Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

This article is about the film adaptation of the comic book series. For the second volume of the comic book series, see Scott Pilgrim.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Official International poster
Directed by	Edgar Wright
Screenplay by	Edgar Wright Michael Bacall
Produced by	Edgar Wright Marc Platt Eric Gitter Nira Park
Starring	Michael Cera Mary Elizabeth Winstead Ellen Wong Kieran Culkin Anna Kendrick Brandon Routh Alison Pill Chris Evans Mark Webber Johnny Simmons Brie Larson Jason Schwartzman Aubrey Plaza Mae Whitman Satya Bhabha
Narrated by	Bill Hader
Cinematography	Bill Pope
Edited by	Jonathan Amos Paul Machliss
Music by	Nigel Godrich
Production companies	Big Talk Films Relativity Media
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	July 27, 2010 (2010-07-27) (Fantasia Festival) August 13, 2010 (2010-08-13) (United States)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English
Budget	$85–90 million $60 million after tax rebates
Box office	$45,812,661

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a 2010 comedy film directed by Edgar Wright based on the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. The film is about Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) meeting the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). In order to win Ramona, Scott learns that he must defeat Ramona's "seven evil exes", who are coming to kill him.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was planned as a film after the first volume of the comic was released. Director Wright became attached to the program and began filming in March 2009 in Toronto, Ontario. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World premiered after a panel discussion at the San Diego Comic-Con International on July 22, 2010. It received a wide-release in North America on August 13, 2010 in 2818 theaters. The film finished fifth on its first weekend of release with a total of $10.5 million. Despite critical acclaim, the film did not recoup its $60 million production budget, making $31 million in North America and $14 million abroad.

Plot

The story is set in Toronto where Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), the bass guitarist for the band "Sex Bob-omb", begins dating high schooler Knives Chau (Ellen Wong) despite the protests of his friends and bandmates. He later meets a mysterious American girl, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and falls in love with her, losing interest in Knives. While playing in a battle of the bands to win a record contract with the label G-Man Graves, Scott is attacked by Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), who introduces himself as the first of Ramona's evil exes. Scott defeats Patel and learns from Ramona that, in order for them to date, he must defeat all seven of her evil exes, who have joined forces to destroy Scott and control Ramona's love life.

After learning that popular actor and skateboarder Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), the second evil ex, is coming to Toronto to film a movie, Scott is forced to break up with Knives, who is devastated and becomes obsessed with winning him back from Ramona. Scott successfully defeats Lee by tricking him into performing a dangerous skateboard stunt. He later encounters the third evil ex, Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), who is currently dating Scott's ex-girlfriend Envy Adams (Brie Larson). Todd initially overpowers Scott using his psychic vegan abilities, but is stripped of his powers by the Vegan Police (Thomas Jane and Clifton Collins, Jr.) after Scott swaps a cup of coffee with soy milk for one with half and half that he drinks, allowing Scott to effortlessly defeat him.

Scott begins to grow upset with Ramona over her dating history by the defeat of the fourth evil ex Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman), causing their relationship to falter. During the second round of the battle of the bands, Sex Bob-omb faces off against the fifth and six evil exes, twin Katayanagi brothers Kyle (Keita Saito) and Ken (Shota Saito), earning Scott an extra life upon the twins' defeat. During the battle, Scott sees Ramona together with her seventh and final evil ex, Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman), who turns out to be Sex Bob-omb's sponsor G-Man, prompting him to leave Sex Bob-omb as they sign the record deal. Unable to leave Gideon's side due to a microchip implanted in the back of her head for Gideon to control her, Ramona breaks up with Scott.

Scott challenges Gideon to a fight at his newly opened Chaos Theater, where Scott professes his love for Ramona and gains the "Power of Love" sword which he uses to fight Gideon. Knives arrives to battle Ramona over Scott who, while trying to break up the girls' fight, accidentally reveals that he cheated on both of them with each other before he is killed by Gideon. Scott uses his extra life to restart his battle with Gideon, this time resolving his issues with Ramona, Knives, and his friends, which earns him bonus points and the "Power of Self-Respect" sword that allows him to defeat Gideon. Free from Gideon's control, Ramona prepares to leave to start over, but Scott is encouraged by Knives to chase after her as he always wanted, and the two begin their relationship anew.

On the DVD bonus features, there is an alternate ending where Scott stays with Knives while Ramona leaves for Prague. This was the original ending for the film.

Cast

See also: List of Scott Pilgrim characters

• Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim, a 22-year-old slacker and bass guitarist of the band Sex Bob-omb who falls in love with Ramona Flowers.
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Victoria Flowers, a mysterious American Amazon delivery girl with an extensive dating history.
• Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells, Scott's gay roommate.
• Ellen Wong as Knives Chau, a high school girl who Scott dates before meeting Ramona.
• Alison Pill as Kim Pine, the drummer of Sex Bob-omb and one of Scott's ex-girlfriends.
• Mark Webber as Stephen Stills, the lead singer and "talent" of Sex Bob-omb.
• Johnny Simmons as "Young" Neil Nordegraf, self-proclaimed biggest fan of Sex Bob-omb and Scott's replacement after he leaves the band.
• Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim, Scott's sister.
• Brie Larson as Natalie V. "Envy" Adams, one of Scott's ex-girlfriends who went on to become the singer of the successful band The Clash at Demonhead.
• Erik Knudsen as Luke "Crash" Wilson, singer and guitarist of the band Crash and the Boys who competes in the battle of the bands.
• Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers, Stephen's ex-girlfriend.
• Tennessee Thomas as Lynette Guycott, the drummer of The Clash At Demonhead.

The League of Evil Exes

• Satya Bhabha as Matthew Patel, Ramona's first evil ex who has mystical powers.
• Chris Evans as Lucas Lee, Ramona's second evil ex and a "pretty good" skateboarder turned "pretty good" action movie star.
• Brandon Routh as Todd Ingram, Ramona's third evil ex who possesses psychic powers as a result of his vegan diet; also the bassist for The Clash at Demonhead and current boyfriend of Scott's ex-girlfriend Envy Adams.
• Mae Whitman as Roxanne "Roxy" Richter, Ramona's fourth evil ex and only ex-girlfriend, a self-conscious half-ninja.
• Shota Saito and Keita Saito as Kyle and Ken Katayanagi, Ramona's fifth and sixth evil exes who are popular Japanese musicians.
• Jason Schwartzman as Gideon Gordon Graves, Ramona's seventh evil ex, manager of the Chaos Theater and evil mastermind behind the League of Evil Exes.

Featuring cameo appearances from Thomas Jane and Clifton Collins Jr. as the Vegan Policemen, and Bill Hader as The Voice narrating the film.

Production

Development

After artist Bryan Lee O'Malley completed the first volume of Scott Pilgrim, his publisher Oni Press contacted producer Marc Platt with the proposition for a film version. Universal Studios contracted Edgar Wright who had just finished his last film, Shaun of the Dead, to adapt the Scott Pilgrim comics. O'Malley originally had mixed feelings about a film adaptation, stating that he "expected them to turn it into a full-on action comedy with some actor that I hated...I didn’t even care. I was a starving artist, and I was like, 'Please, just give me some money.'"

In May 2005, the studio signed Michael Bacall to write the screenplay for the adaptation. By January 2009, filmmakers rounded out its cast for the film, now titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Edgar Wright does note that O'Malley was "very involved" with the script of the film from the start, and even contributed lines to and "polished" certain scenes in the film. Likewise due to the long development process several lines from the various scripts written by Wright and Bacall ended up in books four and five as well.

O'Malley confirmed that no material from Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour, the sixth Scott Pilgrim volume, would appear in the film, as production had already begun. While he had given ideas and suggestions for the final act of the film, he admitted to that some of those plans might change throughout the writing process and ultimately stated that "Their ending is their ending". O'Malley gave Wright and Bacall his notes for the sixth book while filming took place.

Filming began in March 2009 in Toronto and wrapped in August. In the film's original ending, written before the release of the final Scott Pilgrim book, Scott ultimately gets together with Knives. In the book series and the final film, Scott and Ramona get together.

The film was given a production budget of between $85–90 million but after tax rebates, the final cost of the movie was $60 million.

Casting

Director Wright felt confident with his casting in the film. Wright stated that "Like with Hot Fuzz how we had great people in every single tiny part, it's the same with this. What's great with this is that there’s people you know, like with Michael [Cera] and Jason [Schwartzman], and then we have people who are up and coming, like Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza and Brie Larson, and then there’s complete unknowns as well". There was no studio interference with casting more unknowns, as Wright stated that "Universal never really gave me any problems about casting bigger people, because in a way Michael [Cera] has starred in two $100 million-plus movies, and also a lot of the other people, though they're not the biggest names, people certainly know who they are." Wright planned on casting Michael Cera while writing Hot Fuzz after watching episodes of Arrested Development. Wright said he needed an actor that "audiences will still follow even when the character is being a bit of an ass." Edgar Wright ran all his casting decisions by O'Malley during the casting session. Mary Elizabeth Winstead was Wright's choice for Ramona Flowers two years before filming had started, because "she has a very sunny disposition as a person, so it was interesting to get her to play a version of herself that was broken inside. She's great in the film because she causes a lot of chaos but remains supernaturally grounded." Ellen Wong auditioned for the part of Knives Chau three times. On her second audition Edgar Wright was surprised to find that she had a green belt in taekwondo due to this "sweetfaced young lady being a secret badass".

Music

Main article: List of Scott Pilgrim soundtracks

Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Beck, Metric, Broken Social Scene, Cornelius, Dan the Automator, Kid Koala, Holy Fuck, and David Campbell all contributed to the film's soundtrack. Beck composed the music played by Sex Bob-omb in the film, and two unreleased songs can also be heard in the teaser trailer. Cast members Mark Webber, Alison Pill and Johnny Simmons all had to learn to play their respective instruments, and spent time rehearsing as a band with Michael Cera and Beck before filming began. The actors also perform on the movie soundtrack. Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene wrote all the songs for Crash and the Boys. The tracks were sung by actor Erik Knudsen, who plays Crash in the film. Drew stated that the reason behind this was that "[he] knew that [Knudsen] didn't need to be a singer to pull [it] off" because the songs were "so quick and punk and fast" and "it needed to be the character's voice." Metric are the influence of the band Clash at Demonhead in the film and have contributed the song "Black Sheep" to the film. The clothing of Metric's lead singer, Emily Haines, is the basis for the clothing of the lead singer of Clash at Demonhead. Brie Larson provides the vocals for "Black Sheep" in the film, while the soundtrack features a version of the song with Haines as lead singer. Chris Murphy of the band Sloan was the guitar coach for the actors in the film. Music from The Legend of Zelda video game series is used in a dream sequence in the film. To get permission to use the music, Edgar Wright sent a clip of the film and wrote a letter to Nintendo that described the music as "like nursery rhymes to a generation."

Release

Michael Cera dressed up as Captain America at the Scott Pilgrim panel at the San Diego Comic-Con.

A Scott Pilgrim vs. the World panel featured at the San Diego Comic-Con International held on July 22, 2010. After the panel Edgar Wright invited selected members of the audience for a screening of the film which was followed by a performance by Metric. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was also shown at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal on July 27, 2010 and was also featured at the Movie-Con III in London on August 15, 2010.

Marketing

On March 25, 2010, the first teaser trailer for the film was released. A second trailer featuring music by The Ting Tings, LCD Soundsystem, Be Your Own Pet, Cornelius, Blood Red Shoes, and The Prodigy was released May 31, 2010.

At the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, the first clip from the film was released featuring Scott Pilgrim facing Lucas Lee in battle. The actors playing Lucas Lee's stunt doubles are the actual stunt doubles for Chris Evans. Alison Pill who plays Kim Pine in the film stated that her character's past relationship with Scott will be explored in other media stating that "There will be a little something-something that will air on Adult Swim". The animated short, Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation, produced by Titmouse Inc., adapts the opening prologue of the second Scott Pilgrim book and was aired on Adult Swim on August 12, 2010, later being released on their website. Michael Cera stated that he felt the film was "a tricky one to sell. I don't know how you convey that movie in a marketing campaign. I can see it being something that people are slow to discover. In honesty, I was slow to find Shaun of the Dead".

Video game

Main article: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game

A video game was produced based on the series. It was released for PlayStation Network on August 10, 2010 and on Xbox Live Arcade on August 25, being met with mostly positive reviews. The game is published by Ubisoft and developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Chengdu, featuring animation by Paul Robertson and original music by Anamanaguchi.

Home media

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 9, 2010. The UK release date is December 27, 2010.

DVD features include four audio commentaries: (director Edgar Wright, co-writer Michael Bacall and author Bryan Lee O’Malley; Wright and director of photography Bill Pope; Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong and Brandon Routh; and Anna Kendrick, Aubrey Plaza, Kieran Culkin and Mark Webber), deleted and alternate scenes with commentary, bloopers, photo galleries, and a trivia track.

The Blu-ray features all DVD features including alternate footage, six featurettes (Making of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Music, You Too Can Be Sex Bob-omb, Visual Effects, Sound Work, and Pre-Production), production blogs, Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation, trailers and TV spots, storyboard picture-in-picture, a DVD copy, and a digital copy.

Reception

Box office

The film was widely released in North America on August 13, 2010, opening in 2818 theaters. The film finished fifth on its first weekend of release with a total of $10.5 million, and by its second weekend of release had dropped to the bottom of the top ten. The Wall Street Journal described this as "disappointing" while Ben Fritz of the LA Times noted that the film appeared to be a "major financial disappointment". Commenting on this, Universal noted that they "do wish a greater number of people went to see Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but hope that people will still make the effort to see this wonderful film."

In the UK, the film opened in 408 cinemas, finishing second on its opening weekend with £1.6 million, dropping to fifth place by the next weekend.

Critical response

Response to the film post-premiere has been generally positive. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 81% based on 217 reviews, with an average score of 7.5 out of 10. Rotten Tomatoes' consensus is that "its script may not be as dazzling as its eye-popping visuals, but Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is fast, funny, and inventive".

Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film has received an average score of 69%, based on 38 reviews, which indicates generally favorable reviews. David Edelstein of New York Magazine wrote that "The film is repetitive, top-heavy: Wright blows his wad too early. But a different lead might have kept you laughing and engaged. Cera doesn't come alive in the fight scenes the way Stephen Chow does in the best (and most Tashlin-like) of all the surreal martial-arts comedies, Kung Fu Hustle."

At a test screening, director Kevin Smith was impressed by the film saying "That movie is great. It's spellbinding and nobody is going to understand what the fuck just hit them. I would be hard pressed to say, 'he's bringing a comic book to life!' but he is bringing a comic book to life." Smith also said that fellow directors Quentin Tarantino and Jason Reitman were "really into it".

After premiere screenings at the San Diego Comic-Con International, the film received positive reviews. Variety gave the film a mixed review, referring to the film as "An example of attention-deficit filmmaking at both its finest and its most frustrating" and that "anyone over 25 is likely to find director Edgar Wright's adaptation of the cult graphic novel exhausting, like playing chaperone at a party full of oversexed college kids." The Hollywood Reporter wrote a negative review, stating that "What's disappointing is that this is all so juvenile. Nothing makes any real sense...[Michael] Cera doesn't give a performance that anchors the nonsense." and "Universal should have a youth hit in the domestic market when the film opens next month. A wider audience among older or international viewers seems unlikely."

IGN gave the film a positive rating of 8/10 calling the film "funny and offbeat" as well as noting that the film is "best suited for the wired generation and those of us who grew up on Nintendo and MTV. Its kinetic nature and quirky sensibilities might be a turnoff for some."

Nick Schager of Slant Magazine gave the film a positive review of three and a half stars out of four, calling Edgar Wright an "inspired mash-up artist, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World may be his finest hybridization to date". A. O. Scott made the film his "critics pick", stating "There are some movies about youth that just make you feel old, even if you aren't...Scott Pilgrim vs. the World has the opposite effect. Its speedy, funny, happy-sad spirit is so infectious that the movie makes you feel at home in its world even if the landscape is, at first glance, unfamiliar."

External links

• Official website
• Scott Pilgrim film diary on Vimeo
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World at IMDb
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World at AllMovie
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World at Box Office Mojo
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World at Rotten Tomatoes
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World at Metacritic