In today’s episode of Bingeworthy, our TV and streaming podcast host Mike DeAngelo gets killed off in episode one while discussing “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.” The Netflix series is based on the Bryan Lee O’Malley Manga book series and the Edgar Wright-directed cult hit film of the same name and follows an alternate take on Scott Pilgrim falling in love with Ramona Flowers, only to find that he has to fight her seven evil exes. The animated show sees all of the film cast returning, including stars Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Alison Pill, Aubrey Plaza, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman, and more.
Joining Bingeworthy to discuss the hilarious new take on Scott Pilgrim are the co-showrunners, Bryan Lee O’Malley (creator of Scott Pilgrim) and BenDavid Grabinski (“Happily,” “Are You Afraid of the Dark?”). During the interview, O’Malley and Grabinski discussed the origins of the series.
“It starts with the idea of working with [Science SARU], the anime studio,” O’Malley said. “They were pitched to me as being interested and being fans of ‘Scott Pilgrim.’ And I just thought, ‘What can I do with that?’ How can I best go about this and not waste this opportunity or feel like I wasted it retreading my steps or doing something that felt boring to me? Maybe I have ADHD or something. I don’t know. I couldn’t figure out how to thread that needle, which is a very tiny needle in a giant universe. “
“Brian wished there could be a way to do something new but didn’t think that was possible,” Grabinski added. “Also, he didn’t think that anyone would let him do something new because the mandate wasn’t to do a sequel. Let’s make a new adaptation of it. And when he complained about that to me, we’re like, ‘We love this story, but wouldn’t it be great to have a story that had more to do with Ramona? Wouldn’t it be great to spend more time with the other characters? Wouldn’t it be great to get to do more stuff with people who unfortunately die as soon as you meet them?’ And I, on the spot, just sort of impulsively said, ‘You know, how you could solve that problem? What if you [remade] it, but at the end of the first fight, Scott seemingly dies in the fight against Matthew Patel? And you don’t realize until the end that he actually was kidnapped by the future version of himself. Oh, and also, what if you made a movie in the show about Scott Pilgrim’s life starring Lucas Lee?’ Those are the ideas I blurted out.”
And suddenly, they were off— and before they knew it, they had a whole series pitch on their hands with a wild idea—what if the whole cast of the movie returned? This turned out to be surprisingly easy in theory but very difficult in execution.
“The ask was easy,” Grabinski said, asking the cast to reprise their roles. “Edgar wrote a nice letter, and we wrote a nice letter. And we just sent it out to everyone all at once, like at noon on a Tuesday. And then, within half an hour, half of the people said yes. And within apparently three hours, Edgar checked, and we had everyone. So, yeah, that was amazing. Getting them to say yes was one of the easiest parts of the show. Making it all happen was one of the most difficult, and I’d say 99% of that is just scheduling…We became like doctors on call where someone would say, ‘Hey, at 5 pm. today, someone’s available for an hour.’ We would race to a studio. Just their willingness is what made that happen, but figuring that out to get all those people, and if we didn’t get everybody, we weren’t gonna use anybody.”
Any fan of the “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” film knows that the film was adored by many but went rather neglected at the mainstream box office. During the interview, O’Malley recalled his experience of the film flopping at the box office and quickly becoming a cult hit.
“We had a party the night the movie came out right around the Arclight in Hollywood, and I saw Michael Cera drive by, and he waved at me, and I was like, ‘Hey Michael!’ and then he never showed up to the party, so then I didn’t see him for like a year, and that’s like—I don’t know. We all were so devastated. We thought it was so good, and we put so much love into this thing, and then there are articles that weekend that are just tearing it down and [calling it] this is a huge flop and all that stuff. And it’s like so instant. It’s even faster nowadays, where they’re just like, ‘It’s over. It’s dead.’ But then, a few months later, it’s playing at the New Beverly every month.”
So, now that the film and the series have been so successful, could we expect a season two? The season does end with a post-credits scene, after all. The showrunners didn’t think that would lead to rampant speculation on where season 2 could go.
“I firmly believe that the line, ‘the goose is loose, honk honk f**kers,’ cannot be taken too seriously,” Grabinski joked. “And yet a lot of people on the internet did. They’re like, ‘You have her say the goose is loose honk honk f**kers!’ Which I feel firmly, no offense to anyone, is a silly line. I don’t view that line as some unbelievably shocking precursor of the story to come. It’s just a thing that makes me laugh a lot. And I think it ends a couple of different plot lines in the show, which is very helpful. But yeah, it leaves a new interesting status quo to think about. I don’t know if we’ll ever do anything with it, but it’s it’s just fun to have something like that to end on. I also think the biggest function of having a mid-credit scene is that your credits don’t end.”
And yet, the adaptations won’t stop there. O’Malley is still at work on adapting his other book, “Seconds” with Edgar Wright producing and Blake Lively attached to star.
“[Seconds] is still moving [forward],” O’Malley said. “It did slow down because of the strike and everything. But no, I just actually just got the option renewal this week. From what I hear, Blake is still really excited to do it. And they’re working on the script right now. Edgar is producing. I don’t think he’s writing— there was a draft on it. He’s got a couple of other movies in the works right now.”
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The Playlist Presents – Bryan Lee O’Malley & BenDavid Grabinski’s ‘Scott Pilgrim’ Inspirations Playlist:
1.) “Gross Pointe Blank” (1997) – Directed By George Armitage (Bryan’s Pick)
2.) “High Fidelity” (2000) – Directed By Stephen Frears (Bryan’s Pick)
3.)“Twin Peaks: The Return” (2017) – Directed By David Lynch (BenDavid’s Pick)
4.)“Gremlins 2” (1990) – Directed By Joe Dante (BenDavid’s Pick)
5.)“Ocean’s Twelve” (2004) – Directed By Steven Soderberg (BenDavid’s Pick)
Listen to the entire interview below: