I love Edgar Wright. You love Edgar Wright. Any film fan worth their salt loves Edgar Wright. So we are all celebrating the news of Wright finding a new project to direct.
Deadline says that Wright will helm an adaptation of Set My Heart To Five. The novel, Simon Stephenson’s debut, is set to hit shelves later this year but Focus Features, Working Title and Complete Fiction Pictures have already come together to get Wright on board.
Stephenson will adapt the screenplay, which sounds like no small task because the book’s synopsis sounds absolutely wild yet totally up Wright’s alley. Behold:
“Jared works as a dentist in small-town Michigan. His life is totally normal, except for one thing. He is a bot engineered with human DNA to look and act like a real person.
One day at a screening of a classic movie, Jared feels a strange sensation around his eyes. Everyone knows that bots can’t feel emotions, but as the theater lights come on, Jared is almost certain he’s crying. Confused, he decides to watch more old movies to figure out what’s happening. The process leads to an emotional awakening that upends his existence. Jared, it turns out, can feel.
Overcome with a full range of emotions, and facing an imminent reset, Jared heads west, determined to forge real connections. He yearns to find his mother, the programmer who created him. He dreams of writing a screenplay that will change the world. Along the way, he might even fall in love. But a bot with feelings is a dangerous proposition, and Jared’s new life could come to an end before it truly begins.”
Not what you expected, huh? Nevertheless, it sounds pretty great. Edgar Wright taking on a futuristic-yet-still-nostalgic coming-of-age story about a budding screenwriter robot falling in love with movies? What’s not to love? Wright is an major movie buff so making a love letter to cinema sounds perfect for him. He also likes robots too I would assume because who doesn’t?
Wright has been a busy man lately. His next movie, Last Night in Soho, sounds like it’s going to be an absolute trip and is currently scheduled to debut in September. It seems likely that Wright will hop right from Soho to Set My Heart To Five. That’s great news for us and any self-respecting movie fan. Edgar Wright should always be making movies because Edgar Wright is always making great movies.
