After seeing Last Night in Soho, acclaimed director Alfonso Cuarón implored Edgar Wright to make a musical for his next project. Considering the Mexican director’s accolades, it might be wise to take his advice. Cuarón has received eleven Academy Award nominations in six different categories, picking up the Best Director award for Gravity (2013) and Roma (2018). Cuarón is also known for directing Y tu mamá también (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), and the dystopian sci-fi thriller Children of Men (2006).
Wright is a similarly acclaimed filmmaker, having first garnered attention for his Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, a collaboration with Simon Pegg that began with Shaun of the Dead in 2004. Wright would go on to direct other highly stylized, deeply kinetic genre films, including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) and Baby Driver (2017). His next project is the forthcoming Last Night in Soho, a neon-lit psychological horror film. Per the film’s synopsis, Last Night in Soho follows an aspiring fashion designer who is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s, where she encounters a dazzling wannabe singer. However, the glamour is not all it appears to be, and the dreams of the past start to crack and splinter into something far darker.
In an interview with Screen Rant, Wright admitted that he “would love to do a musical,” and not just because Cuarón suggested it. Wright acknowledges the genre’s influence on his work going back to Shaun of the Dead, though that influence would grow stronger in music-centric films like Scott Pilgrim and Baby Driver. A road bump, the director mentions, is finding the right material. “Sometimes stage to screen transfers can be tricky,” he says, noting Cabaret as a positive example. Check out Wright’s full quote below:
"You're not the first person to say that. Alfonso Cuarón watched the movie early on and he said afterwards, "Dude, just make a musical already!" (laughs) I really love the form. I mean, obviously there's elements in, going back to Shaun of the Dead and, obviously, much stronger in Scott Pilgrim, but much stronger in Baby Driver and Last Night in Soho. Yeah, I would. I would love to do a musical. I think it's about finding the right one or finding something, if it's something that's written for the screen. Sometimes stage to screen transfers can be tricky and it doesn't always come off. But then, there are some sort of musicals where they come straight from -- something like Bob Fosse's Cabaret is probably one of the great examples of musical-to-film transfer. But I'm also a sucker, as you probably know, for all of the '30s Busby Berkeley films. So yeah, if I could find the right thing, it would be a thrill."
For fans of Wright’s films, Cuarón’s urge to “just make a musical already!” should come as little surprise. Wright has long been interested in musical performance on-screen. Musical numbers, albeit punk rock ones, abound in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, the exaggerated, brightly-colored world of which suggests the scope of a musical. And in Baby Driver, Wright slips in fancy footwork and car-based choreo amid a non-stop pop soundtrack. Wright’s most recent project was The Sparks Brothers (2021), a documentary on the pop duo, Sparks, cut with animated sequences.
Last Night in Soho is Wright’s first foray into horror, but, at least according to Cuarón, something about the film’s performances and choreographed movements evince a propensity towards musicals. Wright is already using music to set the tone for his ‘60s-set film, having released a playlist that inspired Last Night in Soho. And Anya Taylor-Joy, who stars as a cabaret singer named Sandy, appears in an eerie promotional music video where she sings Petula Clark’s “Downtown.” For fans eager to see Wright’s unique marriage of music and horror, Last Night in Soho hits theaters on October 29.
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