| 28 June 2017 | – | – |
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| Baby Driver feature film by Edgar Wright which features a cameo by Jon Spencer in which he says the last line of the film in one of the final scenes and the film opens with a scene soundtracked by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion track Bellbottoms from the album Orange.The CD and digital versions of Music From The Motion Picture Baby Driver also includes Danger Mouse feat. Run The Jewels and Big Boi – Chase Me which is a track based on The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Bellbottoms.
On 12 March 2017 Edgar Wright posted a tweet that suggested Jon Spencer actually appeared in the film. UPDATE: Jon Spencer does appear in one of the closing scenes and has the last on-screen line of the film (there is a voiceover afterwards). The film premièred at SXSW on 11 March 2017 but was not on general release until *It was announced on 27 March 2017 that the film would be released early. DVD / Blu Ray release: On the commentary track Edgar Wright tells the story about how The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion him owning a copy of Orange and Bellbottoms inspiring the film, the song is also used as the background music on the menu screen. GRAMMYs: Baby Driver compilation album and Danger Mouse ft. Run The Jewels & Big Boi – Chase Me are nominees for the 60th GRAMMYs awards which are due to take place in New York on 28 January 2017. IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3890160/ Film Details: Official Site: In the press campaign for the cinematic release The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion were mentioned in many interviews, TV appearances, reviews and features on the film. Here are quotes from some of them: The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion were rumoured to be a part of the soundtrack in January 2015 but on 10 March 2017 AustinChronicle.com published a feature in which Edgar Wright discusses the film referenced the band a number of times: “He’s been tinkering with the idea since 1994. That’s five years before his breakout success with subversive British sitcom Spaced, when “Bellbottoms” by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion earwormed its way into his skull. The 19-year-old Wright kept it on constant repeat, “and I kept visualizing this car chase, and thinking, ‘This would be a great car chase song.’” “So with his engine revving for the premiere, will “Bellbottoms,” the song that started it all, be part of the soundtrack? Wright won’t say whether, after 22 years, he managed to get it into the action. But, he slyly noted, “You won’t be disappointed with the amount of Jon Spencer.” – Austin Chronicle Link: http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2017-03-10/putting-the-pedal-to-the-metal/ “Wright explained that the 1994 Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album Orange was a big influence, specifically the song “Bellbottoms,” which he thought would make a great car chase song.” – The Daily Dot “But Baby is different, Baby is unique, and Baby can’t drive unless he’s jacked into an iPod, which could be blaring anything from The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion to The Damned to Barry White.” – Consequence of Sound Link: http://consequenceofsound.net/2017/03/sxsw-film-review-baby-driver/ “Early on, Wright establishes the rhythms governing Baby’s world, as he blasts The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms” while accelerating through town.” – IndieWire “In a likely nod to Robert Altman’s “Thieves Like Us,” during the first bank hit, Wright remains parked outside with the kid, listening to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms” while the rest of the team (Jon Hamm, Jon Bernthal, and Eiza González) rob the joint.” – Variety Link: http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/baby-driver-review-edgar-wright-1202006730/ Baby sits back, cranks up “Bellbottoms” by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and air guitars his way through the sequence while the others rob a bank and exit in a hurry. That’s when things really get going as Baby steps on the gas and maneuvers away from the cops with heart-pounding, exhilarating polish. It’s a car chase for the ages. “The first time we see Baby in action, he’s sitting in his red Subaru, lip-syncing to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s ‘Bellbottoms’.” http://www.gamesradar.com/baby-driver-review/ “But it was an obscure track called Bellbottoms by the American alt-rock band the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion that Wright first heard in 1995 that inspired him to dream up a car chase sequence. It is only right then that the raucous jam holds the honor of topping a soundtrack of 30 kick-ass curated songs that provides an turbo-charged adrenaline rush for the ears.” “The idea for this movie is as old as ‘Orange’” Wright said in an interview. “I was either 20 or 21 and I had just moved to London. I was working on my first movie I ever made. I was completely broke. I think I had a cassette of ‘Orange’ that I had copied off of someone else, maybe my brother. I listened to ‘Bellbottoms’ all the time. I just started to visualize this car chase. I’d think, ‘This would be the perfect car chase song in a movie, but what’s the movie?’” “Here’s the funny thing — I had made a movie, but I don’t think I would ever have dared say that I was a film director,” says Wright, whose other directing credits include Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. “I had made A Fistful of Fingers. I moved to London to edit it, and I was living in Wood Green, in North London, and trying to figure out what the next step was. I had a duped audio cassette of the Orange album — apologies to Jon Spencer — and I used to sit in my bedroom, listening to this album over and over. I started to imagine this car chase that was set to that song. I didn’t even have the character yet, but the structure of the car chase, and the bank robbery at the start of the movie, is extremely similar to what I came up with 22 years ago.” More than two decades on, Wright has finally brought that idea to the big screen in a film which also features a cameo from Spencer himself. “I became friendly with him after Hot Fuzz,” says the director. “He’s also in the movie right at the end. I don’t want to give away what he plays, because it would tell you what happens at the very end, but Jon Spencer appears, basically, in the final scene of the movie, which was great.” http://ew.com/movies/2017/06/21/edgar-wright-baby-driver/ “The idea for “Baby Driver” came to Wright 22 years ago while he was repeatedly listening to “Bellbottoms,” by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. “I started to visualize this car chase, but I didn’t know what the rest of the story was,” he says. “I’m very inspired by music and tend to conjure up scenes inspired by songs. Usually it’s with songs that don’t already have a significant visual image that goes with them. You wouldn’t listen to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ and say, ‘I’ve got a great idea for this!’ because there already is one.”” http://variety.com/2017/film/features/director-edgar-wright-1202464802/ ““Bellbottoms” – The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion One of the first songs Wright chose. “When I was Ansel’s age and making movies was a pipe dream, I would listen to this and visualize a car chase,” recalls Wright. Now, it scores the opening sequence — a (dazzling) car chase.” “Baby (Ansel Elgort) revs and swerves his cherry-bright Subaru in time to Bellbottoms, by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – the first in a near-unbroken string of songs Baby cues up as an on-the-hoof soundtrack.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/baby-driver-review-edgar-wrights-infectious-car-chase-thriller/ “You might already know this, but the new movie Baby Driver opens with an absolutely virtuosic broad-daylight Atlanta car chase set to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s deathless romp “Bellbottoms.” If this isn’t enough to convince you to see this movie, then you and I are not the same. Wright cuts the car chase so that all the big moments arrive at big moments in the song, and by the time it ends, you’re left panting.” http://www.spin.com/2017/06/baby-driver-soundtrack-stream/ “How a New York band inspired ‘Baby Driver’ 20 years ago” “It is a great thrill to have one of my songs put to good cinematic use,” says Spencer, 52, who is currently promoting “Brood X” — a recently released album by his other band Boss Hog. “I was at the premiere on Monday, and Edgar saluted the band for helping to inspire the movie. Everyone in the room applauded after the first scene — not for our benefit, just because it’s such a great scene. Edgar’s got a home run with ‘Baby Driver.’” http://nypost.com/2017/06/29/how-a-new-york-band-inspired-baby-driver-20-years-ago/ “When Wright started fanatically listening to the lead track off the band’s “Orange” album in 1995, the British writer-director had a vision that has culminated, more than two decades later, with his new film, “Baby Driver.”” http://www.sltrib.com/entertainment/5432344-155/the-song-that-begat-baby-driver “The movie is basically a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion promo. And why not?” – Edgar Wright (https://twitter.com/edgarwright/status/881314530168459264) “‘Baby Driver’ Follows Criminal Who Wants Out Of The Game” NPR audio interview: http://www.npr.org/2017/06/30/535059276/baby-driver-follows-criminal-who-wants-out-of-the-game “How Edgar Wright, Danger Mouse and choreographer Ryan Heffington gave ‘Baby Driver’ its perfect groove I just started visualizing a car chase. I didn’t really know what the movie was, I just knew that that would be a great car chase song. “I just started visualizing a car chase,” Wright says on the phone from London. “I didn’t really know what the movie was, I just knew that that would be a great car chase song.” Over the years, as he made “Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz,” “The World’s End” and other movies that attracted devoted fans, the idea started to take shape.” TheQuietus.com have just published Edgar Wright‘s Baker’s Dozen feature which includes The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion‘s Orange. “This album pretty much inspired a whole movie of mine. It means a lot to me – very special, very influential. I was hearing it as it came out. I’d just moved to London. I think I’d seen them on The Word doing ‘Afro’, which is an amazing TV appearance If this album just had ‘Bellbottoms’ on it would still be a corker. ‘Bellbottoms’ is pretty much the greatest opening track of any rock album ever – an insistent and stirring widescreen opening. There’s a string quartet playing on it and it sounds immense… “Not only does ‘Bellbottoms’ open Baby Driver, but Jon is in the movie. Wait till you see ‘Bellbottoms’ in the movie. It’s nuts.” Link: http://thequietus.com/articles/22682-edgar-wright-baker-s-dozen “”Bellbottoms,” The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (1995) I mean, that song was never not going to be in the movie. It all starts there, with that weird moment of synesthesia – it wasn’t even “Oh, I know this will be the opening of a movie.” It was just something that appeared to me when I heard the song. But over the years, I had this sequence, and I knew it was the germ of something but I didn’t know what. Then I thought: What if the getaway driver is listening to that track? Suddenly, it was the starting point for some sort of diegetic action-musical … taking what I love about the movies of Tarantino and John Landis and Scorsese and putting it into one full movie. Or American Graffitti, which is really the first diegetic musical. It’s one of the first movies I can think of where the pop soundtrack really isn’t a score – it’s all coming from whatever people are listening to onscreen.” “How a New York band inspired ‘Baby Driver’ 20 years ago” “You might already know this, but the new movie Baby Driver opens with an absolutely virtuosic broad-daylight Atlanta car chase set to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s deathless romp “Bellbottoms.” If this isn’t enough to convince you to see this movie, then you and I are not the same. Wright cuts the car chase so that all the big moments arrive at big moments in the song, and by the time it ends, you’re left panting. It’s a trick that Wright pulls again and again in the movie, setting all of its scenes to great old pop and funk and instrumental tracks.” Link: http://nypost.com/2017/06/29/how-a-new-york-band-inspired-baby-driver-20-years-ago/ “In 1995 Wright was 21, living in North London, and while he was editing his first film Fist Full of Fingers he was listening to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and would visualize the action of Baby Driver, specifically the film’s opening car chase, without knowing anything about the story or characters.” |
