Why The Last Night In Soho Soundtrack Required A Lot Of Work From Edgar Wright

Edgar Wright is in full junket mode for "Last Night in Soho," his latest film about London in the swingin' sixties. Thomasin McKenzie stars as Ellie, an aspiring fashion designer who somehow develops the ability to travel back in time by inhabiting the body of singer Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy). Matt Smith, Terrence Stamp, and the late, great Diana Rigg also star.

Music was a huge part of the creation of "Last Night in Soho." As Sandie is a singer, music is obviously key to the central characters. Ahead of the film's release, Taylor-Joy dropped a cover of the '60s standard "Downtown." Wright told Total Film that Quentin Tarantino actually gave him the idea for the film by playing him the Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich song of the same name. "'Have you ever heard 'Last Night in Soho'?'" Wright says Tarantino asked him. "He played it for me, and he goes, 'This is the best title music for a film that's never been made.'"

As part of the press for the film, Edgar Wright did a Reddit AMA that explained just how complicated the soundtracking got for "Last Night in Soho."

On Reddit, Wright explained that the process for picking songs for the movie was deeply personal. "They were all tracks that I knew and loved and just a matter of attaching the right song to the right scene," he said. "At one point, I had a playlist of UK 60's tracks that was 300 songs long."

It shouldn't be surprising that Wright would go deep in music supervision. Starting with "Spaced," his direction has always been tied to the soundtrack. Every Frame a Painting went in-depth on how Wright uses a more heavy directorial hand to enhance comedy in his films, specifically by choreographing action to music. Because much of Wright's style involves syncing action to music, he needs to know the songs before he can even start shooting. This is the opposite of how most films are scored, with soundtracking often coming very late in the editing process.

You can listen to 60 of the 300 songs Wright considered for "Last Night in Soho" on Spotify, where he has curated a playlist of mod bangers. And yes — Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich are fully represented.