Edgar Wright

Edgar Wright
Wright at Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego
Born	Edgar Howard Wright, Jr.
Occupation(s)	Film & television director, writer

Edgar Howard Wright, Jr. (born 18 April 1974) is an English film and television director and writer. He is most famous for his work with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and TV series Spaced.

Life and career

Wright was born in Poole, Dorset. He started directing his own films at the age of 14 when he was attending The Blue School, Wells, Somerset (his home county) and working at the local tourist attraction Wookey Hole Caves. At the age of 20 he made a spoof western, A Fistful of Fingers, which was picked up for a limited theatrical release and broadcast on the British satellite TV channel Sky Movies. He then directed a number of television comedy programmes for the UK's Paramount Comedy channel and the BBC, including Sir Bernard's Stately Homes and Asylum, during the production of which he met writer-actors Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes. In 1999 he joined Pegg and Hynes to create Spaced for Channel 4. Wright gave Spaced an unusual look for the sitcom genre, with dramatic camera angles and movement borrowed from the visual language of science fiction and horror films. Instead of shying away from these influences Wright makes an active effort to show his referencing, adding a 'Homage-O-Meter' to all of his releases, a device that displays each directorial nod he has made during shooting. In 2002, he made appearances as a scientist and a technician named Eddie Yorque during both series of Look Around You, a BBC programme created by a member of the Spaced cast, Peter Serafinowicz. He also made a brief appearance in Spaced, in which he can be seen, along with other crew members on the series, lying asleep in Daisy Steiner's squat as she prepares to leave for her new house.

The critical success of Spaced paved the way for Wright and Pegg to move to the big screen with Shaun of the Dead, a zombie comedy which mixed a "Brit flick" romantic comedy style with homages to the horror classics of George A. Romero and Sam Raimi.

The pair wrote a comedy action thriller, Hot Fuzz. Production started in March 2006 and the film was released in February 2007 in the UK and April 2007 in the US. It revolves around Pegg's character, Nicholas Angel, a police officer who is transferred from London to rural Sanford, where grisly events soon take place.

Wright has directed two videos for his ex-girlfriend Charlotte Hatherley: "Summer" and "Bastardo".

Wright directed a fake trailer insert for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse. Called "Don't", it was a plotless trailer that mocked horror clichés, with lines such as, "If you... are thinking... of going ... into... this... house... DON'T!"

Wright has a brother, Oscar, who is a comic book artist, contributing storyboards, conceptual art and promotional pictures for Edgar's films. For example he designed comic book interpretations of the characters of Shaun of the Dead and created the animation for the flickbook PC Danny Butterman uses in Hot Fuzz, as well as the art for the "Plot Holes" features on both the Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead DVD releases. Oscar also was on set for the Hot Fuzz poster shoot to help Edgar out with the design. Oscar also directed the Charlotte Hatherley video for "Behave".

Wright cites Jon Spencer Blues Explosion as his favourite band. Several Blues Explosion songs feature in Wright's film Hot Fuzz, including one written specifically for the film.

Upcoming projects

Wright has been developing Ant-Man, a live-action film about the superhero, since summer of 2006. He also has numerous projects in development, including Them, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Baby Driver, and The World's End, the final entry in the "Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy".

Selected works

Filmography

Year	Film	Credited as				Role
		Director	Writer	Producer	Actor
1993	Dead Right	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Director
1995	A Fistful of Fingers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Cheesy voiceover artist, Two bit farmer cameo
2004	Shaun of the Dead	Yes	Yes		Yes	Rabid Monkeys Newsreader/Prat-falling Zombie/Italian Restaurant Voice/Noel's Friend on phone
2005	Land of the Dead				Yes	Photo booth zombie
	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy				Yes	Deep Thought Technician
2007	Hot Fuzz	Yes	Yes		Yes	Shelf stacker, Voice of Dave
	Don't	Yes	Yes
	Son of Rambow				Yes	Metal work teacher
2010	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World	Yes	Yes	Yes
2011	The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn		Yes
2010	The World's End	Yes	Yes
20??	Them	Yes		Yes
TBA	Ant-Man	Yes	Yes

Television (as actor)

• Look Around You (2002-2005)
• Spaced (1999-2001)

Television (as director)

• Spaced (1999, 2001)
• Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round (1998)
• Is It Bill Bailey? (1998)
• Sir Bernard's Stately Homes (1998)
• Mash and Peas (1996-1997)
• Asylum (1996)

External links

• Official website
• The Director Interviews: Edgar Wright, Hot Fuzz at Filmmaker Magazine
• 2004 interview with 2000ADReview
• Edgar Wright on Hot Fuzz
• Edgar Wright Fansite