SCOTT PILGRIM: SUPER ORDINARY SUPERHERO
Q: I was talking with Jim Zubkavich from Udon the other night, and he mentioned that part of the appeal of Scott Pilgrim is that Scott is a super hero for this generation. To put it into context, Peter Parker was a superhero for his time. When Spider-Man debuted in the 1960's, Peter Parker was radically different than say, Bruce Wayne or Clark Kent in that he wasn't a rich guy with lots of gadgets or a super-powered guy from another planet; he was an ordinary guy thrown into extraordinary circumstances.
Peter Parker used to be this everyday guy that comic book readers could relate to, and now, he's not – he's more Spider-Man than the kind of guy that you would think, "Oh, he reminds me of my friend, or he reminds me of me." Scott Pilgrim on the other hand – he seems to fits that everyday guy role for this generation of comic-book readers. Would you care to comment on that thought?
Bryan Lee O'Malley: Yes, well... a Canadian magazine The Walrus put out an article saying something similar to that. Whenever I'd think about superheroes, or if I drew superheroes, they'd be like Scott Pilgrim. They'd be kind of mundane. They wouldn't have costumes; they'd just wear regular clothes.
I feel like culture is going this way, this kind of no-effort thing. Like, Scott Pilgrim didn't have to work to be a superhero – he just kind of is one, when he needs to be one. Sometimes that makes me a little depressed.
Q: Oh really? Why does it make you depressed?
Bryan Lee O'Malley: Well, like Peter Parker. He didn't have to work out to get his muscles – he just got bit by a spider. So it's this wish fulfillment, fantasy thing.
So when people talk about the Scott Pilgrim movie, they mention how Michael Cera, the guy who plays Scott, is going to be up against Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables on the same weekend that both films open. Guys like Stallone, they're the heroes of the last generation – they are big, muscular, manly men, while Michael Cera is the complete opposite of that! So I don't know what it says about our culture at large, but it is part of something larger than just this book or this movie.
FROM PAGE TO SCREEN: HOLLYWOOD CALLING FOR SCOTT PILGRIM
Q: So back to the movie – before had you mentioned this earlier, I had no idea that Scott Pilgrim had been optioned for a movie all the way back in 2004! How did all that come about?
Bryan Lee O'Malley: Oni has their own production arm called Closed on Mondays, that we had just started working with at the time. They gave it to Mark Platt Productions, who just kind of passed it around. They really put these two guys, Adam and Jared on the project. Jared been my friend for a while – he was only 24-25 years old at the time. So he was a really young Hollywood exec. He really got into it. He's a nerd too! (laughs)
So they went to a screening of Shawn of the Dead where Edgar was at, they literally gave the book to him and told him, "This should be your next movie." He eventually read it, and he really liked it. He called them back, and eventually called me. When he called me, I didn't know who he was, all I knew was that he was British!
They sent me a few of his movies to watch, including Shawn of the Dead. I remember being sick at the time, I had the flu or something. Nowadays, I still like watching Shawn of the Dead whenever I'm sick! It's my sick movie now! (laughs)
Q: So the highways are littered with comic book movie adaptations that frankly... suck. Did you set any conditions before agreeing to have your book made into a movie, or were you concerned that they would take your story, and well, ruin it?
Bryan Lee O'Malley: No, I fully expected it to suck! (laughs) I thought it would end up being some jerky crap, like some raunchy sex comedy with some fighting! At the time, I didn't care – I was poor, I just wanted some money and some recognition, whatever. So I basically just signed the deal thinking that.
Now, Edgar's movie (Shawn of the Dead), I liked it a lot, so I thought, well, let's just see where this ends up going. I never expected it to be adapted so faithfully. This is way before Sin City. Sin City came out a few months after I had signed the deal, so the whole wave of really faithful, graphic novel adaptations came after that.
