Edgar Wright's next movie sounds like Westworld meets Ready Player One

By Randall Colburn  |  March 31, 2020 | 10:01pm
Aux Features Film
Edgar Wright's next movie sounds like Westworld meets Ready Player One
Photo: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin

Edgar Wright’s Last Night In Soho wrapped filming last summer and, as of now, remains scheduled for release this fall. Now, as the Baby Driver director uses his mandated self-isolation to put the finishing touches on that film, he’s emerged to offer a bit of news that isn’t, for once, a cancellation or postponement. THR reports that Wright’s already mapping out his next feature, another left-of-center genre tale rounded out by a healthy dose of humanity and an affection for the oddball fare that shaped him.

Based on the upcoming debut novel of Simon Stephenson, Set My Heart To Five follows an android dentist named Jared in the year 2054 who “undergoes an emotional awakening and embarks on a quest to convince humans that he and his kind should be permitted to feel.” The Westworld vibes are strong in that description, but Stephenson’s story is decidedly quirkier, as Jared’s journey is inspired in part by his affection for the films of the ‘80s and ‘90s. His journey, then, leads not to an insurrection, but rather a road trip that culminates in his writing of a film script that will “change the world.” (Yeah, you and every other creative writing grad, pal.)

Shall we expect scenes of Jared wooing a paramour with a boombox held over his head, telling them they’re his “density” while pretending to orgasm in a restaurant? Or will Wright find a fresher way in, knowing that the fetishization of the quotable genre fare of the ‘80s peaked with Ready Player One?

Working Title and Focus Features will release the film in some distant, normal era, one that’s increasingly hard to imagine will ever come.

 
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