Though the critically acclaimed Baby Driver was more of an action film than a comedy, it still had some extremely funny moments. That’s kinda what you expect from Edgar Wright, who made his name with the excellent British comedy show Spaced before hitting gold with his Cornetto trilogy of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End. But now, courtesy of Discussing Film, we’ve heard that he’d like to expand his range and ditch the comedy altogether to make a straight horror movie without comedic elements.
At the moment, he’s working on an untitled documentary about the band Sparks, but he’s also attached to at least six potential projects. Three of them are in the script stage and three are unknown.
The ones we know about are Grasshopper Jungle, a YA adaptation about six foot tall praying mantises invading a small town in Iowa; Collider, a science fiction movie in the early stages development and Fortunately, the Milk which would adapt Neil Gaiman’s children’s book about time travel and breakfast cereal.
None of these sound much like a straight horror film, though given his visual and editing talent, you’d have to assume he’d completely knock any project he was given out of the park. One production he was offered was a remake of John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London. Based on his past work, it sounds like he’d be the perfect fit for the job but, perhaps conscious that a horror comedy set in London is retreading old ground, he turned down the chance (it’s now being directed by John’s son Max Landis).
After the success of Baby Driver, Edgar Wright is hot stuff right now, so within reason, I’d say he can name his project. And if it’s going to be straight horror, I can’t wait to see what he turns out.
