'll do a speech saying, hey, listen,

20:33

I know I didn't do very well last weekend. I'm

20:35

so proud of the film, so proud of you, and

20:37

it's going to be a great natteral that it's just go and enjoy ourselves.

20:40

So I had this little speech ready to

20:42

sort of get everybody like get up

20:45

and sort of let them know that like to

20:47

be proud and etc. Etc.

20:49

So I was ready to give the speech, and

20:52

then we'd rented this room in the Soho hotel,

20:54

like with some drinks and stuff. All of

20:56

the casts are coming down, and then as

20:58

the cart started to come down, they were

21:01

all so already in party

21:04

mode and so like blithely oblivious

21:07

did any of those commercial expectations.

21:09

They were just there in London to have a jolly and having

21:11

a whale of a time that I sort

21:13

of like looked at them, I said, they're okay,

21:16

And I never gave the speech. They

21:18

did not need inspiring, they did not need they were like

21:20

totally fine. And there was a sort of inspiring

21:22

thing to me is I think maybe maybe I've

21:24

been over thinking. They don't give

21:26

a shit. They're just like sort of And there was the thing

21:28

as we all went onto the carpet, like and it

21:30

was actually like a really great screening because

21:33

it was like, you know, like we love the

21:35

movie and like, you know, I

21:37

mean also the thing with that movie that we were very

21:39

lucky is it more than

21:41

maybe any of them my other movies. I

21:44

think that that movie has played in cinemas

21:47

the most afterwards. Like I

21:49

think some prints or

21:51

DCPs of Scott Hilgrim never went out

21:53

of circulation because

21:56

like, especially in the States, like

21:59

within a month it was already

22:01

doing midnights. So it was that strange

22:04

thing where like

22:06

a decade to kind of We're very

22:08

lucky that people were just kind of like already

22:11

you know, like a cult had started. Yeah,

22:14

and I think it makes people love it even more. It sort

22:16

of go, this is ours. Yeah,

22:18

you gain ownership of it. Yeah, and then you

22:21

look, I mean, listen, I mean. The

22:23

funny thing is that, like you can also

22:25

tell like that like something is

22:27

like doing well when it becomes

22:29

like a catalog title for the studio,

22:32

right the number of times

22:34

it's been rereleased on Blu Ray or the amount of

22:36

Funko pops there are, you sort of

22:38

think, at some level, this is obviously

22:40

an asset to the studio in

22:42

a way that lots of other films aren't.

22:45

And then you sort of think about if you look sometimes at

22:47

the top ten of the year, there are some films

22:49

that are in the top ten of the year that year that

22:52

nobody has ever spoken about since

22:54

they were released. Do you know what I mean? Or

22:56

we'll never see a big screen ever again.

22:59

You know, I'm not going to mention any names.

23:01

So interesting the word completely true.

23:04

I think the same thing of often

23:06

sometimes they get it right, but often with

23:08

the uscars, the film that wins the best picture

23:11

no one talks about ever, you forget

23:14

You're always better off to be like a best

23:17

picture of losing. Yeah, the one the people that should have been that

23:19

one. Yeah, because usually it should have been Maybe

23:21

Parasite is the exception that was

23:23

the best. Whether everybody could agree on everyone,

23:28

Yeah, absolutely, But then in other situations

23:31

it's like, I bet in the weird way Kevin

23:34

Coston with Dancing with Wolves probably gets a

23:36

bit annoyed. Yes, I won Best Picture that Yeah,

23:38

listen, I like Good Fellas too, But like

23:41

is that thing where it's like, yeah, you never

23:43

read anything about Dances with Wolves. I like that movie,

23:46

but you never hear anybody talk about it these days

23:48

saying like, obviously Good for Fellers should

23:50

have won. Yeah, well that's going to be shitty

23:52

for Kevin costing the two I m. But

23:56

on the flip side of that experience,

23:59

you then may Baby Driver, which

24:01

I believe was more successful

24:04

financially than anyone expected.

24:06

But I was the biggest Yeah massive, Yeah,

24:08

it was my. It's my That was a

24:10

real like it was so great for me because it was

24:12

like like a movie that I

24:15

was solely mine. I'd written it.

24:17

It was also my first probably since my

24:19

very first movie that maybe I was spenty. It was my first

24:21

like soul screenwriting directing credit

24:23

since then, and it was something that I had the

24:26

idea for since like

24:28

the mid nineties. I mean I literally came up

24:30

with the first like ideas for that

24:32

movie in like nineteen ninety

24:34

five in Woodgreen Living

24:37

and in a Middleton

24:39

Road shout out to ninety five

24:41

a Middleton Road shout out very

24:43

specific. But yeah, I mean,

24:45

yeah, it was my biggest hit. And it was also I

24:48

think sort of you know, in the

24:50

wake of like maybe Scott

24:53

Hildam not doing so well or like, you

24:55

know, my experience with the

24:57

the film that should be

24:59

maybe get into that as well. But like it

25:01

was, it was obviously really it

25:04

was really important to me to have

25:07

like a hit on my own term. So

25:08

yeah, so it was so it was so great

25:10

when it was, like, but did you having

25:13

had I guess what my question is, what

25:15

I'm fascinated by is that

25:17

thing of clearly for you and for

25:20

I think everyone, it's it's

25:22

art, right, It's a creative thing. You want to make this

25:24

thing. You want to make this thing, and you make it with all your

25:27

heart and but there's also

25:29

a business side to it, and you are

25:32

kind of required to make a certain amount of money,

25:33

So make your next thing and somebody

25:36

said, like a screenwriter Larry

25:38

Carris, it's key. He sort of said. I

25:41

remember he said after Scott Pilgrim, he said, he goes, Yes,

25:43

the kid newses, it's great. He goes, he goes, you

25:45

can't have too many of those, and otherwise they

25:47

take the keys away, And that was

25:49

a phrase it really stuck with winning of it You maybe,

25:52

yeah, I mean also I think it also

25:54

like it. Also,

25:57

Yes, it's like you have to sort of then

26:00

come back with something that has a chance of making money.

26:02

Yeah, you know, when making the World's End after

26:04

Scott Pilgrim, it's budgeted

26:06

at a level where maths wise,

26:09

in terms of what the other ones made and what they would make

26:11

on DVD and everything. It's something that everybody's

26:13

comfortable with. It's not like, you know, if you make

26:15

a film like Scott Pilgrim and it doesn't do well, nobody's

26:18

going to give you that money again unless it's

26:21

an absolute sure fire

26:23

franchise hit, you know. So my

26:27

question to tie all this together, I

26:29

guess is I hear some

26:31

people, artists, I

26:33

hear them say I don't care about

26:35

any of it. All I care about is am I proud

26:37

of it? Do I love it? The rest of it doesn't affect

26:40

me, and I always think I don't believe

26:42

you. Well, it's a

26:44

lovely thing to think, but we must affect

26:46

you a little bit. But some of my question is having

26:48

had the Scott Pilrim experience where you made a film

26:50

is very proud of, its excellent, that financially

26:53

struggled, and then making babies I ever wish you're

26:56

very proud of and was excellent and did

26:58

financially excellently. Having

27:00

been through the previous one, did it

27:02

make you like feel differently, as

27:05

in, do you like we'll have to

27:07

take the good bit about it it or evens out or

27:09

was it like fucking yes, No,

27:12

I mean it definitely made it. I mean, listen, I mean

27:14

I think anybody who says it's all about

27:17

the art and I don't care whether people like it or not. You

27:20

know, maybe that works if you're a musical

27:22

artist and you can just put something out on

27:24

a platform, But with a film at

27:26

a certain budget level, there's a obviously

27:29

there's very real like sort of limitations

27:32

if like you can't like do a

27:35

couple of flops in a row and expect to keep working,

27:37

you know, at some point, people aren't going to just give

27:39

you money to make things if it's not making anything back.

27:42

I think I've been lucky. Is that Even

27:44

with Scott Pilgrim, I felt so I mean,

27:47

listen, I felt so so fortunate

27:50

every time I do another movie. I mean,

27:52

you end up sort of making every movie like it's

27:54

going to be your last in a way, do you know what I mean? Yeah,

27:57

because you think like I'm so fortunate.

27:59

I know how fortunate I am, and obviously

28:01

the parameters with everything even now

28:03

keep changing. So like I

28:06

did, I did feel like really it

28:08

was like I felt vindicated, Like I felt like,

28:11

fuck you, world, why won't you learn it?

28:13

Just felt I just felt I felt so grateful.

28:16

I just felt so grateful that I had a movie

28:18

that really connected in

28:20

a connected at the time as well. Yeah,

28:22

and in a sort of I mean. Also, the interesting

28:25

thing with that film is that I did

28:27

think, having done like Sean of

28:29

the Dead, Hot Fights, Scott Pilgrim at the World's End,

28:32

is that I was conscious that all of them

28:34

had done well in English language territories

28:36

and done badly in

28:39

non English language territories. I

28:41

remember I watched some of Scott Pilgrim in Japan,

28:44

and they had it with Japanese subtitles,

28:47

and I remember sitting in the instuma for a

28:49

little bit and thinking, oh my god,

28:51

this is so overwhelming if you had to

28:53

read it and watch it at the same time,

28:56

it was so intense, and I

28:58

thought this would just give somebody a ballism

29:00

trying to like watch this movie and

29:02

read the dialogue. So I when

29:04

I was doing Baby Driver, I was trying to come

29:07

up with something where the

29:09

dialogue was less important. You know, It's

29:11

also a thing about conduct as well, because sometimes

29:14

if you see directors who fly really

29:16

high and then have a flop and then they

29:18

never heard of ever again, it's usually because

29:20

they're a complete shit, right, and there's

29:23

a thing where like people are waiting for that downfall,

29:25

and then when the downfall happens, it's like great,

29:28

they never have to work with so and so again. Yeah,

29:30

because sometimes then there's people who, like you think,

29:33

you hear stories about somebody being like a real

29:35

asshole, and then you wonder, wow,

29:38

how do they keep working. It's like, well, they keep working because they

29:40

keep making money. But if there's if the kind of

29:42

like you know, kind of the worm turns,

29:45

then sometimes it's like you you can

29:47

you can see with some directors is like, yeah,

29:50

there's a reason why they suddenly like didn't

29:52

work again. It's because people didn't

29:54

want to put up with their ship anymore. So

29:56

I think there's also a thing there is, like you really

29:58

just have to think about especially

30:01

now in like I mean, I'm like, I'm

30:03

currently like finishing a movie

30:05

in the middle of a pandemic, and so yeah,

30:08

whenever people say to me, like, how's it

30:10

going, I say, ah,

30:12

I'm working really hard. It's really exhausting. However,

30:15

I'm not complaining. I'm really really,

30:18

really grateful to be working. And that's

30:20

genuine. You know, Hey, well, let's

30:22

very briefly talk about your new film. Now.

30:24

What I know about your new film and the reason I'm

30:27

so excited about it is because you've

30:29

named Don't Look Now as a reference, which

30:32

is I think that was maybe foolhardy

30:34

saying that in an indusview, because there's sort of like why as

30:37

soon as they said why would I mentioned one of

30:39

the best horror films of all time, it's

30:41

probably yeah, so carry on. So

30:44

that got me like, hello, I was

30:46

like, hello, so tell me, so this

30:48

film without spoiling anything.

30:51

Tell me, is it straight horror? Yes?

30:54

And no, I mean it's not. It has no sort

30:56

of comedic element. Although there's some funny bits, it's

30:58

not like a comedy horror on the deck. It

31:01

is like a I guess when I mentioned like Don't

31:03

Look Now or like Repulsion, it wasn't

31:05

in terms of any real plot element. It's more

31:07

like those movies that they're sort of

31:10

on the kind of the cusp of being psychological

31:12

thrillers, stroke horrors. Yeah, you

31:15

know, and and so it's a

31:17

sort of it's partly that. And I

31:19

think also like it's something I really wanted

31:21

to make a film in central London.

31:24

It's like a place that I've spent

31:26

like twenty five years of my working life

31:28

and in the last like five years

31:30

been living in central London. And it's it's not a

31:32

location you really see on screen that much for

31:35

practical reasons most of the time. So

31:38

I want us to sort of take the ball by the horns and saying,

31:40

right, let's make a movie in sohot

31:46

five. But

31:49

it's partly those those are good good reference

31:51

points, just in terms of like maybe the

31:53

tone of it. And then beyond that, there was a

31:55

certain type of film that I really

31:58

love that like just don't really get

32:00

made anymore. I mean, I wan't say solely

32:02

Hitchcock movies, but usually like things like influenced

32:05

by Hitchcock, like I particularly into

32:08

I'm sure you've heard of like Italian

32:10

and Jallow films. Yeah, so like Bird

32:13

with a Crystal Plumage and like

32:15

Deep Red and Blood and Black Lace,

32:17

Suspiria, and tons and tons

32:19

of other great ones, you know, all with very

32:21

ornate titles like what

32:24

Happened to Salons? Or Don't

32:27

Torture a Duckling? Like they all have like

32:29

amazing titles death Walks

32:31

in High Heels. So I wanted

32:33

to do a like a London

32:35

version of one of those movies.

32:38

And I'd also not that it's an Italian movie, but

32:40

there are other movies like Hitchcock's Frenzy

32:43

or Brand Up Palmer's Dressed to Kill,

32:45

sort of the movies that in this day and age

32:48

a bit too transgressive in

32:51

a way. As you'll see when you see the film.

32:53

It was trying to find a way

32:55

to make one of those movies now,

32:58

and so that's sort of the and in

33:00

a sense the movie takes place in

33:02

like the sixties and now

33:06

to sort of analyze that kind

33:08

of like a change in kind

33:10

of sounds like it might be two

33:12

nights and so well,

33:16

I mean, it's weird. I won't ever want to talk too much about

33:19

it, but there is there is one weird thing. I

33:21

actually watched the whole thing together yesterday

33:24

and it really struck me that, like, you

33:27

know, there's a sixties portion of the film and

33:29

there's a contemporary portion of the film, but

33:31

it did struck to strike me that like, oh my

33:33

god, this is like Soho in the

33:35

sixties and Soho in twenty

33:37

nineteen, which is a different thing to what

33:39

it is today. And I've been working in and

33:42

then I don't want to spoil it anymore, but there

33:44

is I'll say, I'll say one thing. There's one

33:46

thing that we shot in lockdowns that appears

33:48

right at the end of the movie, and I'm so glad

33:50

we did it. And it's sort of something where it's

33:52

like a way of recording

33:55

you know, like I mean central London apart from

33:57

this park. It's like absolutely

34:00

and I've been having I've been editing and finishing

34:03

off the movie in Soho and grading

34:05

and mixing, and my walks home

34:07

at like nine o'clock at night are just spooky

34:10

and like I keep taking. Um, I

34:12

think people think I'm being like a vampire on

34:14

like Instagram because I keep taking these like moody

34:16

nocturnal shots of deserted London

34:19

and they're sort of like in its like it

34:21

looks like I'm going out doing these kind of vampiric

34:24

night shoot where it's like, oh no, this was just my walk

34:26

home. I saw this street and it looks

34:28

so spooky with no people, and it's like, oh,

34:31

Edgar, yes, fuck,

34:34

oh no, I've forgotten to tell you something. What

34:38

do you know? How long have we been walking? Hours?

34:42

I mean it

34:44

feels like it also feels like it could have been of

34:46

all eternity. Is something happened? Um

34:50

in a way. UH should

34:54

have told you this up top? What an idiot?

35:00

How close were you to finishing the film? Very

35:02

close? You've died?

35:05

Ah, it is going to be my posthumous

35:07

movie. Yeah, it's my eyes

35:10

wide sharp, this might be your eyesword shut, it's

35:12

you know and whoever. But I actually

35:14

managed to finish the score, unlike on Eyesword Hut,

35:16

where they were left with the temper music tris doors

35:20

like that yes, that's absolutely true music.

35:23

And they never finished it. Ah,

35:25

I explained so much. I'm taking

35:27

this well, I

35:29

don't go straight back

35:31

to movie. Then, so you've

35:34

died. How did you die? Well? Um,

35:37

it's quite exciting actually because

35:39

it's both like a childhood terror and a dream

35:41

come true. I was eaten by sharks,

35:45

which is something that you Yes, it's

35:47

something that you you know, like

35:50

sort of I guess it's one of those things that you

35:52

ass I mean, I never thought I would see

35:54

the day, but I was, you

35:56

know, I'm not I'm scared of deep water.

35:58

I don't really like swimming the ocean. And

36:01

then I thought, you know, recently

36:04

I was in Italy and I thought, fuck

36:06

it, I'll just do it. Let's kind of get

36:08

this out of the way. I'll do some deep sea swimming.

36:10

I was eaten by sharks. And it was like it

36:13

was like so so, yes, they

36:15

were. They had come up from

36:18

They're coming for the wrong stream. Yeah,

36:20

they sound like George

36:22

the Revenge, like they actually would see but they followed

36:25

me. Yes, they were basically

36:27

after Jews the Revenge. They had

36:29

like sort of like done as much as they could with the

36:31

Brody family, and they'd run out of people

36:34

from the Brody family to kill and

36:37

bad bad mathing. They heard me bad mouthing

36:39

jaws for this time it's personal.

36:41

Yeah, and they came after me and

36:44

so one of them got you, then the other one got you.

36:47

It was like a feeding frenzy. Wow. But but

36:49

I'm not I'm only like five seven, so I didn't take

36:52

very long. It's very short feeding frenzy.

36:54

I think they got me in a couple of wolves. In

36:57

terms of your your experience of it

36:59

quite quick. It was. I mean, it was

37:01

something where I thought, oh, no, you

37:03

know everything that I was scared of after having

37:06

seen Yeah, I guess it's that thing of

37:08

like you just just I mean, I think that's the thing.

37:10

I mean, it folds into a later

37:12

question, but like you can't swim

37:14

in the ocean without thinking of sharks. So

37:17

it's kind of like I was quite happy

37:19

to be eating by sharks because it felt like

37:21

this is a very dramatic way to go out, and

37:24

nobody could say, like, you

37:26

know, like everybody would everybody going ah,

37:29

well, you know, because I mean, apart

37:31

from punching them on the nose or is it in the eyeball

37:33

of the nose, the nose, right, Yeah,

37:35

I mean, I don't know, I don't

37:37

know what else I could have done better. Yeah.

37:42

Yeah, if you get punch the eyes

37:44

is not gonna work. So you do you worry about

37:46

death? You know what? The one reason

37:48

I sort of like, I'll be completely

37:50

honest about why I brought that up, is that

37:52

there was this joke that I had in a script that never

37:55

got made, and I was really proud of this

37:57

joke, and then then script never got made, so it

37:59

was it was actually a thing, an animation thing that me

38:01

and David Williams had written for DreamWorks and it never

38:03

went anywhere, but it was about part

38:06

of it was about the son of a secret

38:08

agent, right, and his dad, who was

38:10

like a James Bond figure, had died

38:12

in the middle of a mission and like

38:14

he was less sort of a super spy and

38:16

then he died he was eating by sharks and so,

38:19

but he was in this mission and so like the

38:21

guy was talking about him, saying, you know, he died

38:24

doing what he loved and there was like eating by

38:26

sharks like that that was his like sort

38:28

of like the the fact that

38:30

I had to explain the joke probably means that that's why

38:32

the film didn't go an each other forward. No,

38:35

I mean, I feel responsible for

38:37

not giving you this setup. No, But also

38:40

I think it's that thing as you sort of feel like, I

38:42

mean, a peaceful do I worry about death?

38:45

I didn't, you know. The times when I think about it

38:48

is maybe like one of the

38:50

only times I've gone under anesthetic at

38:52

hospital right for an operation,

38:55

and as you're going under, you thinking this

38:57

might be it. And also on a

39:00

plane, like I'm not scared of flying,

39:02

but you definitely think about it every

39:04

time you have heavy turbulence, yeah, and you're

39:07

thinking what if this was it? And

39:09

I'm not like, so I'm not like scared in the sense

39:11

of that I don't know. I mean, those

39:14

are the times that I think about it. Is like

39:16

going under general anesthetic, which has only happened

39:18

maybe twice in my life, or on a plane.

39:21

You can't go through heavy turbulence without thinking

39:23

about it. Right now. I'm sure I've

39:25

told this story before, but I was once on a plane that

39:28

I think was like in serious trouble

39:30

because it kept sort of plunging

39:33

and I saw the hostess

39:35

crossed herself, Oh no, no, no, and I thought,

39:37

oh, Okay, I thought that's

39:39

a bad sign. But I remember it started shaking,

39:42

shaking, shaking, and the lights went

39:44

out and it was like made a sound

39:46

like and ever

39:48

people were screaming, and genuinely

39:51

I felt scared. I was on my own, felt

39:54

scared. And then I crossed

39:56

over something and instead of being scared,

39:58

I was like, fucking, come on, you've

40:03

had that moment. Yeah, I had a let's do

40:05

this. D oh my god. Then

40:09

that sounds like the roy Kent coming out of you,

40:12

like the whole God, come on.

40:15

Trying to think there's anytime I haven't felt close to

40:17

death, like I mean, there's always those things where

40:19

you get compelled by the

40:21

idea of like dying like you

40:24

know, on a cliff, or like doing

40:26

something like on the high I've

40:28

done mantaineering once. And then there's that

40:30

thing where it's that it's that

40:32

weird and then what it is, it's not like it's kind of

40:34

like, um, I'm trying to think, it's

40:37

not like Turette's where you have that thing. I never you ever

40:39

had this at school, where that compulsion to shout

40:41

something else even if you never did it, But that's

40:43

similar thing like thinking like this, I

40:45

could just jump right now. I

40:48

do think that a lot as well, which is very strange.

40:50

I don't exactly and maybe I've never seen

40:52

a psychiatrist about that. But the

40:55

thing of like if you're on

40:57

that's the other thing. If you're on a cliff, you always think about

41:00

either falling or jumping all

41:02

the time. But I believe that the definition of vertigo

41:05

is fear of fooling and fear of jumping.

41:07

Yes, is that you're You're very

41:09

tempted anyway. What do you think happens

41:12

when you die? I mean i'd like to.

41:14

I mean, I'm not religious at all, but

41:17

there are things where I want to believe that there's

41:19

something else. I mean, I don't

41:21

think there is. I want to believe

41:23

it in this, you know, Like yeah,

41:25

I don't know. I mean, I don't believe that there's like sort

41:27

of like a heaven or anything, but

41:30

but I'm always kind of interested about like near

41:32

death experiences and the lights and all

41:34

of that stuff. So I'm kind

41:36

of like heaven curious. I just

41:40

I want it. I am not I

41:42

don't quite believe it, but i'd like to believe it,

41:44

you know, And I'm not here to judge he's a little

41:46

bit heaven curiously, Well,

41:50

you come to the right pace, because

41:53

there is a heaven. You're in it very nice.

41:57

It is nice. Busier than you'd expect. Yeah, a

41:59

lot more good people. But everyone

42:01

here obsessed with film.

42:03

I think you're into film. How

42:06

did you get that idea? Well, one of the reasons

42:08

is but before, when

42:11

I was emailing at you about this, he sent me

42:14

a list of films that he'd watched in lockdown.

42:17

And I mean, I like films,

42:20

but I don't know how you found the time whilst

42:23

also making a film to watch the sheer

42:25

number of films that you've watched in lockdown, because

42:27

it looks like timing was I'm like, did

42:29

you watch five films? I don't know how you. I

42:32

think actually maybe maybe,

42:34

Like sometimes there would be occasional days where it'd

42:36

be four films in a day, yeah,

42:38

but usually, like I

42:40

do watch a lot of I mean usually when I'm working,

42:42

I don't get to watch a lot of films. And definitely

42:45

it would have been more if I hadn't started

42:47

doing some shooting at the end of July, but

42:50

I had over the years. It's that thing

42:52

where sometimes friends they say, oh,

42:54

egg has seen every movie, and I'm like, I

42:57

assure you I have not. And I'd

42:59

started to mass it's like list

43:02

of movies that I have not seen, right,

43:05

And it was like an aggregate

43:07

of like other like best of lists,

43:09

like the Berfi Top one hundred

43:11

or like the KaiA Cinema like

43:14

list, or Martin scorsesees

43:16

like lists of foreign films you must

43:18

see, or like um Danny

43:20

Peery's Cult Movies, those books

43:23

that's like three volumes of it. There's

43:25

that David Thompson book called have You Seen? Right?

43:29

So I eventually had this list

43:31

that was like over like a

43:33

thousand movies long, and I put like a

43:35

I decided in a lockdown. Over

43:37

the last like decade, I

43:40

massed quite a lot of those movies on DVD

43:42

and blue ray, so it wasn't even a thing where

43:45

people kind of, you know, when people complain saying,

43:47

oh, there's no old movies on Netflix, I'm like, it

43:49

doesn't matter. I got them all. I

43:51

literally have them all in my study. Don't worry. So

43:54

I must have like you know, like I haven't massed

43:56

over the years, like hundreds of DVDs and

43:58

blue rays. And then there were a lot of ones

44:00

that I hadn't watched, and they were usually the more challenging

44:02

ones, and I start to think of

44:04

them as they were like sort of

44:07

sitting there on the shelf that because

44:09

they were all the challenging ones and maybe more kind

44:11

of serious minded

44:13

films. So I start to think of them as

44:16

like coffee table movies. I absolutely

44:18

like movies that I had fought to

44:21

make myself look smart. Yeah, and mayking

44:23

it lying around like I hope that no one asked

44:25

you enough questions too. Yeah.

44:28

So but I decided like I'm going to like put

44:30

my money away in my mouth as I've already bought them.

44:33

I didn't watch these movies, and so like a

44:35

big percentage of that list was exactly that.

44:37

It's a great list. It's a really

44:39

good list. Impressive, just

44:42

impressive. And do you have if

44:44

I may you you currently

44:46

live with the right Yeah, we can talk

44:48

about do you watch them

44:50

alone with her other rules?

44:54

I think very quickly you can figure I can

44:56

figure out the movies that she won't be less

44:58

interested in. And there were on that

45:00

I'll get up early in the morning and watch on my own, or

45:03

like that she is Swedish,

45:06

and so I've actually been watching

45:08

quite a few Swedish films that

45:11

so I'd already seen some Ingma Bergman

45:13

films, but I'd usually seen the

45:15

ones that were like genre adjacent. There are

45:17

a few ones that kind of like cross over

45:19

into horror territory, like

45:21

Persona and The Hour

45:24

of the Wolf and The Virgin Spring.

45:27

So I actually been watching a lot of Bergman

45:29

and then what's his name, Lucas Muderson,

45:32

and I already liked

45:34

Roy Anderson, but i'd never

45:36

seen his first film, which is weirdly was

45:39

the only one that my girlfriend seen, which was Swedish

45:41

Love Story, which he made like thirty

45:43

years or twenty nine years before Songs

45:46

from the Second Floor, And it's an entirely

45:48

different prospect. It's a bit like watching like

45:51

Gregory's Girl or something, and it was

45:53

so beautiful and so funny, and that completely

45:55

different to his later films. It's

45:57

interesting. So yeah, I mean, and

46:01

then there's things like where, yeah, I can

46:03

kind of sort of like kind of figure out which films

46:05

she's enjoying, ones that she absolutely would not.

46:09

Do you have a rule that no talking lights

46:11

off as it work? I definitely

46:14

like have I mean, I have actually I have no

46:16

TV in my living room, I just have a

46:18

drop down projector so

46:21

there's that thing where it makes a bit

46:24

of a more of a ceremony of like you

46:26

know, turning off the lights of

46:29

you know, the projects coming down and stuff.

46:32

And usually the other thing that I do, which is kind

46:34

of slight anti social and probably

46:36

like I mean, I'm not a great sleeper, and

46:38

my like sort of hours I get a

46:41

night have gone down, like

46:43

as I get older, so like sometimes

46:47

I can maybe knock off more

46:49

than one movie before she even gets up, which

46:52

is like terror and then also still

46:54

like going get coffees or something and

46:57

wake her up having already watched two movies,

46:59

which is maybe not drag about,

47:01

but like I think that's great. So

47:03

there was a thing where, like I think,

47:06

you know, like a there was a point in the

47:08

between like March and like July, I

47:11

mean like full on lockdown where

47:14

I was I was sometimes watching four films

47:16

a day. Yeah, I love it. Right in

47:19

this heaven they loved film as well. You're

47:21

going to fit right in, but they weren't

47:24

know about your life through film. And

47:26

the first thing they ask you is what is the first

47:28

film that you remember seeing? Edgar? Right,

47:31

Well, this is that it sounds like one

47:33

of those stories that people say when they're doing

47:36

the ePK for making one. But I genuinely

47:38

the first film I ever saw was Star Wars in

47:41

nineteen Well, i've been thinking about

47:43

this. I don't think it was nineteen seventy

47:46

seven, but I think I was like three,

47:48

because I think Star Wars in the UK came

47:51

out Boxing Day in nineteen seventy seven, so

47:53

I think I saw it in early seventy eight.

47:56

But I was definitely three

47:58

and a half and it was definitely the first trip

48:00

to the cinema for me and my brother. My

48:03

brother's two years older, and I

48:05

grew up in the Swanage in Dorset, and

48:08

so my parents took me to west

48:10

Over Road and in a bourmous

48:13

and there was the cinema that's not

48:15

there anymore now it's the church called

48:17

the Galaxy. It was that thing where I

48:19

didn't really know what we were doing, and

48:22

so I remember like lining up outside

48:24

the cinema in this massive queue.

48:26

It must have been like in the winter, because I remember

48:28

it was really dark and not really

48:31

understanding why we were queuing up until

48:33

we got closer to the cinema, and then

48:35

I could see the quad poster for Star Wars,

48:38

and so I must have had some I must

48:40

have had some awareness of Star Wars, because I

48:42

know I got super excited about We're

48:45

actually going to see this movie. And

48:47

then that cinema I had

48:49

a ceiling with stars on it, like fluorescent

48:52

stars, and so I remember really

48:54

vividly when there's that opening shot of Star Wars

48:56

with the Star Destroyer coming over of the camera and

48:58

also the starfield, know with Star

49:00

Wars with the fanfare. I just

49:03

remember like being confused as to where

49:06

the cinema ended and the film started.

49:08

It really felt like it was like the film was

49:10

like coming out, Yeah, really

49:13

cool. Yeah. And then

49:15

and then I lived in Dorset

49:17

until I was seven. So west Over

49:19

Road, which used to have like three cinemas

49:22

and currently having been back to Bournemouth a couple

49:24

of years ago, has no cinemas and west

49:26

Over Road there really sad that, like there

49:29

used to be an ABC and an odeon. Maybe

49:31

the ABC was also a cannon at one point,

49:34

but I saw so many movies at those cinemas,

49:37

and also I think two cinemas that down there

49:39

that are open still. There's one in swan Is called

49:41

the Maulum and there's one in Paul

49:43

called the Paul Arts Center, which I think still

49:46

exists anyway, So around

49:48

that time, like my parents would take me to most

49:51

sci fi fantasy films that were out between

49:53

nineteen seventy seven and nineteen eighty one, with

49:56

the exception of Hawk the Slayer, which

49:59

I really wanted to see. For whatever

50:01

reason, my mom and dad would not take me

50:03

too. And I used to like a like a complete brat.

50:06

I would like ball and cry, Oh

50:08

there's there's the not

50:10

knowing that it was substandard at that time.

50:13

I'm sure you have this as like that age. I

50:15

think about it a lot, from like

50:17

three to fifteen that I was happy to

50:19

watch any film. Fifteen

50:22

mystical critical faculties kicked team,

50:24

where I realized that not all films are equal,

50:26

maybe some of them are not as good as others. And

50:28

I remember that kind of like very profoundly

50:31

in the year of Ghostbusters two. Really

50:34

it was. It was a combination of Ghostbusters two

50:37

and there's his heresy to say, so some

50:39

people love it Back to the Future

50:41

Part two. I know some people think it's superior.

50:43

They're wrong. What

50:47

was the other one as well? RoboCop two the

50:49

next year. Doesn't like a too? Doesn't

50:51

I do like some too? But those I mean Beast in the Future

50:53

two is interesting? Is it better than the first

50:55

one? No? Anybody who says that is trying

50:58

to be cool. That's

51:00

a hoopster Back to the Future fan. Yes,

51:04

what film made you cry

51:06

the most? Have you cry in the films? I

51:08

had two answers for this, Okay, I have a happy

51:10

one on a sad one. Okay, I'll do the

51:13

sad one first. Sorry and kind of so well.

51:15

A recent one that really really got

51:17

me was this film

51:19

by Carol Morley called Dreams of a Life.

51:22

Have you ever seen that movie? Film about the woman

51:24

who?

51:26

Yes? Have you

51:28

seen that movie? I have not seen that movie. Well,

51:30

it's devastating. So it's a documentary.

51:34

It's a documentary with some like reconstruction

51:37

starring Zarie Ashton from

51:40

Who's Amazing And Anyway, there's a

51:43

point. So it's about a woman. I wrote down

51:45

her name, Joyce Carol Vincent.

51:47

That was the lady who died

51:49

in her flat alone in Woodgreen after

51:53

not having been seen by her

51:55

friends or family first three years. I think it was

51:57

found like three years after her desk with the

52:00

TV still on and Christmas presents

52:02

wrapped in the flat and

52:05

nobody had reported her. And the thing

52:07

that's the kind of curious thing

52:09

about it is it wasn't like she was She was a

52:11

well liked person, right, So

52:13

it makes it even more of like an

52:16

enigma of like, how could somebody who actually

52:18

has family and friends be like

52:21

missed for so long? And you know, you

52:23

find out the answer in the documentary to some extent.

52:25

But there's a bit in the documentary where they

52:27

are we should point out that we're about

52:29

to walk parts two people. I

52:32

mean we are in heaven. There's some

52:34

people fencing right here. It feels like they're literally

52:36

people fencing in apart. Yeah, in the full

52:38

gear. Yeah. So there's

52:40

a point in that documentary where they interview

52:43

her X this guy called Martin who

52:46

was obviously deeply, deeply in love with her

52:48

and I don't think wanted to lose contact

52:50

with her, but did, right, And in the documentary

52:53

there's that things sometimes when people in the documentary

52:55

are keeping a brave face on things, and

52:58

so he's kind of doing most of his interview talking

53:01

about how fond he was of her

53:04

and how much he loved her, and he's

53:07

kind of like getting through this, you know,

53:09

pain of talking about it with a smile on his face. And

53:11

then there's a point near the end of the film where he breaks

53:14

down and even listen

53:17

for the rest even me just thinking

53:19

about it is making me cheer up because I

53:22

was watching this thing and then I just

53:24

explosively started crying because

53:26

I just sort of seeing somebody

53:30

really grieving on camera. And

53:33

obviously like had decided

53:35

to do the interview and thought, you

53:38

know, I can I can do this. I can talk about it without

53:40

completely but he's

53:42

like sort of just so destroyed by it. And

53:45

I actually met Zai

53:47

Ashton and I said, I

53:49

talked to her about that, and she said

53:52

that like, um, you know, she

53:54

met him at the premiere of the film, and it was

53:56

like so like just you know, it's difficult

53:58

to know what to say to combody that you've

54:01

played them on screen, You've

54:04

played like this like sort of dead X.

54:06

Yeah. That movie is like

54:08

devastating but really worth watching. But

54:10

it was that thing, I mean in that way, it was that uplifting

54:13

in a way that it made you like sort of like

54:15

think, oh my god, you want to like

54:17

get in touch with everybody you've ever known and hug

54:20

all your loved ones and just but it's

54:22

a that's that's the recent film that I like, remember

54:24

like going from naught to sixty,

54:27

like suddenly explosively crying my

54:29

happy one quickly. And this is a

54:32

bit sillier is when Jackie

54:34

Chan's Rumbling the Bronx came out. I

54:37

was such a big Jackie Chan fan, and

54:39

I'd never seen one of his films at the cinema and

54:43

I saw it the Prince Charles and it was clearly

54:46

full of other Jackie Chan fans who'd never seen

54:48

a Jackie Chan from the cinema, and people

54:50

were listen. That film is not in

54:52

my top ten Jackie Chan films, however, people

54:54

were so up for it. It was

54:56

such an explosive reaction at the end of the film.

54:58

If you remember, if you've ever seen Jackie

55:00

Chan, the final shorts, Jackietan turning to camera

55:03

and putting his thumbs up and it freezes frame

55:05

on Jackie tam sumtimes, and I was so happy

55:07

for Jackie that he had like a proper hit. I started

55:09

crying. That's the happy

55:11

tears version. I like that. I like

55:14

that a lot, so if you're going to watch Dreams

55:16

of a Life follow you might want to have a rumble

55:18

in the Bronx Chaser. It

55:20

was the only time that those two films that would never be watched

55:22

in succession. It's a very

55:24

space bendagra. What

55:27

what is the film that scared you? Know? You obviously

55:29

like your horror I do. Here's one

55:31

thing I was thinking about this when I was like looking

55:33

at the questions is that I thought most

55:36

of these films I could answer with America

55:38

Wealth in London. Yeah, but it's

55:41

so like on brand for me. I

55:43

have to kind of like I could answer America

55:45

Wealth in London for every category. So I might

55:48

come back to that later. So I'm gonna it's

55:50

a split. And it's like it's John

55:52

Carpenter. There's two films of his that I saw

55:54

on TV when

55:57

I was like The Fog is one I

55:59

must have seen when I like nine on TV

56:02

and The Thing, which I probably saw on TV

56:04

when I was twelve and

56:07

they absolutely freaked me

56:09

out. And either Fog is

56:11

like I feel like whenever I watched that film,

56:13

I want to try and recapture

56:16

the very elegant, simple chills

56:19

of just like dark figures in

56:21

the fog and the threat of the fog coming

56:23

to get you and you're going to die if you kind of get

56:25

enveloped by the fog and the zombie

56:27

pirates that are inside and when

56:29

it and the Thing is, that's one of those films like that,

56:32

like you think whenever, whenever I watch it, I

56:34

think, maybe it won't hold up this time, and

56:37

every time it holds up for me. That's

56:39

what the other parts of it also,

56:41

John Carpter, would be the thing which

56:44

I remember, all you have to back

56:46

in the pre internet days, the only

56:48

thing you might have to go on is like a still. Yeah,

56:51

so I think like the Thing, before

56:53

I saw it, I had seen like

56:55

a black and white still of Kurt Russell

56:58

standing by a block of ice, and

57:00

maybe i'd seen the poster which doesn't tell you anything.

57:03

And so back in those days where

57:05

you didn't necessarily see trailers online and even

57:07

the trailer for The Things doesn't show anything, then

57:09

watching that film on TV, knowing that it was

57:12

like, I had this anticipation of

57:14

it being quite strong

57:16

and you know, being like really

57:18

like out there. But as

57:20

a twelve year old watching with my brother my parents,

57:23

my parents never used to go out and when

57:26

I was growing up, but weirdly that one night they

57:28

were doing something, so we were sitting in

57:30

the kitchen for various reasons,

57:33

we'll go into another time. My

57:35

house was like undecorated for the entire

57:38

duration from from like eleven

57:41

to eighteen when I used to live in Somerset.

57:43

You my dad never really I

57:46

think he sort of at some point he decided to sort of

57:48

do some DIY that he never right,

57:51

he never denied, and anyway,

57:54

so we never had a living room, so we would watch films in

57:56

the kitchen when there was only one like TV.

58:00

I remember me and my brother in the kitchen watching

58:02

the scene and being so excited for

58:04

it, but being so freaked

58:06

out by like the first scene with

58:08

the dog, or the scene on the operating

58:10

table where with the debate Defibrilla,

58:16

that we would switch channels when it

58:18

got really gory to BBC

58:21

two, which had the snooker on. So

58:24

I have this very memory of

58:26

watching the thing and in the height

58:28

of the gorious part of the set piece,

58:31

nah flicking channels and going to like

58:33

Steve Davis and then

58:35

back again, and then like watching five minutes

58:37

of snooker and then saying let's let's

58:39

go back to the thing. So that was my first

58:41

viewing of that film was like

58:44

John Carpenter's mastery of the form

58:47

with Little Snooker,

58:48

and I like

58:50

that a lot. Right, what is

58:53

the film that you

58:55

love so much? People don't

58:57

really like it cristically, it's not acclaim,

59:00

but you're like, you're a fucking idiot. Systems

59:02

amazing. Well, here, this is

59:04

a tricky one. I have a complicated response

59:07

to this question because I've sort of changed my

59:09

tune on this, and I'm explaining why. I mean, there

59:11

are some films that get put in this bracket

59:13

which I always get annoyed when they are like people always

59:16

say this about something like Flash Gordon, which

59:18

Flash Gordon is clearly supposed to be funny,

59:21

and like the screenplay is written by Lorenzo

59:23

Semple Junior, who wrote the Batman TV series, and

59:26

it's clearly intentionally funny. And

59:28

so when people say, ah, Flash Gordon

59:30

is so bad, it's good to say, no, so good, it's

59:32

good. It's supposed to be funny. The same

59:34

thing can be said of Beyond the value of the Dolls,

59:36

which again is it would seem like,

59:39

I mean, somebody said of beyond the value of the Dolls. I forget

59:41

who said this. It said it teeters

59:43

maybe John Waters said this, it teeters

59:46

between being the worst and best

59:48

movie of all time. But again, beyond

59:51

the Valley Dolls is supposed to be funny. Yeah,

59:53

and it is funny, so that doesn't count

59:55

either. That's like a proper great film. Now

59:58

I can name one film that's like not trying to

1:00:00

be bad, that's hugely, hugely

1:00:02

entertaining. But then there is a caveat

1:00:05

to this, and I'll say this is

1:00:08

that I used to maybe until this happened

1:00:10

about ten years ago, I was definitely

1:00:12

one of those people who would watch

1:00:15

bad films for enjoyment and maybe

1:00:17

like screen them for friends, saying, oh my god, wait

1:00:19

till you see this. It's so terrible, it's so fun

1:00:21

to watch. And I see. This

1:00:23

thing is is that when you start making

1:00:25

films, you realize that nobody sets out to make a bad

1:00:27

movie. Yeah, And I think when as soon

1:00:30

as you start, and I'm always stunned by people

1:00:32

on Twitter who work in films

1:00:34

who savage bad movies, And

1:00:36

I'm always like, sort of like, you're

1:00:39

so close to this, You're so close to

1:00:41

doing one yourself. You wouldn't like it

1:00:43

if the shoe was on the other foot. Now,

1:00:46

the reason I get into this, and I'm going to come back to this late

1:00:48

when you ask me about worse films, Like,

1:00:51

so, there's this film called Ricky, Oh, The Story

1:00:53

of Ricky, which is a Hong Kong martial

1:00:56

arts futuristic prison revenge

1:00:59

saga. It's on an anime and

1:01:01

it's like it's it's not

1:01:04

supposed to be funny, but it's so

1:01:06

ridiculously gory

1:01:08

and silly that

1:01:11

it just is like just everything

1:01:13

you've wanted from like an ultra gory

1:01:16

martial arts film and sort of a camp classic

1:01:18

at the same time. And it's such a

1:01:20

riot to watch with an audience. And

1:01:22

I remember I screened it at the New Beverly Ones

1:01:25

and I said, I hate, like, apologies

1:01:28

to Mystery Science Theater, but what

1:01:31

that TV show has created in terms of, especially

1:01:33

in the States, of people like making canny comments

1:01:35

about films. I can't stand it for

1:01:37

that alone. I know that they're funny people who

1:01:40

do that show, And in fact, my friend

1:01:42

knows the new version and he knows

1:01:44

that I have a problem with it. Jonah Ray, who

1:01:46

does them more recent ways, he's great. He's

1:01:49

great. I love Jonah. But I said to him, I said,

1:01:51

he's you know. He said, you don't like Mystery Science

1:01:53

there to day? I said no, because they

1:01:55

put good movies on that they

1:01:57

don't deserve it, Like Danger Dive

1:02:00

Leak is a great movie, and like This Island

1:02:02

Earth is a good movie, and they don't deserve that treatment

1:02:04

anyway. So when I showed Ricky O at the New

1:02:06

Beverley in Los Angeles, I said, please,

1:02:08

nobody make any comments, because there's nothing

1:02:11

that you can say that's funnier than what's on screen.

1:02:14

And it is like a riot to

1:02:16

watch that movie if you've never seen it. It is so

1:02:18

fun, I mean genuinely fun. And

1:02:20

I think the only like truly bad films

1:02:23

are like boring ones. So if a film is not

1:02:25

boring, it's just like, yeah,

1:02:27

it's true. It's like if a film is like entertaining

1:02:31

intentionally or not, it's not a bad movie.

1:02:33

However, here's the thing where

1:02:35

something happened which then changed. I

1:02:38

knew this already in terms of like it's

1:02:40

too easy to make fun of movies, and

1:02:42

when you make movies and you realize how hard they are

1:02:44

to do you realize that nobody, not

1:02:47

even Edward, nobody sets

1:02:49

out to make a bad movie. So I

1:02:52

screened Rickyo in Los Angeles.

1:02:55

And then when I was making Scott Pilgrim, I took

1:02:57

over this cinema called The Glow and I was

1:02:59

promming there and Rickyo was one of the movies

1:03:02

and I knew it was going to be a riot.

1:03:04

And then Brad Allen, who was my stunt

1:03:08

coordinator on Scott Pilgrim, he saw

1:03:10

that I was sharing it and he said, he goes,

1:03:12

oh, I see you're screening Ricky.

1:03:14

Oh at the Blow. I said, yeah,

1:03:16

I love that movie. It's so crazy, and

1:03:18

he said, he goes, yeah, I know the lead

1:03:21

guy, it's it's sort of ruined

1:03:23

his career. He's really talented

1:03:25

and that film ruined his career. And

1:03:27

when as soon as he said that, I never worked

1:03:29

Rickyo ever again because I thought,

1:03:32

like I shouldn't laugh at this, because

1:03:34

like, what what to some people is maybe

1:03:36

like a great camp classic is

1:03:38

like to this guy who's started it, the

1:03:40

film that like the maybe like ruined

1:03:43

things for him. So I just and

1:03:45

that's the thing. It just says one person to say something

1:03:47

like that and thinking like I can never enjoy

1:03:49

it in the same way. So that

1:03:52

would be my answer, but I have to

1:03:55

I have to put that disclaimer with it. That's

1:03:57

yeah, I've ruined anything. I mean,

1:04:00

all you have to do is tell anyone yeah,

1:04:02

I know that person and they're really sad, and then you're

1:04:04

like, well, you've taken all the fun out of all any

1:04:07

possible lot. Shit, what's what's

1:04:10

a film? Well, what's the

1:04:12

film that you used to love, really loved

1:04:14

it, and you've watched it recently you don't love it anymore.

1:04:17

It might not be because the film's bad. You just feel

1:04:19

differently. You've changed, not

1:04:22

the film. Well, there's to be

1:04:24

heresy to some people, but these people need to hear

1:04:26

it. The Goonies is maybe not a great

1:04:28

movie. Don't

1:04:33

Don't Dune? What a

1:04:36

cliffhanger to end on Goonies?

1:04:39

What no Justify

1:04:41

yourself? Edgar? We find

1:04:43

out next week. Head

1:04:46

over to patreon dot com Forward Slash Prett Goldstein

1:04:48

for fun time extras and all the other episodes.

1:04:50

Also go to Apple Podcasts. Give us

1:04:52

a five star review. Instead of talking

1:04:54

about the show, you could write about the film

1:04:56

that means the most to you and why it's

1:04:59

a lovely thing to I read them,

1:05:01

I love them. Also helps our numbers means

1:05:03

more and can have all the tag as you wants this Christmas.

1:05:06

Thank you so much to Edgar for going on to stay

1:05:08

a long walk with me, thanks to Scrubious Piping the distraction

1:05:10

Pizza's Network, Thanks to Buddy Piece for producing

1:05:12

it, Thanks to ACAS for hosting it. Thanks to Adam Richardson

1:05:14

for the graphics. At least allow them for the photography.

1:05:17

Come and join me next week for part two

1:05:19

with the brilliant mister Edgar. Right, So

1:05:22

that is it for now. In the meantime, have

1:05:25

a lovely week and please, more

1:05:27

than ever be excellent to each

1:05:29

other across

1:06:01

the b