Shaun of the Dead, Superbad, Hot Fuzz, Arrested Development, and Spaced – Writer/Director Edgar Wright and actor Michael Cera have been responsible for a number of beloved properties over the last few years. They have legions of fans that both gentlemen hope will grow with this Friday's release of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a very clever comedy about a young man forced to fight for the first real love of his life. Cera plays the title character, who is already something of an icon in the world of comic books. Both gentlemen are as affable and interesting as you'd expect them to be in person. Our conversation opened with a bit of off-the-record commentary on the film's competition at the box office that segued into the interview…

EDGAR WRIGHT: Here's the thing. We did test screenings. What's interesting was watching it with an audience that was completely cold. It got better each time as we did tweaks and stuff. It got to the point where it was playing basically the way we released it. What's interesting is that you're asking the audience to kind of keep up. We don't slow down. We don't talk down. That's my main thing. And I feel like that's something that comedies used to do like in 1930s screwball comedies. They went at it like a machine-gun pace. Anything from Marx Brothers to Bugs Bunny … as a kid, I used to watch Bugs Bunny and not understand all the jokes but I LOVED it.

MovieRetriever: I feel like all of your films are that way and even Spaced. There's no talking down or slowing down. And even a lot of your work [to Michael] – Arrested Development is the most "packed-in" show ever.

WRIGHT: I totally agree.

MICHAEL CERA: A 50-page script in 22-minutes.

MovieRetriever: You have that shared history. When I mention this film or interview to people, those who have read the comic seem very loyal to it and adoring of it. What do you think it is about the source material that has created such a following?

CERA: I think that when you read it, you feel so connected to it. It feels so personal. It feels like you know [Writer] Brian [Lee O'Malley]. He captures something so well. They're so engaging. You connect to it instantly and you're right in it right away. So, I can see why it would be the kind of material that people would have a deep love for.

WRIGHT: I agree with Michael. It feels like an extended family of characters and that it really captures that time in your life when you have a big group of friends who stay together even though some people don't really like each other. Or have grown apart from each other. When you come out of school, you hang with a large crowd and when you get older people split off. What's nice about this is that you have a lead character who is a daydreamer in his own universe but even given that he still has a Greek chorus of people who tell him what he should do. He doesn't really listen to them that much.

MovieRetriever: I think that's actually the arc of the movie. He's so dependent on his sister, band mates, roommate, and, at the end, he finally does something for himself.

WRIGHT: Yeah. Throughout the film, people are telling him what he OUGHT to do and at the end of the film he does something that he WANTS to do. You know, that's the FIRST time that I've actually managed to … I wish I had come up with that at the pitch meeting. It would have been easier to make. (Laughs.)

MovieRetriever: What other sources heavily inspired the movie? Video games, comic books, art, other films …?

WRIGHT: Well, I guess because we had the source material … Brian had a lot of very specific game references. When I read the books … I'm a lapsed gamer in that I haven't had a console in like ten years. Since Spaced. That's the last time I heavily played video games. What's nice about the books … There is that thing where people read too much into the video game angle – Well, what will non-gamers think of the film? Well, I wouldn't consider myself a gamer now. If anything, the vernacular, iconography, and structure of the video game elements are from the late 1970s and early 1980s. It's that old. And these things have been with us for decades now. In terms of comics, what I loved about Brian's artwork is that I grew up with … I didn't get into anime until Akira came out but my first experience with Japanimation was Battle of the Planets, G-Force. I used to watch that show and know that there was something cool about it but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Now I can look back on it and see. A lot of Japanese animation is almost equivalent to Spaghetti Westerns in that they don't have the same resources as the States and so they compensate by making everything look really stylish.

MovieRetriever: And they're often a foreign culture commenting on another. Like with the Spaghetti Western, it's one culture filtered through another.

WRIGHT: Yep. And Brian's books are exactly like that. It's a writer who's half-Japanese and half-Irish who is living in Canada and taking influences from the East to present his life in North America.

MovieRetriever: How much did you know about what the final film would look like because there's SO much done in post-production on this film?

CERA: As we were shooting, I would see cut footage. While we were shooting, I got a sense of how shots were being cut together and transitions. He showed us stuff constantly including tests of animation, effects, music. Anything he had, he would show us usually, which is really useful. It's helpful. It gives it a sense of realization when everyone is going through the same thing.

MovieRetriever: You guys were both at Comic-Con. What was it like seeing it with THAT audience?

WRIGHT: (Smiles.) It was really nice. Some people in the press have sort of said that it was like fanning the flames, preaching to the converted, but if they didn't like it, we would have heard equally audible boos. Like you said, the fans of the book hold it very dear to them. So, for the fans that really loved it: That meant so much. In some respects, if you think about that, it was our toughest audience. But it played like a rock concert. It was amazing. Shaun of the Dead I showed at Comic-Con and it was easily the best screening of that I've ever attended and this was one louder. It was amazing. It actually got better the second night. Somehow, the audience who had been lining up all day just went bananas. I was overwhelmed and when I went up at the end to thank them I actually teared up. Comic-Con was the first time that Michael saw it.

MovieRetriever: When that happened, was there anything that played differently than you expected? Smaller laughs, bigger laughs?

CERA: (Thinks.) Yeah. There were some different laughs. The most surprising thing was the swords coming out getting cheers. I got so used to it that I expected it at other screenings around the country and was like … [raises hands to applaud and sees that no one around him is].

MovieRetriever: They're used to that kind of thing in L.A.

WRIGHT: Everyone has a sword in L.A.

MovieRetriever: Let's talk a little bit about the action ending. How much are you doing physically? A lot of people might think a lot is done CGI or green screen because it's so quick.

CERA: None of it's CGI. It's either me or an amazing acrobatic stunt man for the kicks and flips that I could never achieve.

MovieRetriever: We tried to shy away from too much green screen stuff. I find it amusing that even people who've seen the film think most of it is green screen because of the style and I'm like you saw that those were real sets, right? We tried to steer away from that because with a couple of exceptions – Sin City and 300 – I don't really care for a lot of green screen films. And because the material is SO outlandish anyway, I wanted the actors to literally have their feet on the ground. And in some cases a real location – the fight with Chris Evans is on a real location, playing itself. It's a real place. It's Toronto's only castle. It's like a rich man's folly that's used for weddings and film locations.

CERA: X-Men.

WRIGHT: Love Guru. It pops up in any Toronto film where they need a castle from The Pacifier to The Tuxedo. It's in all Toronto films. It's playing itself basically. The idea was that this was a team effort from myself, Brian's artwork, my brother's graphic design, our choreographers, [cinematographer] Bill Pope – it's such a team effort and I'm really pleased at how it turned out.

MovieRetriever: Were you pressured at all to go more green screen as so many comic book movies seem to do?

WRIGHT: We were already doing R&D and testing when I saw Speed Racer and I like parts of Speed Racer. Some of it is quite hypnotic but what's weird is that when you're in an apartment or someone's house – that is ALSO green-screened. I felt that with the Star Wars pictures as well. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just build a set? It feels like a false economy. To green-screen Scott Pilgrim's apartment?

MovieRetriever: And that stuff dates movie so much. Just look at the prequels already.

WRIGHT: I totally agree.

CERA: Imagine if they made Ghostbusters today. It wouldn't look as good.

MovieRetriever: Did either of you channel anything personal about tough break-up or difficult ramp-up? What I mean by that is that I think the movie is as much about how sometimes the getting-in days can be as tough as the breaking-up.

WRIGHT: Yeah. I think the movie is about a first adult relationship. The way I connect to Scott Pilgrim is that I can definitely empathize with how everything at that age is either "the best" or "worst." Every time you meet a girl, it's the best thing ever and she's the only one. This is the LOVE of my life. And then when you break up, it's the END of the world. I feel that Scott is in that stage of maturity. And I feel that Ramona Flowers is unexplainable to him because he can't control it. I like the idea that in terms of the love story, as it goes on, one of the ironies is that Ramona is slightly treating him like he treated Knives. He's going out with Knives because she's simple and easy and Ramona's going out with Scott because she needs an uncomplicated break from all these boys. Scott Pilgrim almost could be a place-holder.

MovieRetriever: For him, there's also the arc of the first one worth fighting for. Did you bring anything personal to it in that regard?

CERA: It's hard because it's so extreme. The tone is really big. You kind of just have to capture what the graphic novels do so well.

MovieRetriever: Have you two considered a sequel? I know it seems very stand-alone but it's almost a required question when it comes to a comic book movie.

WRIGHT: I feel like the film covers six of the books and sometimes … I heard early, "Why aren't they doing six films?" And my answer was always "We're lucky to get one." What's nice is that I feel like it's all climaxed in the same year. Brian's last book has come out. The movie's coming out. There's a game coming out. It's nice instead of thinking about doing an adaptation of the sixth book in 2022. The time is right now. That said, the ball is in Brian's court if he wants to do more with the character. I think he'll take a break and do something different.

CERA: What if he did "Scott Pilgrim: Age 40"?

WRIGHT: The weird thing with this character … I remember thinking that wouldn't it be cool to see Ferris Bueller at age 40 in his mid-life crisis? And then you think, maybe not. Well, that film is called Election.