Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Answers:
Scott Pilgrim is a wildly popular graphic novel. Its creator, Bryan Lee O’Malley, lives in Asheville. And now the graphic novel series is being made into a movie, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, which is being shot in Toronto right now. Click here to see a photo of O’Malley with the movies stars, including Michael Cera, or Arrested Development and Juno fame.
The National Post just did a story:
Currently shooting in Toronto, the Universal production Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is taking cartoonist Bryan Lee O’Malley’s six-volume Oni Press series (the highly anticipated fifth just came out) and condensing it into what promises to be a faithful adaptation by director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz) with local-boy-done-good Michael Cera (Juno) in the title role.
Having a large studio movie shot in Toronto isn’t out of the ordinary, but having it actually take place in Toronto is. During a February Q&A with Wright at the Bloor Cinema, he revealed his excitement at being a possible pioneer of a “Toronto as setting” movement, until he discovered that the abysmal box office flop The Love Guru recently embraced “Toronto as setting.” Whether or not a Toronto setting would prove marketable in the long run wasn’t something that entered the equation for O’Malley when he debuted his first volume back in 2004. “I set it in Toronto because that’s where I lived,” he explains. “And because I wanted my friends who might read the book, who were probably the only people who would read the book, to understand the book. I had no visions of any success. We had 600 pre-orders and that was a really great thing, sort of.”
Check out a video blog of the making of the movie. See set photos. Here’s a thought or two on the merchandising of Scott Pilgrim.
I can’t wait to see the film. I wish all the best success to Bryan on this venture, and on his continuing graphic novel series.
