‘Scott Pilgrim’ creator hits Comic-Con
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Bryan Lee O’Malley is done with Scott Pilgrim. But will Scott Pilgrim ever be done with him?
“I’m going to be answering stupid questions about Scott Pilgrim for the rest of my life,” the Canadian comics creator said this weekend as the movie based on his acclaimed series took Comic-Con International in San Diego by storm.
For example, O’Malley was doing interviews at the Hilton Bayfront hotel, which had been decked out with a skyscraper-sized Pilgrim movie poster, putting both him and the 130,000 assembled Comic-Conners in the character’s guitar-strumming shadow.
In director Edgar Wright’s movie, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Michael Cera stars as the love-sick Toronto bassist who falls for a neon-coifed delivery girl (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Things get complicated – and as surreal and frenetic as a video game – when he’s forced to fight her seven evil exes. Most extraordinary, though, is that the story unfolds in Toronto – not New York or Chicago or, more commonly, Toronto doubling for New York. In fact, O’Malley reveals the opposite almost happened.
“New York was offering better tax breaks, so Universal briefly entertained the idea of shooting in New York, doubling as Toronto, which I can’t even imagine. That would have been the weirdest experience, to watch that.”
Opening Aug. 13, the film’s release also coincides with the publication of the sixth and final Pilgrim volume, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour.
“I feel like I’ve come to the end of this chapter that started six or eight years ago. It’s really strange and I don’t think I’ve come to terms with it yet, but this whole week has been madness.”
Not that O’Malley is surprised. “I think about half way through I realized I would at least be beholden to this for the rest of my life. Whatever I do next, it’s going to be held up to that. It’s been huge. It’s been way bigger than I ever could have imagined.”
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