Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World is celebrating its 10th anniversary this summer. The movie opened in August of 2010, but was not immediatly a hit. It landed at number 5 on the box office charts, with Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables soaring to number one instead. This was a blow for director Edgar Wright. But at the time, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane lobbed a diss on Twitter that would forever change how Wright viewed Fox’s prolific animation king.
Sure, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a beloved cult movie now. But unfortunately, the film’s ultra-niche aesthetic failed to entice general audiences, and it flopped hard. As if that wasn’t enough, Wright was particularly irked by Seth MacFarlane‘s cheap shot on social media at the film’s expense.
“It opened at number five. It’s that thing where it becomes a bit of a punch line. I’ve never liked Seth MacFarlane, because that weekend he tweeted “Scott Pilgrim 0, the World 2.” I was like, f— you. And then I lay in wait until 8 Million Ways to Die in the West came out, or whatever it was called, and I rubbed my hands with glee. I didn’t tweet anything because I’m not a total monster. [Laughs] But Monday morning Michael Moses sent an email with three words. It was one of the sweetest emails I’ve ever gotten from anybody in the industry. It said, “Years, not days.”
Wright acted like the bigger man at the time, and years later his hard work on Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was vindicated by the legions of fans the movie has since garnered, something Wright celebrates at the end of the interview by ironically taking a swipe at another film franchise.
“I’m incredibly proud of the movie. The fact that you’re not doing a 10th-anniversary article about The Expendables says it all.”
Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World is one of those cult classic movies that are difficult to reboot, thanks to the iconic imagery associated with the original film and its characters. It is difficult to imagine any other actors replacing the cast of the film, like say, Seth Rogen in place of Michael Cera as Scott. But as the film’s director Edgar Wright revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, that almost wound up happening with the first one.
“Knocked Up had just come out, and [Universal’s then president of production] Donna Langley suggested Seth Rogen be Scott Pilgrim. I love Seth, but I couldn’t get my head around that.”
Fortunately, Wright had already zeroed in on an actor who he felt would make for the perfect Scott Pilgrim. A then-little-known actor from Arrested Development named Michael Cera.
“Michael Cera was the only person who came to mind. I loved Arrested Development, he’s Canadian, he’s scrawny, he plays guitar, and the idea of Michael as a Romeo is just inherently amusing.”
While Edgar Wright had already decided to cast Cera in the lead role, a lot of the other main cast had to undergo extensive auditions to land their parts. But there was one such hopeful who was so good during the audition that the makers felt they had no choice but to cast her; future Captain Marvel Brie Larson.
“Brie Larson’s audition was just amazing. I’d seen a long line of people coming into the Universal lot to audition, and some people who were reasonably established. Brie – who was 19 at the time, maybe she was even 18 when she auditioned – blew everybody else away. Jared [LeBoff, Scott Pilgrim executive producer] and I both said afterward, “We’ve got to cast her.”
Once the movie came out, it was acclaimed by fans of the original graphic novel it was based on, and geekdom in general for the imaginative special effects and general look of the movie that paid homage to iconic pieces of Geek culture, from video games to indie music bands. This news comes from Entertainment Weekly and their extensive oral history on the cult favorite.