UPDATE:A previous version of this story misstated that Edgar Wright might not directBaby Driver 2; however, he does not specify that someone else would take over directing the project.
Previously:Coming off the release of his new nostalgic horror filmLast Night in Soho,Edgar Wrightrevealed in a recent conversation forInterview MagazinewithNo Time to DiedirectorCary Joji Fukunagathat he has written a screenplay forBaby Driver 2.
Wright said in the conversation with Fukunaga:
“If I did the sequel - and in fact I’ve already written a script - I’d have to find a way to make it fun for me. The idea of doing a straight Xerox is just not interesting because, as you know, these films take at least two years and in our cases, because of the pandemic, they took even longer. My rule of thumb is you have to really want to do it. We’ve both been in situations where we have walked away from a studio franchise movie because we weren’t feeling it. I know that we share many things in common, and that’s one of them.”
Baby Driver, which follows a talented young getaway driver played byAnsel Elgortlooking to get out of his life of crime for good, was a major hit both critically and commercially for Wright. Holding a 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and making $266.9 million on a $34 million budget, it is arguably the director’s most successful film to date. It was also nominated for such awards as Best Achievement in Film Editing at the Oscars and won the BAFTA for Best Editing.
RELATED:‘Last Night in Soho’ Review: Edgar Wright Crafts a Killer 60s Throwback Where the Past Bites Back
With those kinds of numbers and accolades, it is easy to see why Sony would want to get behind the wheel of another film. Word on a sequel for the film started all the way back in July 2017, a month afterBaby Driver’s release, with Wright being open to the possibilities of a sequel. In the same conversation with Fukunaga, Wright would go on to say:
“I don’t think I’ve ever done exactly the same thing twice in a row. In fact, the reason I decided to do Last Night in Soho was because at the time when Baby Driver was out, it was doing an awards run and got Oscar nominations, and I was getting a lot of pressure to jump straight into doing a sequel. And I just wasn’t ready to do the same story again. It was a conscious thing of switching gears.”
Sequels to any film are hard to make and the fact is Wright has never made a sequel before. For fans of the high-octane action-comedy, that might be a hard pill to swallow. However, for a director of Wright’s talent, that only means film fans will get treated to another highly original tale likeHot FuzzorLast Night in Soho.
