Carbolic Soap (lost Edgar Wright film; 1992)
Carbolic Soap is a 60 minute superhero parody film from 1992 which was written, directed and produced by British filmmaker Edgar Wright. The film was released independently by Wright and filmed on a video 8 camcorder and VHS for an unknown budget.
Background
The film was created by Wright when he was just 17 years old, and was one of three films he produced between the ages of 17 and 20. Nothing is known about the plot beyond the basic premise of it being a superhero parody film.
The only known screening of the film took place on May 12th, 1992, wherein it was publicly screened at Kennion Hall to an audience of 50 people.
Availability
To date, no footage or stills of the film have surfaced. Home media releases are known to exist, as purchasable VHS copies of the film are advertised on its poster (with Wright prominently displaying one of these in a 1992 interview on the television series Gimme 5),[1] but none of these have been found either.
While Edgar Wright himself has shown no interest in releasing the film, he has mentioned brief details about it in several past interviews, stating in an 2015 interview with Empire magazine that:
"Between the ages of 18 and 20 I made three hour-long films. One was a superhero film called Carbolic Soap. One was a cop film called Dead Right. And the other was called A Fistful Of Fingers."[2]
Edgar Wright would later reference the film in an interview with Red Bull Music Academy, where he said that:
"I did a superhero spoof when I was about 17 called Carbolic Soap. I remember on the end credits I used something from the score to Dario Argento’s Phenomena, because it had a particularly epic end cue. I think that was by Goblin or at least one of the members, such as Claudio Simonetti. I definitely remember all these things fondly".[3]
On July 18, 2018 Edgar Wright announced on Twitter that an old classmate (Twitter user @Marjorie73) had found the original poster for Carbolic Soap, which he subsequently posted a picture of.[4] To date, this has been his last known acknowledgement of the film, which remains lost.
Gallery
References
- ↑ Gimme 5 interview where a VHS copy of the film is shown. Retrieved 6 May '22
- ↑ Empire magazine interview where Carbolic Soap is briefly mentioned. Retrieved 6 May '22
- ↑ Red Bull Music Academy interview where Carbolic Soap is briefly mentioned. Retrieved 6 May '22
- ↑ Original Tweet by Edgar Wright where the poster is revealed. Retrieved 6 May '22