Breaking: Director Edgar Wright Bows to My Every Whim

Okay, so the article title might be a touch misleading. Really, this news isn’t breaking, and there’s many, many things I could order Edgar Wright, awesome director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim Vs. the Universe, to do, and he probably wouldn’t. But there is one thing I can make him do, apparently, and that’s watch Buckaroo Banzai.

?
It all started a few months ago when I happened to rewatch Buckaroo Banzai on Netflix Instant. Afterwards, I happened to mention on Twitter that Edgar Wright be perfect to direct a remake… or even better, an actual sequel (there’s not really any continuity that matters, other than using the same heroes). To my surprise, Wright actually responded to me, saying there was one problem with my plan: he’d never seen Buckaroo Banzai. I was stunned, and told him so. I mean, as nerdy/pop culture savvy/cult movie-attuned Wright is, it boggled me that he’d never seen it. It’s like a member of Wilco never hearing a Led Zeppelin song before — possible, but incredibly unlikely.

Well, apparently this got Edgar Wright thinking about other movies he hadn’t seen, and felt he should see — to the point where he organized his third film festival at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles around ‘MOVIES EDGAR HAS NEVER SEEN’. And on December 16th, 2011, he’s finally going to watch it. From Wright himself:

I end my special season with a film that inspired the whole endeavor.  A
few months ago, a Twitter follower was aghast – aghast – that I had
never seen BUCKAROO BANZAI.  He asked, “How is that even possible?”
 Well the answer is thus: it was barely released in the UK.  Certainly
played nowhere near me.  I was also in a VHS-less household for the
whole of the eighties (cue violins).  And finally I did not have cable
either.  So my exposed contact to BUCKAROO was nil.  That is finally
about to change.  And super fan Kevin Smith has decided to come and hold
my hand for the first watch.  The perfect midnight movie to end on? I
can’t wait to find out.

You can watch it with him, actually; you can purchase tickets here. Alas, I won’t be there, as I’m too poor to fly out to LA despite the fact that this was totally my idea. But I did want to let you all know that I, Rob Bricken of Topless Robot, will have singlehandedly introduced Edgar Wright to Buckaroo Banzai, started a film festival and maybe, just maybe, paved the way for a Buckaroo Banzai remake/sequel. Yes, I am pretty fucking awesome.

PS — I know that ticket page says “Buckaroo Banzai suggested by Kevin Smith”, but that’s lies and slander. Obviously, if it had been Smith, Wright wouldn’t have simply called him “a Twitter follower” in the paragraph above. Nor would Wright have retweeted this from me yesterday:

?God, I rule.