Edgar Wright (film director)
| Published: 30th July 2007 15:34 |
Edgar Howard Wright Jnr. was born on the 18th April 1974 in Poole, in Dorset and grew up in Wells. He started making and forcing films upon his peers at the age of 14 and created such classics as 'Rolf Harris Saves The World' and 'Carbolic Soap'. At 1994 he wrote and directed a no-budget spoof western called 'A Fistful of Fingers' which sold itself as "The greatest western ever made... in Somerset".
Edgar then moved on to bigger and more televisually based things, directing a number of programmes for the Paramount comedy channel and the BBC including 'Asylum' (which starred, amongst others, Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson whom you may have heard of), 'Is It Bill Bailey?' and Alexei Sayle's 'Merry-Go-Round'.
In 1999 Edgar was asked to direct the sitcom 'Spaced'. Written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson as Tim and Daisy respectively, it followed the lives of the two twentysomethings and their friends. The show ran for two series, and was made up of a total of 14 episodes. It was twice nominated and robbed of BAFTAs by less worthy sitcoms. Whilst shooting a Resident Evil sequence for an episode of 'Spaced' Simon and Edgar both realised that they shared a passion for the brand violence and gore that can only be offered to you by the zombie genre. It was this epiphany that eventually led to the creation of the rom-zom-com (or "romantic zombie comedy", to you) 'Shaun Of The Dead' which Edgar co-wrote with Simon and directed. Edgar has been nominated for countless awards and has won a Bram Stoker Award (2005) and a British Independent Film Award (2004) for 'Shaun Of The Dead'. 'Shaun Of The Dead' received awards for Best Film (NME Awards), Best British Film (Empire Awards), Best Horror Film (US Saturn Awards), Funniest Scene (Total Film) and Best Poster (Total Film). The beardy young so-and-so has also tried his hand at acting, appearing in both series of BBC's 'Look Around You'. He also appeared in George Romero's 'Land Of The Dead' as 'Photo Booth Zombie' and in 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' as 'Deep Thought Technician'. He recently finished a second film with Simon and Nick called Hot Fuzz (which was filmed in Wells) - you may have heard of it. Edgar is lined up to work on 'Them', 'Ant-Man' and 'Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life' in the coming years. His future ambitions involve starting a llama sanctuary, and becoming known as more than just "that guy who's standing next to Simon Pegg". |
