Michael Cera Gets It Together

March 20, 2008 on 8:27 pm | In Hollywood?

I’m sure most of you already saw this by now, but Michael Cera (“Arrested Development,” “Juno”) has been cast as the lead in the film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series. With “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” director Edgar Wright behind the camera, I’m sure fans will be flipping out whenever this thing actually gets filmed.

The two most interesting responses to the casting news I’ve seen come from New York Magazine’s Vulture Blog – who wonder aloud whether or not the normally on-screen shy guy Cera can pull off Pilgrim’s mix of swagger and stupidity and whether it could save his career – and After Elton’s post on whether Wright will nail the relationship between Scott and his cool gay roommate Wallace. Both are valid points and interesting reading, but for my part I’m pretty hopeful that the movie will get it right on both fronts.

At the risk of sounding vague and douche baggy, I met one of the Apatow comedy crew actors a while ago at a party who’s into comics, and when he was asking for recommendations I mentioned Scott Pilgrim. “Oh, I’ve read that,” he says. “I’m friends with the guy who’s directing it, and Michael Cera’s going to be the lead. [Giant pause] Actually, those papers haven’t been signed yet, so don’t mention this to anyone, okay?”

He went on to explain how Wright and everyone involved are super into the original comic and they want to be as faithful as possible while still making it the movie version of the story. And if I had to put my money on what Wright film got made first between this and “Ant-Man” I’d totally bet on this.

In any event, the person whose take really matters is O’Malley, and by the look of his blog, he’s out in LA right now, so maybe he’ll be posting on all this later in the week. You should bookmark that page anyway, as he’s always posting cool art stuff, including the above pic which I have ruined with my horrible Photoshop “skills.”

And while we’re on the subject of an Oni Press book, I should definitely get off all of this Hollywood blather and mention that they just announced a new book from Matthew Loux (Sidescrollers) called Salt Water Taffy which looks like a blast and last week saw the release of Lars Brown’s first Northworld Graphic Novel, which I got a kick out of. Look for more on both those projects to hit this blog once I get off my lazy duff and call those dudes up.

- KP