'Scott Pilgrim' Director Welcomed to Toronto by Metric, Broken Social Scene

'Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World' director Edgar Wright was a long way from his native England during filming of the movie in Toronto, but he was welcomed into the city by the local music scene. "I remember, as an example of the generosity and spirit of the camaraderie there, when I first met Kevin Drew he sent me to a record shop on Queen Street called Rotate This and basically just told me all these albums to get," Wright tells Spinner. "He's like, 'OK, Hidden Cameras, you gotta get this, listen to this.' He was telling me what other things I should be listening to from Toronto, so that was cool."

Hailing from London, Wright knows a thing or two about successful music scenes, but he says the Toronto music community is special because of the interaction. "Through Arts & Crafts, Broken Social Scene's label, there's a very interesting kind of co-op feel to the music scene that a lot of people kind of collaborate on each other's work," he says. "And sometimes you go see Broken Social Scene and there'll be 20 people onstage and it always seems like a great collective because Emily Haines can drop by and sing a song and Feist'll come back. I saw a concert at Christmas before we started shooting where Modest Mouse were part of the band for the night. I guess there's a much smaller scene than in London so it certainly seems like there's an interesting family vibe."

Wright was exposed to the scene first several years ago by 'Scott Pilgrim' author Bryan Lee O'Malley. "Me and Bryan, when we first started talking in 2004, we bonded over talking about music and exchanging music and he would send me the playlists he would write the books to, and I would send him tracks that made me think of the books," Wright recalls. "I was already a fan of Metric and Broken Social Scene, so we had to get them involved. In 2008, I went to Toronto and met with Kevin Drew and Emily Haines and that was great. Getting those guys involved was really important to us and we're really pleased with the collaborations in the film."

Among the highlights of Wright's time in Toronto was when he was literally invited into the home of some of his favorite musician. "Jimmy Shaw from Metric shares an apartment with Sebastian Grainger [formerly] of Death From Above 1979. So it was kind of very surreal for me, thinking like, 'Oh, wow I'm meeting all of my musical heroes in the same apartment,'" Wright says. "It's a great scene there and you hang around with Broken Social Scene you start to feel like you're part of the band as well."

'Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World' is in theaters now.