Edgar Wright: Ant-Man won't shoot in UK

Edgar Wright, director of The World’s End, has revealed that his upcoming Marvel movie Ant-Man was meant to be shot in the UK but studio space is unavailable.

When asked by ScreenDaily if The World’s End could be his last production in the UK for some time, Wright said: “Ironically, Ant Man was meant to shoot in London but London is full because I guess that Pinewood extension got turned down.”

A $300m (£200m) plan by Pinewood Shepperton to add 15 studios and create more than 3,000 jobs was rejected by the local council in mid-May and is currently going through the appeal process.

Wright put the influx of productions into the UK down to tax breaks, which has seen Hollywood films such as Captain America, Thor 2, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers 2 shoot in Britain.

But Wright, who made Shaun of the Dead in London and Hot Fuzz in Somerset, said this could prove challenging for UK films.

“While the tax break is good for Hollywood films shooting here, it’s probably not that great for British films shooting in the UK,” he said. “Some middle-to-low budget films are going to find themselves without crew because all the American films are shooting here.”

Pinewood released interim results today and its CEO Ivan Dunleavy said: “The UK, and Pinewood Shepperton in particular, continue to be in great demand from international content producers. However, in order to continue growing the UK’s market share, we will need more studios and related facilities.”

Wright added that he would like to make films both in the US and the UK, and at least one idea for an upcoming feature is set in Britain. “Ideally, it would be great to flip-flop between the two. I love shooting in the UK. It’s great.”

Ant-Man is due to shoot mid-2014.

Reaching a wider audience

The director, currently promoting the Blu-Ray release of The World’s End, also talked about how he hoped to reach a wider international audience in the future.

“Most of the movies I’ve done are very verbal and you become aware – not that this is necessarily a bad thing – that films that are very dialogue heavy just don’t travel in non-English speaking territories,” he said.

“Something like Gravity is almost the perfect model for a film that can play in any language because it has very little dialogue. I’d like to do something like that as it would be nice to rely a bit more on visual storytelling.

“I’ve got an idea of a way of doing an action film that’s very different. I’d like to do something that’s almost like a silent movie.”

Strong US opening

However, Wright added that his movies do travel despite being very British without overly catering for international audiences.

“The World’s End opened at number four at the US box office,” said Wright. “It’s probably the most British of the three, and it’s the highest opener I’ve had in the States so that was amazing.

“It was pleasing to me because it proved you don’t have to water down what you’re doing to please an international audience. You don’t have to make it more transatlantic and we don’t cast Americans in the film to make it easier to sell so that was great.”

Cornetto Trilogy

The World’s End marks the third film Wright has written with Simon Pegg and marks the end of the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’, which also includes zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead and action comedy Hot Fuzz.

However, the director said he would like to work with Pegg and co-star Nick Frost in the future.

He added: “I’d love to work with Simon and Nick again. We’ve had vague conversations about things we’d like to do.”