Legendary writer Stephen King knows about the existence of King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard — thanks to Edgar Wright.
The English director is doing the promotional rounds in support of his new film The Running Man, a faithful film adaptation of King’s book of the same name.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Wright revealed that he has a long-term email correspondence with King.
“21 years ago, Stephen King gave us a press quote for Shaun of the Dead, and it was mind-blowing to me at the time that we got a rave from Stephen King on our poster,” Wright said. “I’ve then had this email correspondence with him over the years where he’d always be generous about my movies.
The most surprising revelation was still to come. “But we would mostly email about music. I’d sometimes send him vinyl on his birthday — bands like King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and Sunflower Bean.”
So there you have it: the writer of horror novels like The Shining and Cujo has listened to at least one of King Gizzard’s many, many, many, many albums.
As part of his promo tour, Wright also appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers, where he talked about, of course, The Running Man, as well as getting Arnold Schwarzenegger’s blessing for the film and receiving feedback on the script from King. Watch below.
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The Running Man received a mostly positive review from Rolling Stone.
“This is the vibe that Edgar Wright is chasing with his version of The Running Man, which hews closely to the original text with a fidelity bordering on hero worship,” David Fear wrote. “Oh, it’s got action — plenty of action — and in-jokes, along with the sort of far-out formalism and warped sense of humour you’d expect from the auteur who gave the world Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
“The movie also has an ace in the hole with Glen Powell, one of the few contemporary alpha-charisma actors that feel built for stuff like this and believably might have been bred in a farm upstate that specialises in All-American movie stars with gajillion-watt grins.
“But for all of the multiplex-friendly fun Wright’s conjuring with this over-the-top spin on dystopian sci-fi blockbusters, the prevailing feeling here is dread. Most filmmakers would have diluted the grit and genuine sense of moral free fall. Wright doubles the dosage. Every adrenaline rush comes with a chaser of low rage and simmering despair.”
In other King Gizzard news, the band recently removed dozens of albums from Spotify following the announcement that Ek’s investment firm, Prima Materia, helmed a 600 million euro fundraising round for Helsing, a defense technology startup developing AI drones. Simply writing “fuck Spotify” while promoting a new demo collection at the time, King Gizzard later explained their decision in an Instagram Story.
“Hello friends… A PSA to those unaware: Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology… We just removed our music from the platform… Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better?… Join us on another platform,” the band’s statement read.
