name	Richard Lester
birth date	January 19, 1932
birth place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
occupation	film director
years active	1954–1991 }}

Richard Lester (born 19 January 1932) is an American film director based in Britain. Lester is notable for his work with The Beatles in the 1960s and his work on the Superman film series in the 1980s.

Early years and television

Lester was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A child prodigy, he began studies at the University of Pennsylvania at the age of 15. He started in television in 1950, working as a stage hand, floor manager, assistant director, and then to director less than a year, because no one else was around that knew how to do the work. In 1953, Lester moved to London and began work as a director in independent television, working for the legendary low cost television producers The Danziger Brothers on episodes of ''Mark Saber'', a half-hour detective series.

A variety show he produced caught the eye of Peter Sellers, who enlisted Lester's help in translating ''The Goon Show'' to television as ''The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d''. It was a hit, as were two follow-up shows, ''A Show Called Fred'' and ''Son of Fred''. Lester recalls that ''A Show Called Fred'' was "broadcast live and that's why I went into film directing where you can do a second take!"

Film career

A short film Lester made with Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, ''The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film'' (1960), was a favourite of The Beatles, and in particular John Lennon. When the band members were contracted to make a film in 1964, they chose Lester from a list of possible directors. ''A Hard Day's Night'' showed an exaggerated and simplified version of The Beatles' characters, and proved to be an effective marketing tool. Many of its stylistic innovations survive today as the conventions of music videos, in particular the multi-angle filming of a live performance. Lester was sent an award from MTV as "Father of the Music Video."

Lester directed the second Beatles film ''Help!'' in 1965. He then went on to direct several quintessential 'swinging' films, including the sex comedy ''The Knack …and How to Get It'', which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and ''Petulia'' (both with scores by John Barry), as well as the darkly surreal anti-war movie ''How I Won the War'' co-starring John Lennon, which he referred to as an "anti-anti-war movie"; Lester noted that anti-war movies still took the concept of war seriously, contrasting "bad" war crimes with wars fought for "good" causes like the liberation from Nazism or, at that time, Communism, whereas he set out to deconstruct it to show war as ''fundamentally'' opposed to humanity. Although set in World War II, the movie is indeed an oblique reference to the Vietnam War and at one point, breaking the fourth wall, references this directly.

In the 1970s, Lester directed a wide variety of films, including the disaster film ''Juggernaut'', ''Robin and Marian'', starring Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn and the period romance ''Cuba'', also starring Connery. However his biggest commercial successes in this period were ''The Three Musketeers'' and its sequel ''The Four Musketeers''. The films were somewhat controversial at the time because the producers, Alexander and Ilya Salkind, decided to split the first film into two after principal photography was completed. Many of the cast principals sued the Salkinds as a result, stating that they were only contracted to make one film.

''Superman''

As the release of ''Superman'' neared, production on ''Superman II'' was halted to concentrate on getting the first movie completed. After the first Superman film was released in late 1978, the Salkinds went back into production on ''Superman II'' without informing Superman's director Richard Donner and placing Lester behind the camera for the completion of the film. Although Donner had shot a majority of what was planned for the film, Lester jettisoned or reshot much of the original footage in order to be credited for the picture, resulting in his receiving sole credit for directing ''Superman II''. Gene Hackman, who played Lex Luthor, refused to return for the reshoots, and so Lester instead used a stunt double and an impersonator to loop Luthor's lines into footage of Hackman shot during Donner's tenure on ''Superman II''. Some of the additional footage filmed by Donner was later integrated into television versions of the film with Lester's footage. In November 2006, Donner's footage was reedited into ''Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut'', using mostly his footage, with the only Lester footage being that which was necessary to cover scenes not shot during Donner's principal photography.

Lester also directed ''Superman III'' in 1983. The third Superman film was not rated as highly with critics, yet was considered a box office success much like the first two movies had been. That movie was one of the top 10 most successful films of 1983; the number of blockbuster sequels released that year (two 007 movies, ''Octopussy'' and ''Never Say Never Again'', ''Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi'' and ''Jaws 3'') made for stiff competition for ''Superman III''.

Later years

In 1988, Lester reunited the entire Musketeers cast to film another sequel, ''The Return of the Musketeers''. However, during filming in Spain, the actor Roy Kinnear, a close friend of Lester, died after falling from a horse. Lester finished the film, then unofficially retired from directing. He did make one return to the craft in 1991 to direct a concert film for friend Paul McCartney, ''Get Back''.

In 1993, he presented ''Hollywood UK'', a five-part series on British cinema in the 1960s for the BBC.

In recent years, director Steven Soderbergh has been one of many calling for a reappraisal of Lester's work and influence. Soderbergh wrote a 1999 book, ''Getting Away With It'', which consists largely of interviews with Lester.

Filmography

''The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film'' (1960)

''It's Trad, Dad!'' (1962)

''The Mouse on the Moon'' (1963)

''A Hard Day's Night'' (1964)

''The Knack …and How to Get It'' (1965)

''Help!'' (1965)

''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (1966)

''How I Won the War'' (1967) Also Producer

''Petulia'' (1968)

''The Bed-Sitting Room'' (1969) Also Producer

''The Three Musketeers'' (1973)

''Juggernaut'' (1974)

''The Four Musketeers'' (1974)

''Royal Flash'' (1975)

''Robin and Marian'' (1976)

''The Ritz'' (1976)

''Butch and Sundance: The Early Days'' (1979)

''Cuba'' (1979)

''Superman II'' (1980)

''Superman III'' (1983)

''Finders Keepers'' (1984)

''The Return of the Musketeers'' (1989)

''Get Back'' (1991)

Personal life

In Soderbergh's book ''Getting Away with it,'' Lester reveals that he is a committed atheist and debates with Soderbergh (then an agnostic), largely based on the arguments of Richard Dawkins.

Notes and references

External links

Richard Lester interview with Steven Soderbergh, The Guardian, UK

Richard Lester: A hard day's life

The Beatles in West Somerset in 1964

NYT biog

BFI film database

MTV biog

TheBeatles.com

Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:American film directors Category:People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Category:1932 births Category:Living people Category:American atheists Category:People associated with The Beatles

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Name	Hal Hartley
Birth date
Birth place	Lindenhurst, New York, U.S.
Spouse	Miho Nikaido
Occupation	Director, screenwriter, producer, composer }}

Hal Hartley (born November 3, 1959) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer composer, who became a key figure in the American independent film movement of the 1980s and 1990s. He is best known for his films ''Trust'', ''Amateur'' and ''Henry Fool'', which are notable for deadpan humour and offbeat characters quoting philosophical dialogue.

His films provided a career launch for a number of actors, including Adrienne Shelly, Edie Falco, Martin Donovan, Parker Posey, Karen Sillas and Elina Löwensohn. Hartley frequently scores his own films using his pseudonym Ned Rifle, and his soundtracks regularly feature music by indie rock acts Yo La Tengo and P J Harvey.

Early life

Hartley was born in Lindenhurst in southern Long Island, New York, the son of an ironworker. Hartley had an early interest in painting and attended the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston where he studied art and developed an interest in filmmaking. In 1980, he was accepted to the filmmaking program at the State University of New York at Purchase in New York, where he met a core group of technicians and actors who would go on to work with him on his feature films, including his regular cinematographer Michael Spiller.

Feature films

Hartley shot his first feature film, ''The Unbelievable Truth,'' in 1988. Made on a shoestring budget and filmed in his native Long Island, it was an unconventional love story about a suburban Long Island teenager (played by Adrienne Shelly, a Hartley regular) falling in love with a handsome mechanic with a criminal past (Robert John Burke). The screenplay featured what have become Hartley's trademarks - deadpan humour, offbeat, stilted, pause-filled dialogue, and characters posing philosophical questions about the meaning of life, combined with a degree of stylisation in acting, choreography and camera movement. The film received positive reviews and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival, establishing Hartley as a distinctive new talent in the burgeoning independent filmmaking movement.

Hartley's next film, ''Trust'' (1990), followed similar themes and style to ''The Unbelievable Truth'', again an offbeat romantic comedy starring Adrienne Shelly as a Long Island teenager who forms a complex romantic relationship with a mysterious criminal (played by Martin Donovan, another Hartley regular). ''Trust'' won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival. Hartley followed this with the short feature ''Surviving Desire'' (1991), a romantic comedy about a college professor (Donovan) who has an affair with a student (Mary B. Ward). ''Simple Men'' (1992), a drama about two brothers (played by Burke and Bill Sage) who reunite to search for their father and encounter two women in a small town (Karen Sillas and Elina Löwensohn), was entered in competition at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.

His next feature, ''Amateur'' (1994), marked a change of pace for Hartley, exploring more sombre themes and with a more tragic tone. Described as "a metaphysical thriller", it starred the French actress Isabelle Huppert as a former nun trying to write pornographic fiction who meets Thomas (Martin Donovan), a man suffering from amnesia, and Sophia (Elina Löwensohn), Thomas's wife and a porn star who reveals that Thomas was a violent criminal and pornographer.

Hartley developed ''Flirt'' (1995) as an extension of his short film of the same name made in 1993. The film is a triptych of three separate characters involved in romantic entanglements in different cities - New York, Berlin and Tokyo - with each story using the same dialogue. The film stars Hartley regulars Bill Sage, Parker Posey, Martin Donovan, Dwight Ewell and the Japanese actress Miho Nikaido, whom Hartley married in 1996.

Hartley achieved his greatest commercial and critical success with his next feature, Henry Fool (1997), a darkly comic drama about a near-catatonic garbageman, Simon Grim (James Urbaniak), and his slutty sister Fay (Parker Posey), who meet Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan), a libertine and aspiring novelist who inspires Simon to write and seduces Fay and her depressed mother (Maria Porter). Simon's literary output, an epic poem written in blank verse, becomes a national sensation, winning acclaim and controversy for its pornographic content. Simon eventually becomes a literary celebrity, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. While Henry's writing career fades, he is coerced into marrying Fay, whom he has gotten pregnant, and abandons writing and takes Simon's old job as a garbageman to support his family. The film garnered positive reviews and was entered into competition at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, where Hartley won the Best Screenplay Award.

Hartley was invited to contribute the American entry to a series of films financed by French television to celebrate the Millennium. His entry, a black comedy entitled ''The Book of Life'' (1998) was shot entirely on digital video in New York in 1998. The story imagines Jesus (Martin Donovan) returning to Earth on the eve of the Millennium to open the Book of Life (stored on an Apple Mac laptop) which will start the Apocalypse. Jesus, accompanied by Mary Magdalene (singer PJ Harvey) becomes enamoured of humanity and argues with Satan (Thomas Jay Ryan) as to whether or not to end human civilisation. The film also features a voice-over by William Burroughs as a radio preacher and Yo La Tengo, who appear as a Salvation Army band. The film screened on French television and had a limited commercial release in cinemas.

Hartley's next feature ''No Such Thing'' (2001) tells the story of Beatrice (Sarah Polley), a tabloid journalist whose fiancé is killed by a monster in Iceland. Beatrice's editor (Helen Mirren) orders Beatrice to go to Iceland to interview the monster (Robert John Burke), who is a sensitive philosopher. The pair return to New York where the newspaper makes them celebrities. The film is intended as a satire of news media's obsession with celebrities and manipulating events to create news headlines. The film also stars Julie Christie as a doctor sympathetic to the monster's cause. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

''The Girl from Monday'' (2005) continued Hartley's critical and satiric interest in media manipulation and the negative consequences of business monopolization and globalization. Filmed in New York City and Puerto Rico, the film is set in a future dystopia where people are encouraged to record their sexual encounters as an economic transaction and thus increase their consumer buying power. The film stars Bill Sage, Sabrina Lloyd and Tatiana Abracos. It premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and received a limited cinematic release, receiving mostly negative reviews.

In late 2005, Hartley moved from New York to Berlin and began preparing ''Fay Grim'', an intended sequel to ''Henry Fool''. The film, which starred Parker Posey, James Urbaniak and Thomas Jay Ryan reprising their roles from ''Henry Fool'', was a comedy-drama in which Fay is coerced by a CIA agent (Jeff Goldblum) to try to locate notebooks that belonged to Henry (now a fugitive). Fay learns that the notebooks contain classified information that could compromise US security, leading Fay into a search around the world to find them. The film was shot in 2006 in locations in Berlin, Paris, and Istanbul and premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. It had a limited cinematic release in 2007 and received mixed reviews.

Short films

In addition to his feature work, Hartley has made a number of short films, many of which have been collected and re-released in DVD anthologies.

Theatre

Hartley's stage play ''Soon'', a drama dealing with the confrontation at Waco, Texas, between the religious community known as the Branch Davidians and the US federal government), was first produced at the Salzburg Festival and then later that year in Antwerp. It was also staged in the US in 2001.

Awards

In 1996, Hartley was made Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic.

From 2001 through 2004 Hartley was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, while simultaneously editing ''No Such Thing'', shooting ''The Girl From Monday'', and writing ''Fay Grim''.

He was awarded a fellowship by The American Academy in Berlin in late 2004, where he did research related to a proposed large-scale project concerning the life of French educator and social activist Simone Weil.

Personal life

In 1996, Hartley married the Japanese dancer and actress Miho Nikaido, who had been one of the stars of his film ''Flirt''.

Filmography

''The Unbelievable Truth'' (1989)

''Trust'' (1990)

''Surviving Desire'' (1991)

''Simple Men'' (1992)

''Amateur'' (1994)

''Flirt'' (1995)

''Henry Fool'' (1997)

''The Book of Life'' (1998)

''No Such Thing'' (2001)

''The Girl from Monday'' (2005)

''Fay Grim'' (2006)

''Meanwhile'' (2011)

Short Films Directed by Hartley

''Kid'' (1984)

''The Cartographer's Girlfriend'' (1987)

''Dogs'' (1988)

''Ambition'' (1991)

''Theory of Achievement'' (1991)

''Flirt'' (1993)

''Opera No. 1'' (1994)

''NYC 3/94'' (1994)

''Iris'' (1994)

''The New Math(s)'' (2000)

''Kimono'' (2000)

''The Sisters of Mercy'' (2004)

''A/Muse'' (2010)

''Implied Harmonies'' (2010)

''The Apologies'' (2010)

''Adventure'' (2010)

''Accomplice'' (2010)

References

External links

The Director Interviews: Hal Hartley, ''Fay Grim'' at ''Filmmaker Magazine''

Drinks with Tony podcast interview

Hal Hartley and Parker Posey Interview

Hammer to Nail interview

Literature on Hal Hartley

Category:1959 births Category:American film directors Category:American screenwriters Category:Living people Category:People from Long Island Category:Massachusetts College of Art and Design alumni Category:State University of New York at Purchase alumni

ca:Hal Hartley de:Hal Hartley es:Hal Hartley fa:هال هارتلی fr:Hal Hartley he:האל הרטלי nl:Hal Hartley ja:ハル・ハートリー no:Hal Hartley pl:Hal Hartley pt:Hal Hartley ru:Хартли, Хэл sv:Hal Hartley tr:Hal Hartley

birth name	Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti
birth date	October 26, 1685
birth place	Naples, Kingdom of Naples
death date	July 23, 1757
death place	Madrid, Spain }}

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti (26 October 1685 – 23 July 1757) was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style. Like his renowned father Alessandro Scarlatti he composed in a variety of musical forms although today he is known almost exclusively for his 555 keyboard sonatas.

Life and career

Domenico Scarlatti was born in Naples, Kingdom of Naples, in 1685, the same year as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel. He was the sixth of ten children and a younger brother to Pietro Filippo Scarlatti, also a musician. He most likely first studied under his father, the composer and teacher Alessandro Scarlatti; other composers who may have been his early teachers include Gaetano Greco, Francesco Gasparini, and Bernardo Pasquini, all of whom may have influenced his musical style.

He became a composer and organist at the royal chapel in Naples in 1701. In 1704, he revised Carlo Francesco Pollarolo's opera ''Irene'' for performance at Naples. Soon after, his father sent him to Venice; no record exists of his next four years. In 1709 he went to Rome in the service of the exiled Polish queen Marie Casimire, where he met Thomas Roseingrave. Scarlatti was already an eminent harpsichordist: there is a story of a trial of skill with George Frideric Handel at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome where he was judged possibly superior to Handel on that instrument, although inferior on the organ. Later in life, he was known to cross himself in veneration when speaking of Handel's skill.

In Rome, Scarlatti composed several operas for Queen Casimira's private theatre. He was ''Maestro Di Cappella'' at St. Peter's from 1715 to 1719. In 1719 he travelled to London to direct his opera ''Narciso'' at the King's Theatre.

According to Vicente Bicchi (Papal Nuncio at the time), Domenico Scarlatti arrived in Lisbon on 29 November 1719. There he taught music to the Portuguese princess Maria Magdalena Barbara. He left Lisbon on 28 January 1727 for Rome, where he married Maria Caterina Gentili on 6 May 1728. In 1729 he moved to Sevilla, staying for four years and gaining a knowledge of flamenco. In 1733 he went to Madrid as music master to Princess Maria Barbara, who had married into the Spanish royal house. The Princess later became Queen of Spain, and as a result Scarlatti remained in the country for the remaining twenty-five years of his life, and had five children there. After the death of his first wife in 1742, he married a Spaniard, Anastasia Maxarti Ximenes. Among his compositions during his time in Madrid were a number of the 555 keyboard sonatas for which he is best known.

Scarlatti befriended the castrato singer Farinelli, a fellow Neapolitan also enjoying royal patronage in Madrid. The musicologist Ralph Kirkpatrick acknowledged that Farinelli's correspondence provides "most of the direct information about Scarlatti that has transmitted itself to our day." Domenico Scarlatti died in Madrid, at the age of 71. His residence on Calle Leganitos is designated with a historical plaque, and his descendants still live in Madrid.

Music

			performed on a harpsichord by Martha Goldstein
		performed on a harpsichord by Martha Goldstein
		performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan
		performed on a spinet by Ulrich Metzner
		performed on a piano by Veronica van der Knaap
	Musical Instrument Digital Interface>MIDI rendition
		performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan
		performed on a piano by Raymond Smullyan

Only a small fraction of Scarlatti's compositions were published during his lifetime; Scarlatti himself seems to have overseen the publication in 1738 of the most famous collection, his 30 ''Essercizi'' ("Exercises"). These were rapturously received throughout Europe, and were championed by the foremost English writer on music of the eighteenth century, Dr. Charles Burney.

The many sonatas which were unpublished during Scarlatti's lifetime have appeared in print irregularly in the two and a half centuries since. Scarlatti has, however, attracted notable admirers, including Frédéric Chopin, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók, Dmitri Shostakovich, Heinrich Schenker, Vladimir Horowitz, Emil Gilels, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and Marc-André Hamelin.

Frédéric Chopin, as a piano teacher, notably wrote:

Scarlatti's 555 keyboard sonatas are single movements, mostly in binary form, and mostly written for the harpsichord or the earliest pianofortes. (There are four for organ, and a few for small instrumental group). Some of them display harmonic audacity in their use of discords, and also unconventional modulations to remote keys.

Other distinctive attributes of Scarlatti's style are the following:

The influence of Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) folk music. An example is Scarlatti's use of the Phrygian mode and other tonal inflections more or less alien to European art music. Many of Scarlatti's figurations and dissonances are suggestive of the guitar.

A formal device in which each half of a sonata leads to a pivotal point, which the Scarlatti scholar Ralph Kirkpatrick termed "the crux", and which is sometimes underlined by a pause or fermata. Before the crux, Scarlatti sonatas often contain their main thematic variety, and after the crux the music makes more use of repetitive figurations as it modulates away from the home key (in the first half) or back to the home key (in the second half).

The harpsichordist Ralph Kirkpatrick produced an edition of the sonatas in 1953, and the numbering from this edition is now nearly always used – the Kk. or K. number. Previously, the numbering commonly used was from the 1906 edition compiled by the Neapolitan pianist Alessandro Longo (L. numbers). Kirkpatrick's numbering is chronological, while Longo's ordering is a result of his grouping the sonatas into "suites". In 1967 the Italian musicologist Giorgio Pestelli published a revised catalogue (using P. numbers), which corrected what he considered to be some anachronisms. See for a list converting Longo, Kirkpatrick and Pestelli numbers of Scarlatti's sonatas.

Aside from his many sonatas he composed a quantity of operas and cantatas, symphonias, and liturgical pieces. Well known works include the Stabat Mater of 1715 and the Salve Regina of 1757 that is thought to be his last composition.

Recordings

Harpsichord

Scott Ross recorded all 555 Scarlatti sonatas in a 34-CD set, nearly all on harpsichord, excepting the three for organ and the instrumental suites, for which he provided the continuo.

In 2007 the Dutch harpsichordist Pieter-Jan Belder finished his recording of all the keyboard sonatas in sequential order for the label Brilliant Classics, playing 34 of them on a fortepiano.

Richard Lester recorded all the sonatas on harpsichord for the Nimbus label.

The Italian Stradivarius label's Scarlatti sonata project, mostly recorded with harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone, currently stands at volume 10. According to an official at the label, there are talks to continue with the project.

Other harpsichordists have recorded selected sonatas, including Trevor Pinnock, Wanda Landowska, Ralph Kirkpatrick, Luciano Sgrizzi, Fernando Valenti, Andreas Staier, and Colin Tilney.

Piano

Vladimir Horowitz made several recordings of Scarlatti sonatas, performed on a modern piano. While these recordings have been the subject of critical debate and discussion Horowitz was a pianist of the Romantic tradition they caused a huge surge in popularity for Scarlatti's sonatas, which pianists had rarely played in public.

Glenn Gould also made some recordings, but declined to release them. They have become available since his death.

Carlo Grante is recording all of the sonatas for the Music & Arts label. Grante decided to use a Bösendorfer piano primarily because of its distinctive timbre in different registers.

The Naxos label is currently working on a project to record all of Scarlatti's sonatas on the piano, with each disc taken by a different pianist.

References

Notes

Free scores

Sheet music for K.1 to K.176 John Sankey edition

www.kreusch-sheet-music.net harpsichord sonatas by Scarlatti

Sheet music engraved by Sebastiano Vigna

External links

Converter for Scarlatti's Works Number

Associazione Domenico Scarlatti

Keyboard Tuning of Domenico Scarlatti

Complete edition, harpsichord, downloadable recordings in MIDI

The Life of Domenico Scarlatti

Scarlatti Domenico – A new look at the keyboard sonatas; complete catalogue including newly discovered works

"The mercurial maestro of Madrid" by Robert White, 20 July 2007, ''The Guardian''

538 Piano Sonatas (mp3 files)

Piano Society – A short biography and some free recordings in MP3 format, performed by Roberto Carnevale, Chase Coleman, Graziella Concas, Knut Erik Jensen

Category:Baroque composers Category:Italian composers Category:Italian harpsichordists Category:Composers for harpsichord Category:Opera composers Category:People from Naples Category:1685 births Category:1757 deaths

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title	Scott Pilgrim
format	Digest limited series
genre	Comedy ActionRomance
publisher	Oni Press
date	August 18, 2004 - July 20, 2010
volumes	6
main char team	(List of characters)
writers	Bryan Lee O'Malley
artists	Bryan Lee O'Malley
tpb	Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life
isbn	1-932664-08-4
tpb2	Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
isbn2	1-932664-12-2
tpb3	Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness
isbn3	1-932664-22-X
tpb4	Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together
isbn4	1-932664-49-1
tpb5	Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe
isbn5	1-934964-10-7
tpb6	Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour
isbn6	1-934964-38-7
subcat	Oni Press
sort	Scott Pilgrim
nonus	}}

''Scott Pilgrim'' is a graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. It consists of six digest size black-and-white volumes, released between August 2004 and July 2010, by Portland-based independent comic book publisher Oni Press. The series is about 23-year-old Canadian Scott Pilgrim, a slacker and part-time musician who lives in Toronto and plays bass guitar in the band Sex Bob-omb. He falls in love with American delivery girl Ramona Flowers, but must defeat her seven evil exes in order to date her.

A film adaptation of the series titled ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'' starring actor Michael Cera in the title role was released in August 2010. A videogame of the same name developed by Ubisoft for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade was released the same month.

Development

Creator Bryan Lee O'Malley was inspired to create the series and eponymous character of Scott Pilgrim after listening to Canadian band Plumtree's 1998 single "Scott Pilgrim", a song then-Plumtree singer Carla Gillis describes as "positive, but...also bitter sweet." In particular, O'Malley was inspired by the lyric, "I’ve liked you for a thousand years,".

To illustrate his reasoning for eventually ending the ''Scott Pilgrim'' series, O'Malley used a quote from famed Belgian comics writer and artist Hergé, creator, writer, and illustrator of the well-regarded ''The Adventures of Tintin'' comic book series, from 1929 until his death in 1983. Hergé told his wife "And right now, my work makes me sick. Tintin is no longer me. And I must make a terrible effort to invent (him)… If Tintin continues to live, it is through a sort of artificial respiration that I must constantly keep up and which is exhausting me." O'Malley said "If I was still doing Scott Pilgrim in ten years, I would be dead inside."

Plot summary

Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life (Volume 1)

The series begins by introducing Scott Pilgrim, a 23-year-old Canadian slacker living in Toronto with his gay roommate Wallace Wells. He is the bass player for a band called Sex Bob-omb, along with his friends Stephen Stills "The Talent" (guitar) and Kim Pine (drums). He begins dating a Chinese-Canadian high-schooler, Knives Chau. Kim criticizes the relationship due to Knives' age, but Scott dismisses her complaints by pointing out that the relationship is platonic.

One night, Scott begins dreaming about a girl on Rollerblades who he has never met before. He later glimpses her in real life delivering a package to the library. Her repeated presence in his dreams, and a coincidental meeting at a party thrown by Stephen's on-off girlfriend Julie Powers, prompts him to become obsessed with finding out more about her. He discovers that she is Ramona Flowers, a girl who works for Amazon.ca and has recently come to Toronto from New York after a rumored messy break-up with someone named Gideon.

Scott orders CDs on Amazon as a pretense to meet her again, and receives an email from someone named Matthew Patel warning him about an upcoming battle, but Scott pays it little heed and promptly deletes it. After another dream about Ramona, in which she is carrying his package, Scott wakes to find her at his door. She explains that she uses subspace portals as part of her job to cross long distances in seconds; one such route passes through Scott's brain, hence his dreams. Having convinced her he is not a strange person after their previous encounters, they spend the evening together and go back to her house during a heavy snowstorm, kiss, and spend the night together.

The next day, Wallace informs Scott that he needs to break up with Knives if he plans to pursue a serious relationship with Ramona, but when he meets Knives later in preparation for a band gig, Scott is unable to bring himself to break up with her. He also receives a letter from Matthew, which he again disregards.

At the venue, Sex Bob-omb prepare to begin their set when Matthew Patel descends upon the stage and engages Scott in a video game-style duel. He reveals himself as one of Ramona's evil ex-boyfriends, and has mystical powers that allow him to summon "demon hipster chicks." Scott defeats him in a musical battle, his final attack obliterating Matthew and leaving behind a handful of coins. On the subway home, Scott and Ramona decide to become a couple, on the proviso that Scott agree to defeat her six other evil-exes. When Scott asks if Gideon is one of them, Ramona's head glows sharply.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (Volume 2)

''Vs. The World'' opens with a flashback to Scott Pilgrim as a transfer student to St. Joel's Catholic High School in Northern Ontario, seven years before the series begins. After getting into a short fight moments upon enrolling, Scott meets Lisa Miller who immediately befriends him. Scott and Lisa attempt to start a band, only to realize that they are missing a drummer. Meanwhile, Scott meets Kim in his geography class, noticing her ability to play drums. Lisa and Scott scheme to ask Kim to join the band, but when Scott shows up to school the following Monday, he finds out that Kim has been kidnapped by students from the rival Benvie Tech High School. Scott defeats the students and Kim's kidnapper, Simon Lee, and rescues Kim. Kim joins Scott and Lisa's band Sonic & Knuckles, and dates Scott up until they break up when he tells her he has to move to Toronto.

In the present, Scott and Wallace ride the bus together, and Wallace tells him that actor and professional skateboarder Lucas Lee, Ramona's second evil ex-boyfriend, is filming a new movie in Toronto. Wallace also tells him to break up with Knives, or he will tell Ramona about her. Scott goes to meet Knives and awkwardly breaks it off, but is cheered by thoughts of Ramona who spends the night with him while he watches several of Lucas Lee's films to "train". The next day, Scott shows up at the video store Julie works at to rent several of Lucas Lee's films to prepare for his next battle. While his friends make dinner, Knives spots Scott with Ramona.

Scott goes to meet Lucas at his filming location, Casa Loma. Lucas immediately beats Scott up, after which they take a lunch break and Lucas tells Scott about how Ramona broke his heart, and how there is a "League of Ramona's Evil Ex-Boyfriends" who have organized themselves to come after Scott. Scott then defeats Lucas by goading him into skateboarding down a dangerous set of rails, where he ends up going too fast and bursting into coins upon landing.

Infuriated with Ramona for stealing Scott from her, Knives gives herself a hipster makeover by dyeing her forelock and attacks Ramona at the Toronto Reference Library. After a short battle and various insults, Knives confirms that Scott was cheating on her by dating Ramona simultaneously and takes off. Meanwhile, Scott gets a call from Envy Adams, Scott's ex-girlfriend, who asks him to open for her band The Clash at Demonhead that weekend. Speaking with Envy reopens Scott's unresolved issues about their breakup and he becomes a mess. Nevertheless, Sex-Bob-omb show up to see Envy's band on Friday, only to discover that Knives is now dating Young Neil, Stephen Stills's roommate. The book ends with an epic opening by The Clash at Demonhead, where Ramona identifies the band's bassist as her third evil ex-boyfriend, Todd Ingram.

Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness (Volume 3)

''The Infinite Sadness'' continues the night that The Clash at Demonhead performs. After the venue clears out, Envy invites Scott, Ramona, Kim Pine, Stephen, Julie, Knives, and Young Neil backstage with them to "chat". Knives, who idolizes Envy, blurts out that she also dated Scott, and has the highlights punched out of her hair by The Clash at Demonhead's drummer, Lynette Guycott. Knives, humiliated, leaves with Young Neil. Disgusted by Envy's new personality, Scott blames Todd for changing her and tries to attack him, but is stopped by Todd's psychic 'vegan' powers.

The story then unfolds with a series of flashbacks detailing the relationship between Scott and Envy, then known as Natalie V. Adams, a mousy girl who gradually bloomed into a confident, musical talent, finally adopting the name "Envy". She broke up with Scott once their band started to get noticed, and Scott's devastation resulted in him and Wallace becoming friends.

The next day, Scott and Todd engage in an unsuccessful challenge at Honest Ed's department store, where neither comes out the winner. They agree to fight again the following night. Ramona convinces Scott to ditch the challenge and they return to Ramona's apartment. After an unsuccessful make-out session, Ramona begins to fill Scott in about her relationship with Todd. In a flashback to their college years, Todd proves his love to Ramona by using his newly-gained vegan powers to blow a crater in the moon. Meanwhile, Todd is secretly cheating on his vegan diet (by eating gelato) as well as cheating on Envy with Lynette.

Later, that evening, before opening for Envy's band, Ramona and Envy get into an argument and begin to fight, Ramona armed with a giant mallet. As Envy starts to get the upper hand, Knives attacks her for the sake of Scott's happiness. Before Sex Bob-omb can perform, Scott sees Envy about to kill Ramona and Knives, and jumps from the stage to hit her "weak point"—the back of her knees. Envy then discovers Todd cheating on her with Lynette, but after confronting him, Todd unapologetically strikes her with his powers, shocking everyone. Todd and Scott then proceed to have a bass battle, and Scott is aided by the powers of Crash and the Boys (the opening band for the evening). Todd almost wins the battle until the Vegan Police show up and strip him of his powers for violating his vegan diet. Scott headbutts the powerless Todd, who is reduced to a pile of coins, and receives an extra life in the process. Finally, Sex Bob-omb gets to play, and Scott spots a strange character (Gideon) from the stage. The volume ends with Envy moving back home.

''The Infinite Sadness'' also features extras, such as guest comics from Josh Lesnick, Alex Ahad, Andy Helms, John Allison, and David McGuire, as well as a map of the major characters illustrating their relations to each other. The title is a reference to the album ''Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness'' by The Smashing Pumpkins.

Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together (Volume 4)

(note: ''Gets it Together'' features a format change of the series' original spine art)

After a summer break at The Beaches for Julie's birthday, Kim moves into an apartment with her friends, Hollie and Joseph. Stephen notices Joseph has a home recording studio, and asks him to help Sex Bob-omb record an album. As Scott goes to the Dufferin Mall to escape a heat wave, he sees Lisa Miller, later re-acquainting her with Kim and introducing her to Ramona and the others. Meanwhile, at Knives's house, Knives and her friend Tamara notice that the picture of Scott on Knives's shrine is mysteriously slashed.

Annoyed with running into his daft subspace dreams in the middle of the day, Ramona recommends that Scott get a job. Kim brings him to The Happy Avocado, a vegetarian restaurant where Stephen works, where he gets a job as a dishwasher. Shortly afterward, Scott and Kim are attacked by a samurai, who slices a streetcar in half and chases them until they escape via a subspace portal. The next day, Scott and Wallace venture to the financial district to meet with their landlord, Peter, who tells them that they must re-sign the lease or leave by August 27. Wallace recommends that Scott move in with Ramona. As Scott contemplates this, he briefly encounters a female "half-ninja", who unsuccessfully attacks him and disappears. The following afternoon, Scott spots the same girl talking to Ramona at the restaurant where he works. She is revealed to be Roxie Richter, Ramona's fourth evil ex. Not keen on fighting girls or people with swords, Scott hides in Ramona's bag while she heads into a subspace portal and fights Roxie. After nearly killing Ramona, Roxie leaves. Afterward, Ramona tells Scott that he can move in with her temporarily. Later on, though, things go downhill when Ramona suspects Scott might be attracted to Lisa and kicks him out.

After walking in on Wallace having sex with someone in their apartment and being informed that he was fired from his job during the fight, Scott goes to Lisa's house to spend the night. Lisa recalls their high school friendship, asking whether Scott had any feelings for her then and if they should have an affair now. After waking up from a dream infiltrated by Roxie in an attempt to kill him, Scott cannot remember the previous night, but learns from Lisa that nothing happened between them and that he confessed that he loved Ramona. Scott gets his job back and goes to the Second Cup, where he finds Knives working there. He is suddenly attacked by the samurai, revealed to be Knives's father who was not keen on Knives dating a white boy. Scott escapes via another subspace portal and ends up in Ramona's mind, where she is a slave to a shadowy figure. Ramona kicks Scott out of her head, telling him to forget what he saw, but before he can explain his true feelings, he sees that Roxie spent the night at Ramona's and his head begins to glow. Ramona tells him to walk it off and as he does, Scott encounters his dark self and rejects it, rushing back to Ramona to find her being attacked by Mr. Chau. Scott lures him away and gets him to fight against Roxie. When Scott realizes that he has been cowardly, he plucks up the courage to confess his love for Ramona, earning the Power of Love sword, which emerges from his chest. Scott uses this to defeat Roxie, Ninja Gaiden-style, who warns him about "the twins" before dying. Scott then apologizes to Mr. Chau, who leaves having earned respect for Scott, before Scott finally moves in with Ramona. After the group gives Lisa a farewell meal, Ramona finally tells Scott her age, which is 24.

The back of ''Gets it Together'' features guest art from Steve Manale, Michael Comeau, Philip Bond, and Zander Cannon as well as a back cover illustrated by pixel artist Miguel Sternberg.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe (Volume 5)

(note: The first printing of ''Vs. the Universe'' features a shiny cover.)

After Scott turns 24, the gang attends a Mexican Day of the Dead themed party thrown by Julie where Ramona spots her next two evil ex-boyfriends, the twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi. Scott approaches them and prepares to fight, but instead is forced to fight their robot, Robot-01. He defeats the robot and "wins the party." Meanwhile, Knives talks to Stephen, who has permanently broken up with Julie and who reiterates that Scott cheated on her with Ramona. She wonders if Ramona knows about it. November continues to show the deteriorating status of Scott and Ramona's relationship, with Ramona starting to appear bored and Scott stumbling onto signs that she may still be interested in Gideon. She at one point tells Scott that she doesn't like his band, which hasn't done any gigs since they started "recording," which distresses Scott (even Wallace doesn't like his band) and leaves him unable to sleep. Later, Sex Bob-omb prepares for a show at Sneaky Dee's, even though they haven't rehearsed in months due to Stephen's persistent but fruitless recording with Joseph. Their performance, which was doomed to fail anyway, is interrupted by another one of the twins' robots, which Scott defeats, breaking his bass in the process. During this time, Ramona encounters Knives in the bathroom, who tells her that Scott cheated on them at the same time. On the way home, Scott admits that he forgot his keys and Ramona refuses to let him in for the night. He ends up staying with Wallace, who has since moved in with his boyfriend Mobile, and Wallace gives him photos he has found of Gideon Graves, all of which are blurry or indistinct.

After spending the next night at Kim's, Scott arranges a setup so that he can casually bump into Kim and Ramona while they get coffee. During the conversation, Kim brings attention to Ramona's head glowing, of which she herself was unaware, although it disappears before she can see for herself. They later all attend another of Julie's parties that night where Scott is forced to fight yet another robot. Kim approaches Ramona on the balcony, and takes a picture with her camera phone of Ramona's head, which is yet again glowing. Kim and Ramona proceed to get drunk, and after defeating the robot, Scott joins them. Later, Kim takes the subway home, but is kidnapped by the twins. After some initial intimacy, Ramona confronts Scott about cheating on Knives with her and tells him he is just another evil ex-boyfriend waiting to happen, which worries Scott into thinking they might break up. While Ramona takes a shower in the early morning, Scott receives word of Kim's kidnapping, and rushes to a construction site to face the twins, despite being disadvantaged due to his hangover. During the fight, the twins explain that Ramona cheated on both of them at the same time, and imply Scott is fighting for the wrong girl. As he begins to lose the fight, Kim lies and says that Ramona text messaged her to give Scott the encouragement to defeat the twins simultaneously.

Scott rushes back to the apartment. Ramona, now with her hair cut and dyed again, tells Scott that she is a bad person and that she "had a good time." Her head begins to glow brighter and brighter until she disappears. Scott tries to look for her, but instead lets her cat out and accidentally locks himself out of her apartment. Over the next few days, Scott bed-hops while trying to get Ramona's cat to come back and constantly mistaking people for Gideon. Kim moves back home to the north, accepting Scott's apology for his behavior. After moving into a new apartment, Scott reads a note Ramona left behind addressed to Gideon, telling him she would not come back to him. While Scott wonders what this means, he receives a call from Gideon, asking when it would be convenient to die.

The end of ''Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe'' features a section called "Creating Scott Pilgrim for fun and profit." The section includes drawings and comments from Bryan Lee O'Malley detailing the development of the series, including a playlist for the fifth book.

Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour (Volume 6)

Four months after Ramona's disappearance, Scott has been wasting his life playing video games, to the chagrin of his friends. At a party, he is shocked to learn that Knives will be leaving for college soon, and later runs into Envy, who is beginning to promote her much anticipated solo album. Later talking over coffee, Envy expresses concern for Scott and points out their breakup was a result of an argument which Scott apparently started, though he cannot remember. Gideon, who is revealed to be dating Envy, appears during their conversation, but Scott ends up fleeing.

In order to reinvigorate Scott to confront Gideon, Wallace sends him on a "wilderness sabbatical" to Kim's home up north. During this time, Scott tries to rekindle his relationship with Kim, but is rejected when Kim points out errors in his memory surrounding their breakup. Scott began dating Kim after beating up Simon Lee, a wimpy kid who was dating her at the time, not a suave villain as Scott remembered. Likewise, Kim only learned that Scott would be leaving for Toronto from Lisa—Scott never told her in person that they would have to break up. Upon this revelation, Scott's head starts to glow and the NegaScott emerges. Scott becomes determined to defeat him so he can forget his relationship with Ramona and move on, but Kim reminds him he cannot keep running away from his mistakes. During the fight, Scott remembers Ramona and merges with NegaScott, fully remembering and accepting responsibility for his poor actions in his previous relationships. After receiving one last good luck kiss from Kim, Scott heads back to Toronto to earn Ramona back.

Scott arrives at the newly-opened club, the Chaos Theatre, owned by Gideon, where Envy is making her solo debut. As Envy starts her performance, Gideon attacks Scott, who is enraged to learn that Ramona is not with him. When Scott refuses to join the League of Evil Exes, Gideon steals his Power of Love sword and kills him with it. Scott awakens in a desert, where he encounters Ramona, who apologizes and attempts to explain why she left, though the reader is not privy to what she says. They reconcile, but Ramona reminds Scott that he is dead. However, he returns to life thanks to the extra life he obtained from Todd Ingram, and Ramona bursts out of his chest to confront Gideon. Gideon reveals several cryogenic capsules inside the club filled with former girlfriends, wanting Ramona to join them (despite that Gideon kept pushing her away during their time, a fact which he can't remember, either). He fights them and explains that he formed the league following a drunken post on Craigslist after his breakup with Ramona.

Ramona tries to use the glow to escape into subspace, but Gideon stabs her. He explains that glow is an emotional weapon which seals people inside their own heads, consumed by self-loathing. After learning from Ramona that Gideon literally has a way of getting inside her head, Scott jumps into Ramona's subspace bag and arrives in her head, where he finds and confronts Gideon. Scott's actions encourage Ramona to fully overcome his influence and oust him from her head. Ramona retrieves the Power of Love sword, healing her wounds, but breaks her bag. When Scott sees Gideon snap at Envy, he comes to understand him and earns the Power of Understanding sword. As they fight him, Gideon reveals he had been watching the two via the subspace highway in Scott's head, altering some of his memories in the process. Whilst Gideon tries to turn Scott and Ramona against one another, they defeat him, causing him to explode into seven million, seven hundred and seventy-seven thousand, seven hundred and seventy-seven dollars in coins.

Scott and Envy reach closure and Gideon's former girlfriends are unfrozen (and they have no idea of what just happened). Ramona reveals that her disappearance was merely an unsuccessful wilderness sabbatical to find herself while at her dad's cabin. She decides to give her relationship with Scott another shot. In the closing pages, Scott is working with Stephen as co-chef, Stephen reveals that he is gay and in a relationship with Joseph, Scott and Kim start an awful new band, and Knives heads off to college. The last pages show Scott meeting up with Ramona as they affirm their desire to face the challenges of a relationship and walk hand in hand into a subspace door together.

On June 3, 2010, O'Malley announced that he had hidden the word "hipster" on Ramona's t-shirt in one panel to mark the day he finished drawing the series. This panel is on page 161 in a flashback involving Ramona and Gideon.

Publications

The main graphic novel series is:

''Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life'' ''Scott Pilgrim vs. The World'' ''Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness'' ''Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together'' ''Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe'' ''Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour''

!#!!Title!!ISBN!!Release date
1	|	ISBN 1-932664-08-4	August 18, 2004
2	|	ISBN 1-932664-12-2	June 15, 2005
3	|	ISBN 1-932664-22-X	May 24, 2006
4	|	ISBN 1-932664-49-1	November 14, 2007
5	|	ISBN 1-934964-10-7	February 4, 2009
6	|	ISBN 1-934964-38-7	July 20, 2010

Other appearances:

''Comics Festival'' (40-page anthology including a one-page Scott Pilgrim comic; released on Free Comic Book Day 2005)

''PENG'' (72-page one-shot comic book by Corey Lewis where Scott Pilgrim appears in one panel; released in 2005)

''Free Scott Pilgrim #1 FCBD 2006 Edition'' (32-page comic book featuring an 17-page original Scott Pilgrim story; released on Free Comic Book Day 2006) This story is available for free online at the Scott Pilgrim Website

''Comics Festival 2007!'' (40-page anthology including a half-page Scott Pilgrim comic and a 4-page Wonderful World of Kim Pine comic; released on Free Comic Book Day 2007)

''Scott Pilgrim: Full Colour Odds & Ends 2008'' (collects ''Free Scott Pilgrim #1'' - newly coloured by Dean Trippe, ''Wonderful World of Kim Pine'' four-page story, ''Now Magazine Best of Toronto'' two-page strip in black-and-white, the Comics Fest 07 ''sushi'' strip, and various watercolours, pin-ups, and advertisements)

All of these ancillary stories are available to read on the Scott Pilgrim Website. A collector's box containing all six volumes and a fold-in poster was released in North America on November 3, 2010.

Critical reception

The first volume of ''Scott Pilgrim'' was well-received by comic book critics and had favorable reviews outside the comic book industry, in ''Publishers Weekly'' and on E! Online among others. Critics appreciated how O'Malley's cartoony-looking and manga-inspired artwork managed to express the character's emotions with few, seemingly simple lines. His style also often references Japanese manga artists, such as Kiyohiko Azuma and Osamu Tezuka. The style choices are also made in part from his departure from more dramatic content such as in ''Lost at Sea''.

While there were some objections against the book's art, its humor made the book very popular and garnered it much praise, as did its "strong characterization and convincing dialogue". Only the video-game-like fight sequence at the end (wherein Scott fights Matthew Patel, the first of Ramona's evil exes, in a style reminiscent of ''Street Fighter'') was not met as enthusiastically as the rest of the book by all readers and it was noted that the scene "completely abandons the tone, pace and genre of everything that comes before it".

The second volume received equally good reviews, with some critics grading it "even better" than the first volume and continuing to praise the series' humor and how O'Malley manages to shift readers' sympathies from one character to the other by expanding the characterizations of the cast, giving new insights into the characters' pasts. Critics also noted how seemingly effortlessly O'Malley manages to mix "relatively real life and superhero power fantasies".

Publishers Weekly ranked the third volume, ''Scott Pilgrim & The Infinite Sadness'', as one of the best comic books of 2006 in a critics' poll.

Scott Pilgrim was ranked 85th on Wizard magazine's 2008 list of the "200 Greatest Comic Characters of All Time".

In 2007, O'Malley was interviewed by the AV Club for the fourth volume. Written by Jason Heller, the article states that ''Gets It Together'' is "his best to date." The article goes on to praise O'Malley's consistent bold stylistic choices, saying that he "has raised the bar, art-wise: His deceptively basic style is suddenly deeper, richer, and more mature, while his eye for dynamics and graphic economy has gotten even keener." In 2011 Scott Pilgrim was ranked 69th in the Top 100 Comic books heroes.

Awards

In 2005, O'Malley won the Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent for the first volume of ''Scott Pilgrim'' and was nominated for three Harvey Awards (Best New Talent, Best Cartoonist and Best Graphic Album of Original Work).

In 2006, O'Malley was awarded Outstanding Canadian Comic Book Cartoonist (Writer/Artist) in the Joe Shuster Awards. He was previously nominated in the same category in 2005.

O'Malley was nominated for a 2006 Eisner Award in the category Best Writer/Artist—Humor, for ''Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World'', but lost to Kyle Baker. O'Malley and ''Scott Pilgrim'' were also nominated for two 2006 Eagle Awards, and nominated for a second Wright Award (for ''Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World'').

In 2007, O'Malley won the Harvey Award. The series was also awarded a spot in Entertainment Weekly's 2007 A-List.

In 2010, O'Malley won his first Eisner Award in the "Best Humor Publication" category for ''Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe.''

In other media

Film

The film ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'' was released on August 13, 2010. It is based on all six volumes of the graphic novel series, despite the different ending due to the sixth volume having been released after the film finished shooting. The film is directed by Edgar Wright and stars Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Scott and Ramona, respectively.

The film was a critical success, but did not fare as well commercially. Despite the lack of advertising the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray and became popular. The DVD includes extras such as bloopers and outtakes, deleted scenes and trailers. On the 2-disc edition, the 2nd disc includes soundtracks, animation (when Scott dates Kim), the film in the making and sound in the making.

''Scott Pilgrim vs. The Animation''

At the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, Alison Pill (who plays Kim Pine in the movie), revealed that her character's past relationship with Scott will be explored in other media. "There will be a little something-something that will air on Adult Swim," she said. Creator Bryan Lee O'Malley elaborated by stating "It's gonna be like a series of short animations (to promote the movie). One of them will be the Volume 2 high school stuff with Kim and Lisa Miller. I don't know how long it will be but the rough they showed me was like 5 minutes. The stars of the movie will do the voices for the cartoons." Michael Cera and Alison Pill reprise their roles of Scott Pilgrim and Kim Pine from the movie, whilst Mae Whitman and Jason Schwartzman, who play Roxanne Richter and Gideon Graves in the movie, provide voices for Lisa Miller and Simon Lee respectively. The animated short, entitled ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation'', was produced by Titmouse Inc. and aired on Adult Swim on August 12, 2010, later being released on their website. The short is based on the flashback from the second graphic novel, elaborating on Scott's adventures in high school. The animation features music by Wavves, though it is replaced with the movie's soundtrack in the version included on the DVD/Bluray Disc of the film.

Video game

A video game based on the series, also titled ''Scott Pilgrim vs. The World'', was announced during San Diego Comic Con 2009 and was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, released alongside the film. The game is a four-player side-scroller influenced by 8-bit and 16-bit video games, with players able to play as Scott Pilgrim, Ramona Flowers, Kim Pine and Stephen Stills (Knives Chau was added later as a downloadable character). If you complete the game with Scott, Ramona, Stephen Stills, and Kim, you unlock NegaScott. Mr. Chau, Knives Chau's father, is also an unlockable assist character. The game features music by chiptune punk band Anamanaguchi and visuals by Paul Robertson, who is well known for producing stylized sprite-based animations.

The game was released on PlayStation Network on August 10, 2010 and Xbox Live Arcade on August 25, 2010.

Mobile comic

A mobile adaptation of the comic book was produced by HarperCollins and Robot Comics. The app uses movement, sound and vibration to create an original reading experience and includes extra material hidden in the scenes of the comic. It is available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android.

References

External links

Bryan Lee O'Malley's website

ScottPilgrim.com

''Scott Pilgrim vs. The World The Game'' at Ubisoft

Category:Oni Press graphic novels Category:Canadian comics titles Category:Oni Press titles Category:Toronto in fiction Category:Fictional rock musicians Category:Fictional Canadian people Category:Comics adapted into films Category:Romance comics Category:Humor comics Category:Comic book digests Category:Harvey Award winners for Best Graphic Album of Original Work Category:Canadian graphic novels Category:Scott Pilgrim

ca:Scott Pilgrim es:Scott Pilgrim fr:Scott Pilgrim gl:Scott Pilgrim ja:スコット・ピルグリム VS. 邪悪な元カレ軍団 pt:Scott Pilgrim ru:Скотт Пилигрим fi:Scott Pilgrim tr:Scott Pilgrim

name	Edgar Wright
birthname	Edgar Howard Wright
birth date	April 18, 1974
birth place	Poole, Dorset, England
years active	1994–present
occupation	Director/writer
website	}}

Edgar Howard Wright (born 18 April 1974) is an English film and television director and writer. He is most famous for his work with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the films ''Shaun of the Dead'' and ''Hot Fuzz'', the TV series ''Spaced'', and for directing the film ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the World''. He is also an executive producer on his friend Joe Cornish's ''Attack the Block'' and co-writer of the upcoming Steven Spielberg film ''The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn'' with Cornish and Doctor Who and Sherlock writer, Steven Moffat.

Early life and career

Wright was born in Poole, Dorset, but grew up predominantly in Wells, Somerset, after his family moved there during his childhood. Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Wright directed many short films, first on a Super-8 camera which was a gift from a family member and later on a Video-8 camcorder won in a competition on the television programme ''Going Live''. These films were mostly comedic pastiches of popular genres, such as the super hero-inspired ''Carbolic Soap'' and ''Dirty Harry'' tribute ''Dead Right'' (the latter of which was eventually featured on the DVD release of ''Hot Fuzz''). Speed on the Buses is another short film made in 1995. It was directed and filmed by Edgar and written by and starred members of The Great Bruce Forsyth Social Club. The film was shot entirely on location in Plymouth and was first broadcast nationally on Beadles Hotshots in January 1996. A second film written by the GBFSC was also filmed and directed by him, called Reservoir Wigs and was aired nationally in February 1996.

After graduating from Bournemouth Arts College he made a spoof western, ''A Fistful of Fingers'', which was picked up for a limited theatrical release and broadcast on the British satellite TV channel Sky Movies. Despite Wright's dissatisfaction with the finished product, it caught the attention of comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who subsequently chose him as the director of their Paramount Comedy channel productions ''Mash & Peas'' and ''Sir Bernard's Stately Homes''. During this time he also worked on BBC programmes such as ''Is It Bill Bailey?'' and ''Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round''. In an interview with journalist and author Robert K. Elder for ''The Film That Changed My Life'', Wright cites his edgy and comedic style in his love for ''An American Werewolf in London'':

I’ve always been fascinated by horror films and genre films. And horror films harboured a fascination for me and always have been something I’ve wanted to watch and wanted to make. Equally, I’m very fascinated by comedy. I suppose the reason that this film changed my life is that very early on in my film-watching experiences, I saw a film that was so sophisticated in its tone and what it managed to achieve.

Spaced

In 1998 writer/actors Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes were in the early stages of developing their sitcom ''Spaced'' for Channel 4 and thought of asking Wright to direct having fondly remembered working with him on the 1996 Paramount comedy ''Asylum''. Wright gave ''Spaced'' an unusual look for the sitcom genre, with dramatic camera angles and movement borrowed from the visual language of science fiction and horror films. Instead of shying away from these influences Wright makes an active effort to show his referencing, adding a 'Homage-O-Meter' to all of his releases, a device that displays each directorial nod he has made during shooting. In 2002, he made appearances as a scientist and a technician named Eddie Yorque during both series of ''Look Around You'', a BBC programme created by a member of the ''Spaced'' cast, Peter Serafinowicz. He also made a brief appearance in ''Spaced'', in which he can be seen, along with other crew members on the series, lying asleep in Daisy Steiner's squat as she prepares to leave for her new house.

Ties to the music industry and music video work

Wright cites Jon Spencer Blues Explosion as his favourite band. Several Blues Explosion songs feature in Wright's film ''Hot Fuzz'', including one written specifically for the film. Wright has directed two videos for his ex-girlfriend Charlotte Hatherley: "Summer" and "Bastardo". He has also directed promos for 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Mint Royale and The Bluetones. Many of these videos have been made available to view on the "Archives" section of his official website.

The Blood and Ice Cream/Cornetto trilogy

The critical success of ''Spaced'' paved the way for Wright and Pegg to move to the big screen with ''Shaun of the Dead'', a zombie comedy which mixed a "Brit flick" romantic comedy style with homages to the horror classics of George A. Romero and Sam Raimi. The film was a great success both critically and financially, and its rooting in American genre cinema helped to make it a transatlantic hit.

The pair subsequently planned out a trilogy of British genre-comedies which were connected not by narrative but by their shared traits and motifs. The trilogy was named "The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy" or "Three Flavors Cornetto" due to a running joke about the British Ice Cream product Cornetto and its effectiveness as a hangover cure.

The second installment was a comedy action thriller entitled ''Hot Fuzz''. Production started in March 2006 and the film was released in February 2007 in the UK and April 2007 in the US. It revolves around Pegg's character, Nicholas Angel, a police officer who is transferred from London to rural Sandford, where grisly events soon take place.

The third installment carries the tentative title of ''The World's End''.

Other work and future projects

Wright has a brother, Oscar, who is a comic book artist, contributing storyboards, conceptual art and promotional pictures for Edgar's films. For example he designed comic book interpretations of the characters of ''Shaun of the Dead'' and created the animation for the flickbook PC Danny Butterman uses in ''Hot Fuzz'', as well as the art for the "Plot Holes" features on both the ''Hot Fuzz'' and ''Shaun of the Dead'' DVD releases. Oscar also was on set for the ''Hot Fuzz'' poster shoot to help Edgar out with the design. Oscar also directed the Charlotte Hatherley video for "Behave" and also designed the 8-bit Universal Pictures logo at the beginning of the movie, ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'' along with Edgar. In 2007, Wright directed a fake trailer insert for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's ''Grindhouse'', called "Don't", it was a plotless trailer that mocked horror clichés, with lines such as, "If you... are thinking... of going ... into... this... house... DON'T!". He was offered to direct ''Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol'' before Brad Bird was chosen. In 2010, Wright directed ''Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'', starring Michael Cera. For 2011, Wright co-wrote the film ''The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn'' for director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson, based on The Adventures of Tintin comics. The film will also co-star Wright's frequent collaborators Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. He has also been developing ''Ant-Man'', a live-action film about the Marvel Comics superhero. Wright also has numerous projects in development, including ''Them'', ''Baby Driver'', and ''The World's End'', the final entry in the "Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy".

Selected works

Filmography

Year	Film	Credited as				Role
		Director	Writer	Producer	Actor
1993	align="left"
1995
2004
align="left"
align="left"
2010

Short films

Forced Hilarity – (2001)

Television (as actor)

''Look Around You'' (2002–2005)

''Spaced'' (1999–2001)

Television (as director)

''Spaced'' (1999, 2001)

''Alexei Sayle's Merry-Go-Round (1998)

''Is It Bill Bailey?'' (1998)

''Sir Bernard's Stately Homes'' (1998)

''Mash and Peas'' (1996–1997)

''Asylum'' (1996)

Collaborations

Wright has cast certain actors in more than one of his films/TV shows. ''Scott Pilgrim vs the World'' is the only one unlisted because, at this point, no actor from any of Wright's previous films make an appearance.

!	Dead Right (film)>Dead Right''	! ''A Fistful of Fingers''	Asylum (TV series)>Asylum''	! ''Spaced''	! ''Shaun of the Dead''	! ''Hot Fuzz''	Grindhouse (film)#Don't>Don't''
Bill Bailey
Martin Curtis
Julia Deakin
Kevin Eldon
Patricia Franklin
Martin Freeman
Nick Frost
Mark Gatiss
Jessica Hynes
Bill Nighy
Simon Pegg
Robert Popper
Lucy Punch
Peter Serafinowicz
Rafe Spall

References

External links

The Director Interviews: Edgar Wright, ''Hot Fuzz'' at ''Filmmaker Magazine''

2004 interview with 2000ADReview

Edgar Wright on ''Hot Fuzz''

Edgar Wright Fansite

Category:1974 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century writers Category:English film directors Category:English screenwriters Category:English television actors Category:English television directors Category:People from Poole Category:People from Wells

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