After completing his latest movie The Running Man, Edgar Wright could be forgiven for taking a break. Instead he spent Christmas and New Year making a video for Sunflower Bean's singer and bass player Julia Cumming. He tells Promonews that he was on a mission - and the result is very special. BTS photos by Miriam Marlene and Fin Rowland.

With a remarkable array of feature films to his credit Edgar Wright is one of the UK's top movie directors  - and much more besides. 

An avid fan of film in all its aspects, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the artform, Wright brings that love and knowledge to everything he works on. It means he is a highly distinctive voice in the world of cinema, who is renowned for breaking new ground as he pays homage to the classics of the past - while making popular hit movies for mainstream audiences.

And he would certainly have become one of the UK's biggest music video directors, if the movie business had not claimed him first. Back in the early Noughties, Wright's career in music videos was just taking off. In a few months in 2002 and 2003 he directed videos for The Bluetones, 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster and one for Mint Royale, starring Noel Fielding - the video that would become the prototype for the celebrated opening sequence of his movie Baby Driver.

"It was funny. I had always wanted to do more music videos and just got to the point where I was getting lots of offers," he recalls. "But then Shaun Of The Dead was happening. The scripts for music videos were coming in and I couldn't do any of them. And I didn't do another one for three years."

Even when engaged in a stream of movies, like his 'Cornetto trilogy' (SOTD, Hot Fuzz and The World's End) and Scott Pilgrim vs The World, Wright's love of music has spurred him to make occasional returns to music videos down the years when he gets the opportunity. They have been fairly rare in the last 15 years, with one for Pharrell Williams & Daft Punk's Gust Of Wind in 2014 and, eight years ago, for Beck's Colors.

I heard the demo from My Life about four years ago... It's been a long project for Julia and very important to her.

So it comes as a surprise to hear that there is a new Edgar Wright-directed music video, not long after the release of The Running Man, arguably the biggest blockbuster of his career to date. This highly entertaining sci-fi thriller, a remake of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger movie of the same name - and based on a Stephen King novel - is sheer spectacle combined with sharp satire. It's a huge Hollywood popcorn movie with a brain, an updated version of the dystopian sci-fi epics of the 1980s and 90s, with heaps of Wright's trademark cinematic virtuosity bringing present-day pertinence to well-loved tropes of the genre. 

But in its own way, on a much (much) smaller scale, Wright's video for Julia Cumming's My Life follows that theme of cinematic virtuosity, putting a new twist on some classic techniques. Produced by Anonymous Content in London, it takes us through a day in the life of the singer, also the frontwoman of New York power pop band Sunflower Bean, in a single shot. It's a display of old school ingenuity and craft in this 'oner' that takes Julia through her day, from apartment to audition to dance class to the photoshoot for her album cover.

Above: At the My Life music video shoot, Edgar Wright (left) directs Julia Cumming in the recreated New York apartment in Twickenham Studios where she starts 'a day in her life'  in the video. 

The video is full of details and is constantly moving forward, through the use of clever production design, choreography and camerawork, centred by a hugely engaging performance by Cumming herself. It does not hurt at all that My Life is a special song - an old-fashioned power ballad with a modern perspective. In the midst of a production with many moving parts, Cumming is the calm centre who delivers the song with heartfelt passion.

The first single from Cumming's debut solo album Julia - out on Partisan Records on April 24th - Wright says he had committed to making the video for his friend a while ago.

"I had been a fan of Sunflower Bean for years, and we met through that," he explains. "And I heard the demo from My Life about four years ago. Julia's been working on her solo album for a number of years. It's something that's been such a long project for her and very important to her."

With My Life scheduled for release in mid-February, he confirms that the demands of The Running Man meant that the window of opportunity to make the video was small. But he was absolutely determined - and ultimately it meant calling upon the help of lots of old friends in the business to make it happen.

"I finished making [the film] in October and it came out in November - and I was still doing press for the movie until late November," he tells Promonews, the day after the release of the video. "But actually once you've made a promise to do a video for somebody, you can't renege on it. And also - It would also be my first music video in a little while, I wanted to come up with something great."

It helped that the germ of an idea already existed. This came from Julia herself and her manager, Crista Simiriglia, based around the creation of the photo of the cover for the album, which was taken by legendary photographer Albert Watson.

Above: Behind the scenes on the My Life shoot. Edgar recruited longtime collaborator Jennifer White to choreograph the video - both Julia's progress through the one-shot and the dance sequences.

"Julia had worked with Albert Watson years before as a model and asked him back then if he would do an album cover, then got back in touch with him last year," says Edgar. "So there was an idea that the video was the day in the life of shooting that shot."

He adds that their deck took a realistic approach to the idea of the day in the life, which he reworked. "A lot of her day was happening out on the streets [in that original treatment]. It was my idea to do something that was more abstract. We didn't want to be outside in January. We wanted to be in a situation where we could contain it. To do the day in the life idea, but in a more expressionistic way."

To do it as a one-shot for most of the video - until they reach the point the album cover photo is taken - was also something that really appealed to Edgar's filmmaking instincts. "I've done videos like that before," he says. "But also I really like working with choreographers and dancers and DPs and operators making it all one piece."

Once you've made a promise you can't renege on it... and I wanted to do something great.

Understanding that choosing his collaborators would be key to it's success, the strategy was to reach out to some trusted colleagues. The starting point was to recruit choreographer Jennifer White, who Edgar has worked with numerous times, including several features and Raise Your Arches, his acclaimed 2023 ad for McDonald's. And White had also worked with Cumming before, on The Running Man. 

"Julia has a cameo in the movie, playing a hostess of another gameshow - Jennifer worked with her on that scene. I knew they got on, so when the video came up I called Jen. It's that thing of when you haven't necessarily got a big budget. If you have the building blocks of knowing who is going to be involved, then you can start to formulate the idea around that."

Above: Julia between scenes on the shoot. She came up with the idea initially with her manager Crista Simiriglia. 

With Jennifer White on board with her assistant Naomi Weijand, the concept evolved when they moved to a dance studio with Julia, Edgar plotting it out while shooting the process on his iPhone. "I think what it became was: 'what if it was a rehearsal for life? So your average day of being on camera and off camera, doing idents, having to do content, and also the moments between that. Now I'm on-camera, now I'm off-camera."

His next recruit to the project was another longtime colleague: Marcus Rowland, the production designer that he has worked with since Edgar was directing Simon Pegg et. al, in legendary TV comedy Spaced. "Marcus has done pretty much all of my movies and a lot of my music videos and commercials too. I presented him with the idea and we figured out what could we do and where we could shoot it." And Edgar was also able to call in another favour, having Twickenham Studios - where he has also worked since the days of Spaced - offer him the use of Stage One to shoot the video.

Once it was all locked in, I said to Julia: have fun with it.

"We knew that because it's an old studio, the studio walls are inherently aesthetically interesting, in a way that modern studios aren't. You've got that Old Grey Whistle Test-feel of the cladding on the backs of the stages. We knew that even if we only have one set, and we could only afford to do a couple of flats for her bedroom, then she could walk off set and the studio itself would look interesting."

In the days leading up to Christmas, when they were prepping the job, Rowland had a suggestion. They were looking to make a version of Julia's New York apartment in the first set-up in the video. 

"Marcus said: 'why don't you come around the prop stores with me and we'll pick out some stuff?'. The thing is, I don't think I've ever been personally to the prop stores and it was a great experience. We just took photos of things that were the right kind of style, so it would look like an apartment with furniture grabbed over the years. And also to tie into the colour scheme of the album cover - the backdrop and the dress, which Julia still had. (And Julia was over for a few days and she joined us going around the prop houses."

Above: Recreating the Julia album cover shoot for the My Life video.

Edgar also brought on board various other crew members he has regularly worked with, including DoP Oliver Curtis, 1st AD Richard Graysmark and costume designer Julian Day. There is a sense that much of his pleasure in the process comes from bringing these tried and trusted collaborators on board to confront the challenges and problem-solve. There is no suggestion that the director who had just finished a $100 million feature film was taking this any less seriously. In fact, Edgar describes the process of figuring out and achieving the 'oner' as "a high-wire act - definitely a nervewracking thing."

In that respect, Edgar found a new collaborator whose work was crucial for the success of the video, in steadicam  operator Austin Phillips. For knowing exactly the right framing at all points, from wide to close-up, taking in the movement of dancers, Phillips had Edgar's iPhone footage from the rehearsals to guide him, and a pre-light day enabling some 'soft rehearsals' at Twickenham before the 10 hour shoot day.

"Oliver recommended Austin and he was great," Edgar says. "He was very quick to work out where we needed to be and where Julia needed to be and where she's engaging with the camera and where she isn't." 

It tied into the song... all about being yourself, and not having to perform for anybody else.

On the shoot day in early January, from the first take Julia spontaneously blew a breath on the taxicab glass in the cab ride sequence and drew a heart on the steamed-up glass - and because the studio was so cold it showed up perfectly on camera. Edgar says that she nailed that in every following take - but when it came to getting the whole sequence, they had to wait a while to get it exactly right - on take 14. Although they shot it a couple more times afterwards, it immediately felt like that was the one.

"At that point Julia and Austin had everything locked in, the choreography was all locked in, and so were the lighting cues - and you felt like, okay, we got it now. And then I remember saying to Julia - Jen said this as well - hey, just have fun with it." 

With its craft and it's form, it's ambition and attention to detail, although its not a complete one-shot it feels like it delivers old-school one-shot thrills. On the face of it, it's also a classic subject - a day in the life of a girl who is a performer, a singer, a dancer or an actress. Arguably it's the song's lyrics that ensures that the classic craft of the video has a modern twist.

Above; Edgar and Julia on set of the My Life shoot, January 2026.

In fact, Edgar reveals that to an extent, the video provides a path for Julia to address a difficult experience in a positive way. 

"Without going into any details, when she did the album cover shoot last year, it was actually a very tumultuous day on a personal level," he says. "The super glamourous shot was the one second where all the planets came into alignment, in what in reality it had been for her a shitshow of a day. So that was her idea - and it tied into the song, in the way that the song is all about being yourself, and not having to perform for anybody else. That's the spirit of it."

Directing the near-'oner' video for My Life in one day was arguably also a cathartic experience for Edgar himself after The Running Man. "That movie was so huge and such a marathon and I'm really proud of it. But it was also, as you might imagine, totally exhausting," he admits.

"And it was great to do this with a lot of the same crew. It doesn't always come together - a lot of it is just kismet in terms of timing - but I got the feeling on the day that both for me and for a lot of the crew that we're doing something for one day that's completely in of itself and fun to do and creative.

"I just want to include people, especially for something like this. A one take video by its very nature is a team effort. And so if people are doing it for favours, for next to nothing, it's got to be fun."

• Edgar Wright is represented by Anonymous Content for commercials and music videos. More here.