Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a 2010 comedy film directed by Edgar Wright, based on the graphic novel series Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. The film is about Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera), a young Canadian musician, meeting the girl of his dreams, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), an American delivery girl. In order to win Ramona, Scott learns that he must defeat Ramona's "seven evil exes", who are coming to kill him.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was planned as a film after the first volume of the comic was released. Wright became attached to the project and filming began in March 2009 in Toronto. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World premiered after a panel discussion at the San Diego Comic-Con International on July 22, 2010. It received a wide release in North America on August 13, 2010 in 2,818 theaters.
The film finished fifth on its first weekend of release with a total of $10.5 million. The film received generally positive reviews by critics and fans of the graphic novel, but it failed to recoup its production budget during its release in theaters, grossing $31.5 million in North America and $16 million overseas.
Main characters: Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim, a 22-year-old Canadian, who falls in love with Ramona Flowers. He is the bass guitarist of the band Sex Bob-omb. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Victoria Flowers, a mysterious American delivery girl with a dating history that drives the plot of the film. Kieran Culkin as Wallace Wells, Scott's 25-year-old gay roommate and close friend. Ellen Wong as Knives Chau, a 17-year-old high school girl whom Scott dates before meeting Ramona. Alison Pill as Kim Pine, the 23-year-old drummer of Sex Bob-omb and one of Scott's ex-girlfriends. Mark Webber as Stephen Stills, the 22-year-old lead singer and "talent" of Sex Bob-omb. Johnny Simmons as "Young" Neil Nordegraf, a 20-year-old fan of Sex Bob-omb and Scott's replacement after he leaves the band. Anna Kendrick as Stacey Pilgrim, Scott's 18-year-old sister. Brie Larson as Natalie V. "Envy" Adams, one of Scott's ex-girlfriends who went on to become the singer of the successful band The Clash at Demonhead. Aubrey Plaza as Julie Powers, Stephen's ex-girlfriend, who has issues.
Music-Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, Beck, Metric, Broken Social Scene, Cornelius, Dan the Automator, Kid Koala, and David Campbell all contributed to the film's soundtrack. Beck wrote and composed the music played by Sex Bob-omb in the film, and two unreleased songs can also be heard in the teaser trailer. Cast members Mark Webber, Alison Pill and Johnny Simmons all had to learn to play their respective instruments, and spent time rehearsing as a band with Michael Cera (who already played bass) and Beck before filming began. The actors also perform on the movie soundtrack.
Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew of Broken Social Scene wrote all the songs for Crash and the Boys. The tracks were sung by actor Erik Knudsen, who plays Crash in the film. Drew stated that the reason behind this was that "[he] knew that [Knudsen] didn't need to be a singer to pull [it] off" because the songs were "so quick and punk and fast" and "it needed to be the character's voice." Metric is the inspiration for the film's fictional band, the Clash at Demonhead, and contributed the song "Black Sheep" to the film.
The clothing of Metric's lead singer, Emily Haines, is also the basis for the clothing of the lead singer of Clash at Demonhead. Brie Larson provides the vocals for "Black Sheep" in the film, while the soundtrack features a version of the song with Haines as lead singer.
Chris Murphy of the band Sloan was the guitar coach for the actors in the film. Music from The Legend of Zelda video game series is used in a dream sequence in the film. To get permission to use the music, Edgar Wright sent a clip of the film and wrote a letter to Nintendo that described the music as "like nursery rhymes to a generation."
