When genre classification proves evasive, just pretend it’s Bird on a Wire and move on.
That seems to be the m.o. at The Hollywood Reporter, which, whilst bringing us the terribly welcome news that Mary Elizabeth Winstead is “in negotiations” to star as the brawl inducing Ramona Victoria Flowers, writes off Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World as an “adventure romance”. Quoth Edgar (via his heavily trafficked MySpace blog): “Don’t quite know where this comes from but it’s not summing up Bryan Lee O’ Malley’s masterwork in quite the same succinct fashion as the ‘rom zom com’ did for Shaun.” Maybe you can help him come up with a catchier categorization.
As you know (‘cuz y’all started reading the graphic novel the minute Wright started adapting it with co-writer Michael Bacall), Scott Pilgrilm vs. the World is based on Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life, a bruise cruise of love in which the titular, twenty-three-year-old bassist for Sex Bob-Omb must vanquish the seven ex-boyfriends of Ms. Flowers so that he might date her. It’s brilliant, essential stuff, and it’s going to make for a monumental motion picture with Michael Cera in the lead. Add the luminous Winstead to the mix, and there’s every reason to believe this film will lift us up where we belong. Where the eagles cry and stuff.
Now let’s start fantasy casting the League of Ramona’s Evil Ex-Boyfriends. And no Craig T. Nelson, goddamn it!