This isn’t so much news as a few fascinating entries in the ‘What If’ file, but worth passing on nonetheless. The new Empire Magazine hit newsstands in the UK today, and amidst one of the best issues in a while, there’s a big cover feature on “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” and inside, Edgar Wright revealed some of the big Hollywood offers he’s had since he made his name with “Shaun of the Dead.”
Most notable of all is that the director was offered the chance to direct a long-gestating script by one of his heroes, Sam Raimi. Apparently Raimi asked Wright to direct “Drag Me To Hell,” a request that the helmer was tempted by. But, as he tells Empire, “It was so obviously a Sam Raimi film. I told him as a fan I wanted to see him do it.” Raimi took his advice, and the film marked something of a return to form for the “Spider-Man” director, with the director jokingly blaming Wright for making him do the film, “When I visited the set, they were doing the graveyard scene and Sam’s suit was splattered in mud. He turned to me and said ‘Edgar, why’d you do this to me? This is all your fault!'”
It’s not the only film that Wright has turned down in favor of his own projects. It seems that one of the earliest scripts he was offered, bizarrely, was the 2006 Matthew McConaughey/Sarah Jessica Parker rom-com “Failure To Launch” (to which the director says “You get the script for that and you’re thinking, ‘Really? Me?'”), and horror remake “The Crazies,” which was eventually made by Breck Eisner.
Intriguingly, he also turned down “The Green Hornet.” It’s unknown whether he was offered this at the beginning of the project, or after Stephen Chow left, before Michel Gondry took over, but either way, he may have dodged a bullet with that one… You may also remember that Wright met with Tom Cruise over “Mission Impossible 4,” but had to turn it down due to commitments to ‘Scott Pilgrim,’ with Brad Bird eventually taking the gig.
The Playlist recently caught up with Wright ourselves; look for our interview sometime in the next week, it’s going to be a good one. In the meantime, pick up Empire’s new issue for more goodness on the film, and plenty of other stuff.