Movie history is full of director friendships that have led to small improvements being made in each other’s drama movies. Particularly in the independent scene, movie directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson would trust each other enough to show them early cuts of their movies and ask for notes.
Edgar Wright is the kind of affable guy who has many friends in the movie industry – both in the UK and in Hollywood. One such friend is Christopher McQuarrie – not least because they share custody of Simon Pegg. And it has emerged that McQuarrie approached Wright for help with a particular aspect of Top Gun: Maverick – the music. Wright’s soundtracks for films such as Scott Pilgrim vs the World and Baby Driver are as well-known as the movies themselves.
Wright told The Hollywood Reporter “I didn’t have any notes on Top Gun: Maverick. I first watched that in 2020. Chris McQuarrie and Tom Cruise showed it to me, and it was pretty much the film that got released, minus the Lady Gaga song. And in terms of the Foghat’s Slow Ride – they needed a song.”
“My dream text to get was Chris McQuarrie saying, “Hey, we need a new song for the bar scene in Top Gun: Maverick. What can you think of that’s like …?” And it was like, ‘Oh, give me 45 minutes!’ I think I still have that playlist on Spotify; called Maverick Bar. So that stuff is just fun to me.”
Turns out that it works both ways for Wright; “But yeah, it’s immensely flattering if people want to show you something, and I do the same with my films. You usually invite people that are going to tell you exactly what they think. That can sometimes be tougher to hear, but you want to hear it from people you really respect. And sometimes, people have really great solutions.”
“On Last Night in Soho, I showed George Miller something, and he had such a tiny, tiny note that was so great. It was also great to say in a VFX session, ‘And one other thing, Dr. George Miller suggested that if we tighten up this gap, it would be more successful.’ And nobody can say no to an action note from George Miller.”
We love to hear about filmmakers supporting filmmakers and it sounds like Wright made a great wing-man for McQuarrie. Check out our guide to the best action movies.