When the trailer for the live adaptation movie of indie darling comic book Scott Pilgrim went live, it crashed Apple and pushed the first volume into Amazon's top 100 sellers. Now the creator and filmmakers are nervous it's being over-hyped.
Bryan Lee O'Malley explained to Variety his fears for the Scott Pilgrim movie, and his concerns about trying to please the die-hard fans as well as regular moviegoers. In fact, he's worried that fans are too excited for the film:
"I'm trying to manage fan expectations, but to no avail," he says. "It's totally out of my control."
We see his point. Scott Pilgrim is this generation's comic book, for right now, and the movie release couldn't be any more timely. In fact at the Kick-Ass screening in SXSW, the mere mention of the comic brought the crowd to screams.
But the obsession could also destroy the movie. Fans "were genuinely angry that we held back the trailer until now," director Edgar Wright explained. Even though he hosted a Scott Pilgrim production blog that had so many behind the scenes video diaries, we alll started to get exhausted with it.
Why so many nerves? Because it sounds like the film has deviated from the original source material, which can either spell a die-hard fan boycott — or save a movie from the same fate as the Watchmen. The article calls Zack Snyder's Alan Moore adaptation "slavishly loyal," which the article claims was one of the reasons for its lackluster performance in the box office.
But in any case, fans shouldn't worry too much that Scott Pilgrim will deviate excessivley from the source material — because this was a joint effort between O'Malley and Wright:
"Edgar and I [O'Malley'] and (screenwriter) Michael Bacall would just sit down and talk back and forth about it," the Canadian cartoonist says. "There were even times when I'd say, 'OK, guys, you don't have to keep everything the same.' "
I guess we'll have to wait until the release in theaters on August 13 to see how different it really is. But until then, they want fans to chill out — but make sure to buy a ticket opening weekend.