Edgar Wright’s latest film Last Night in Soho arrives in cinemas this weekend, telling a giallo-inspired, time-travelling tale of a young fashion student obsessed with 1960s Soho.
The film is based on a story that Wright first came up with several years ago, with the Baby Driver director bringing in 1917 screenwriter Krysty Wilson-Cairns as a collaborator on the script during early development.
And speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com, Wilson-Cairns has explained that although “the beginning, the middle and end was always there” in some form, there were some key changes made to the original story after she started working on the project.
“We sat in the same room and we like spent six weeks you know, just like cracking the first draft talking about characters we really like,” she explained of the writing process.
“And we really changed some of the ’60s stuff because that was originally silent – [there was] no dialogue, just music so we expanded that together.”
Another major influence Wilson-Cairns had on the script was that small aspects of her own experiences living in Soho were incorporated into the film – notably including the Toucan bar, where she had formerly been a bar worker.
And she said that her own love of Soho was one of the key reasons she was asked to co-write the script in the first place.
“[Edgar] first told me the story for Last Night in Soho, not as a collaborator just as a friend,” she said. “Just like what do you think, do you like this? And also, I suppose, as a young women who’d gone on a similar journey – although not quite as supernatural!
“And then about nine months after that, he phoned me and he said, ‘Do you remember that story?’ And because I work and live in Soho I’d thought about it literally every day. And I told him that and he went, ‘Oh, do you want to write it with me?’ And that was a very easy decision!”
Last Night in Soho is released in UK cinemas on Friday 29th October 2021. Looking for something to watch tonight? Check out our TV Guide or visit our Movies hub for all the latest news and features.