Eric Fellner and his Working Title Films partner Tim Bevan produced Baby Driver in association with Big Talk Productions' Nira Park.
Originally based in Los Angeles, Wright revised the film's setting to Atlanta, integrating the city's ethos into an important storytelling device following financing support through tax subsidies from the Georgia state government.
In Atlanta, Miles, self-named "Baby", is a young getaway driver who lost his parents in a car crash that left him with tinnitus, and finds catharsis in music.
Other cast members include Flea as Eddie 'No Nose',[24] Lanny Joon as JD,[25] Sky Ferreira as Baby's biological mother (an aspiring singer),[26] R. Marcus Taylor as Armie, a crooked police officer, Lance Palmer as Baby's biological father (an abusive alcoholic),[27] Big Boi and Killer Mike as restaurant patrons,[28] Paul Williams as 'The Butcher',[28] Walter Hill as the voice of a courtroom ASL interpreter, and Jon Spencer as a prison guard.
[7] Wright's repeated listening to Orange (1994), the fourth studio album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, provided the impetus for Baby Driver.
[16] By the time Baby Driver took definite form, the advent of the iPod, Wright's childhood tinnitus, and his reading of Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia (2007), which explores the neuroscience of music, were forces shaping the project's artistic direction.
[29] On a £25,000 budget, Wright developed the music video for Mint Royale's "Blue Song" in 2003, featuring a backstory gleaned from his early concept for Baby Driver.
[7] By 2007, after signing a multi-picture deal with Working Title, and with a clearer vision of the project, Wright met with Steven Price to discuss early musical ideas for Baby Driver.
[7] In preparation, Wright spent time with ex-career criminals in Los Angeles and London to develop an accurate depiction of a real-life bank robber's work.
Pope shot the project mostly on 35mm Kodak film stock, utilizing Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 cameras with G-Series, T-Series, and C-Series 2.39:1 anamorphic widescreen lenses.
As these scenes were routinely updated with reshoots, the team was tasked with maintaining the software's control tools so artists would be readily equipped to work with the latest audio.
[44] According to Lashley, key scenes that highlight the film's audiovisual repertoire were "Harlem Shuffle", the single tracking shot of Baby's coffee run through town, and "Tequila", the sequence of a deadly shootout between Doc's syndicate and undercover police.
Once filmed, DNEG supplemented the live-action shots with bullets, sparks, and gunfire flashes, while bearing in mind the imposing drum riffs of the soundtrack.
[44] The team found that compositing shots to audio, although suitable for live-action projects, presented unique challenges, such as how to convey emotional cues to the viewer.
[49] Though Wright sought a Toyota Corolla based on data about frequently stolen cars, the production used a red Subaru WRX instead after the studio requested a vehicle that "could be a little sexier".
[44] When sound editing supervisor Julian Slater was first approached for Baby Driver, he was sent a copy of the script and a PDF file containing the curated selection of music, along with a rough audio mix.
[53] "Brighton Rock" posed another challenge for the filmmakers because the sequence required a new set of frequencies, altered voices, and other sounds to emphasize Baby's disoriented state.
Boom operator James Peterson followed each car with a shotgun mic for the external recordings, while using XY stereo equipment to capture the noise of passing vehicles.
[61] Costume designer Courtney Hoffman said she incorporated light gray colors into Baby's wardrobe to illustrate his struggle for freedom from the criminal world.
[62] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times argues that Baby Driver is an exploration of identity and personal style, and how said expression dictates one's status in society.
[63] In their piece for the Los Angeles Review of Books, David Hollingshead and Jane Hu examine race as an important thematic element in Baby Driver.
They contend that certain aspects of the film, such as the casting choices and the appeal to a "white innocence" narrative for Baby's redemption arc, underscore a race consciousness and subtext about the ethics of cultural appropriation.
[69][71] Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released Baby Driver for video on demand on September 12, 2017,[73] and on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray combo formats on October 10.
[74] Physical copies contain two hours of bonus content, including behind-the-scenes footage, production rehearsals, a storyboard gallery, audio commentaries, and the music video for "Blue Song".
[85] Predictions, while acknowledging the positive media response and word-of-mouth support for Baby Driver, were conflicted about the long-term commercial viability of an economical film in a fiercely competitive market.
[60][106][107] Empire's Terri White called Baby Driver "one of the most utterly original films in years" that comes "as close to a car-chase opera as you'll ever see on screen".
[108] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian felt the film was stylish and engaging, "packed with sheer brio and good nature", despite sticking with romantic notions of car chasing being a victimless crime,[109] and Variety's Peter Debruge said Baby Driver becomes a genre standout through "a mostly clever collection of jokes, sudden narrative U-turns, [...] aptly picked songs", and a strong emphasis on car chases.
[108] Richard Brody of The New Yorker considered Baby Driver's dialogue "almost entirely functional", devoid of nuance, resulting in characters who are largely interchangeable despite the best efforts of a diverse cast.
[122][116] Cineaste's Adam Nayman, for example, attributed the mistakes in the script to Wright's inexperience as a solo writer,[123] and TheWrap saw the lost momentum as "jarring and uncommon" saying, "rarely do we see a filmmaker start so strong only to end with a whimper".
Its critical consensus reads, "Stylish, exciting, and fueled by a killer soundtrack, Baby Driver hits the road and it's gone—proving fast-paced action movies can be smartly written without sacrificing thrills".