FILM 1701: BABY DRIVER
TRIVIA: In an introduction from
Edgar Wright, he revealed that there was little to no CGI or green screen used
to film the car chase sequences. The driving is all practically done.
The tracking shot in the beginning
of the movie where Baby gets coffee took 28 takes. The 21st take is the one
used in the movie.
Whenever Edgar Wright had Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey in
the same shot, he would whisper to a colleague: "Double Oscar shot!"
The extensive collection of
sunglasses and iPods that Baby owns were not bought by him; they were taken
from cars he stole. In an interview, Edgar Wright said: 'If he has been
stealing cars since he was 12, the main thing he would have inherited from
these stolen cars are people's sunglasses and iPods.'
According to Edgar Wright, each
script sent to the main actors that are wanted for their respective roles
includes an Ipod that contains list of songs that is to be played (arranged in
specific order) while reading a particular scene for the movie in order to
emphasize the tone.
Edgar Wright had
been sitting on this idea for a film for many years. His first use of it was a
music video he directed for British electronic duo Mint Royale and
their track "Blue Song". The video stars Noel Fielding as
a music-loving getaway driver for a group of bank robbers, one of whom is Wright's
regular Nick Frost. A clip from the video is featured in the film when
channels are being flipped through on the television in Baby's apartment.
On the first day of filming, Jamie Foxx watched Jon Hamm on the
monitor and uttered to himself "he handsome."
In almost every scene where no
music is playing, you can hear a slight ringing in the background (the sound of
Baby's tinnitus).
Barbra Streisand's experience with
tinnitus was the basis for a scene in the movie where Jamie Foxx's character is
required to say, "Do I look like I know a f*cking thing about Barbra
f*cking Streisand?" Knowing Barbra is close friends with Jamie in real
life (who knew?), Edgar was worried about how she would react. Jamie's response
to Edgar's worries was "Barbra's gangsta." In 2016 Jamie Foxx sang a
duet with Streisand on her ENCORE album.
When Baby is flipping through the
channels near the beginning of the film, several lines of dialogue from
different movies can be heard ("you are so beautiful," "how's
that working out for you?" and "we're partners. There's nothing that
matters to me more than our friendship"). Each one of these lines appears
later in the film as a line of dialogue.
The first R-rated movie to be given
permission to show footage from a Disney film (Monsters, Inc. (2001)). Pete Docter, the
director of "Monsters, Inc.", is given a 'special thanks' credit as a
result.
The opening credits use a one take
shot of Baby walking to buy coffee and then walking back, reminiscent of the
famous opening of Shaun of the Dead (2004), where Shaun walks to the shop and
then back home in one shot (which is later repeated once the zombie outbreak
has begun).
Edgar Wright started
to work on this film in 1995, but didn't finish the script until 2011, and the
film until 2017. However, he received the advance for it in 2007. He introduced
the world premiere of the film at SXSW by thanking his producer for not suing
him for this.
