How Edgar Wright Came Up With 2017's Best Film Over 20 Years Ago

It's understood that the premise of Baby Driver was inspired by Mint Royale's 2003 music video for Blue Song, which Wright also directed. However, the UK filmmaker, who is also behind critically acclaimed films such as Shaun Of The Dead and Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, explains that the film came to him after listening to one particular track by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

"I think even before I did [Blue Song] with Noel Fielding, which is, like, 15 years ago now, I had already wanted to do it as a movie," he says.

"So the idea goes even further back from then until I was 21 in, like, 1995 and I heard the first track that's in the movie, Bellbottoms, by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. When I listened to that track, I would just start imagining this scene, this car chase. Eventually, I thought, 'I have to come up with a movie that goes with this vision in my head.' So that eventually became Baby's story and the script as it is. But it wasn't until, like, ten years ago, after [Wright's 2007 film, Hot Fuzz] that I said out loud to my producers, I have this idea for this movie, Baby Driver, and Eric Fellner, one of my producers, said 'What is that?' and I said, 'It's like a car movie driven by music.' And he said, 'I want to see that.' So I have to hand it to them that they just kind of had unwavering faith in getting this movie made."

"All I can say is I'm very proud of the movie and it is the movie that I dreamt up all those years ago"

Baby Driver tells the story of a young getaway driver, Baby, [Ansel Elgort] who works against his will for a criminal kingpin [Kevin Spacey]. To cope with tinnitus, Baby almost always has his iPod hooked into his ears. If you haven't seen the film yet, consider this your heads up - the soundtrack is incredible.

"It's basically a combination of my two different passions, which is cinema and music," the 43-year-old director says of the connection between story and music in Baby Driver. "But I always wanted to do, like, a heist movie and a sort-of car-chase movie. But my idea was to sort of filter that through my love of music. It's a movie about a getaway driver where you get to see the story through his eyes but crucially hear it through his ears."

So vital is music to the story, that Wright and his team created an app of the script for the cast that would allow them to read along and press play at certain scenes where music is played.

"It's pretty cool," he smiles. "Even when Kevin Spacey and Jamie Foxx and Ansel [Elgort] read it, they had this app where you can press the button and the song would start playing."

Reviews for Baby Driver have been so positive that calls for a sequel are already being made and Wright, who also wrote the film, says it is on the cards.

"I mean, I don't think there is a sequel without me," Wright laughs. "I think though that is something that came up before the movie came out, actually. You know, the thing is, I hadn't really thought about it until I was actually making the movie and working with the actors. And that was the first time I started to think, 'I'd like to see these characters again.' So it's not a definite, but it's something that is being thought about."

Given how impressive some of the films featured on Wright's resume are, to say Baby Driver is the best of the bunch, let alone of 2017, is a big call. However, it's not a debate he wants any part of. "I'm not the one to, kind of, rank my own movies. I couldn't," he says. "It's like asking to pick between your different children. So all I can say is I'm very proud of the movie and it is the movie that I dreamt up all those years ago. For it to be out in cinemas in 2017 and connecting with a mainstream audience is amazing to me."

Baby Driver is in cinemas now.