Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright are the trio behind the so-called Cornetto Trilogy: Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World's End.
The densely scripted British action/comedies have won the trio scores of fans around the world, with Sir Peter Jackson being among the most passionate.
The World's End opens in New Zealand cinemas this week. It follows five friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier but unwittingly become humankind's only hope for survival.
Alongside Pegg and Frost, other stars in the film include Martin Freeman, Paddy Considine, Eddie Marsan and Rosamund Pike.
I had the pleasure of watching the film's New Zealand premiere at Wellington's Embassy Theatre on the weekend and interviewing Frost and Wright. Watch the video interview or read the transcript below.
First of all, thanks for bringing this film all the way to New Zealand.
Frost: You're welcome.
Wright: Thank you, it's always nice to have an excuse to come. We came over for Hot Fuzz, and [Frost & Pegg] came over for Paul, because we love coming to New Zealand. So it's very nice to be here.
Frost: Seems bonkers to come to Australia and then not come here. It's so far away [from the UK] that if you do one, you might as well do the other.
I wish more movie stars and filmmakers thought that way!
Frost: Well y'know we're just refreshing as people, we make the effort!
Wright: Yeah, take that other Hollywood A-listers! We came to New Zealand, what's your excuse Will Smith? Come on!
Frost: Did Will Smith not come to New Zealand?
Nope.
Frost: Shocking.
Edgar, seeing as you love coming to New Zealand, would you ever consider doing a Wright Stuff or one of your special presentations down here?
Wright: Oh, yeah! When we knew we'd be promoting [The World's End], the first thing I did was email Peter Jackson and say 'hey, do you think we could do a screening at the Embassy?' I really love that cinema. I showed Shaun of the Dead at the Embassy in 2004 and the sound was amazing. I'd love to do something... The Wright Stuff is something I do in LA; I've done it in London a couple of times, where I've shown some of my favourite films. I did it in Toronto as well, actually. So yeah, I love doing that kind of thing.
The World's End has some great fight scenes in it and Nick, you get to do some of the coolest moves. That elbow drop was great!
Frost: The People's Elbow, the most electrifying move in sports entertainment.
Was that your favourite move?
Frost: Well there's a big fight where I fight like ten men at once, that was pretty amazing to shoot. When I do the helicopter into the back-breaker is pretty cool. There's a fight at the end where I tombstone Simon, there's like a giant choke-slam which is pretty cool. We used to wrestle a lot, I broke my thumb wrestling with Simon many years ago. That choke-slam wasn't in - we kind of thought about that on the day really, and that was a great thing. Also, I think people assume that I'm some big stoned lump that doesn't do anything, but despite my size, I'm fairly -
Wright: Tasty.
Frost: I'm fairly tasty. I've been referred to a few times recently as a natural athlete, which is amazing to hear, as I reach for another Twix. I think, well if I put effort in I could be an Olympian. But y'know, to kick some arse, to have a chance to oil myself up a bit is kind of nice.
Wright: Wait 'til The Rock sees this movie...
Frost: Oh, me and The Rock going toe-to-toe, I'd love it.
The fight scenes are very well directed. There's long takes, tight choreography, they're great. Was it of major importance to you to get them right?
Wright: I did a lot of action in Scott Pilgrim and some of the collaborators from that movie like Bill Pope, the director of photography and Brad Allan, the stunt co-coordinator, came to London to work on The World's End with me. What I thought would be kind of great was to design these shots that were really long, so you're right in the actors' faces. It becomes more about the hero than the villain. The villains become almost less important as you concentrate on the heroes fighting. So we designed these shots around everybody's skill-sets. Brad the stunt co-coordinator would do assessments of Nick and Paddy and Simon and Martin, what they could do, what they were capable of, what they were comfortable with. Then he'd tweak the choreography to that. So Nick gets a lot of intense choreography, Paddy has a lot of great big haymakers, Martin -
Frost: Can take his jacket off.
Wright: - he does some jacket-fu. Martin Freeman does jacket-fu in this movie! It's pretty amazing.
Your films focus a lot on platonic adult male friendship, but feel more genuine than most Hollywood comedies that focus on the same thing. Why do you think that is?
Wright: One of the inspirations for this movie that was very personal to us, is I always feel in American comedies when they do 'man-child' films, they're never really that honest. Or they only go so far, or glorify the idea of the man-child. They never scratch very far beneath the surface. So we wanted to do something that was very funny, but had an element of honesty and frankness to it that I think people really relate to. With Shaun of the Dead and The World's End - Hot Fuzz as well to some extent but certainly Shaun and World's End - people would come out of the movie saying, 'I know a guy like that', or 'I am that guy'. That kind of gets to them. So we're trying to make a film that's funny and exciting, but there are dramatic and bittersweet elements that get you in a raw place.
Frost: I don't think anyone should ever say 'I am Gary King' out loud. I think that's only something you'd say to yourself looking into a mirror at 3am.
Wright: Somebody said after the screening [in Wellington], 'Sometimes I go home and I worry that I am the Gary King. And sometimes I worry that I'm not enough of a Gary King'.
It looks like you guys would have a huge amount of fun making these films. But the finished product when it's all edited together and finished has a lot of nuance and effects that you just wouldn't get on-set. What gives you more satisfaction: sitting back watching the completed film, or the good times you have during production?
Wright: For me it's looking at the final product. On any given shooting day, number one you've got to get the performances. You've got these amazing actors, you're trying to get their best takes. And on every single shooting day on this movie, there's so much to do, I'm just thinking about getting through everything in that day. So for me it's probably less fun than it is for Nick to shoot the scenes, because I get most satisfaction when I'm sitting back and it's finished. The last 20 minutes of The World's End has a lot of effects in it that weren't really finished until the last couple of weeks of the production. So I love watching the last 20 minutes of the movie now, because it feels like it's so fresh to me. We just did that, y'know, we just kind of finished it, so I like the satisfaction of watching it finished.
Frost: I love the shooting. I don't think I'm ever happier than when I'm on a film set, sorry to my wife. I always give my best on a set, not just in front of the cameras but in every facet. I've never found a job before this one where I prepare my schoolbag the night before ready to get up and run out of the house. Without eating breakfast, leaving my wife holding the baby. I love just being amongst it all.
The Cornetto Trilogy spends a lot of time in English pubs - do you guys?
Frost: Probably not as much as you'd imagine.
Wright: I think there's a bit of a love/hate thing, because the British pub is such an institution. I wouldn't call myself that much of a pub-person any more, but you feel that you can't escape the British pub. It's such a big part of our nation. One of the things in The World's End is playing up to that stereotype, like when you go to the USA and everyone says 'The Brits are all drunks'. And you go 'Well... yeah alright it is true.' I like this idea that in the film, we tackle that, asking if it is a good thing, wondering if we can possibly make a hero of this sort of guy.
In the opening of the film, when Gary is super happy at the end of the incomplete pub crawl, it made me think of how happy I sometimes was when I was a teenager in similar situations. That's based on something from your real life isn't it, Edgar?
Wright: Yeah.
Somewhere in most people's mid to late 20s, they lose the ability to be that happy, at least in that way. As an adult, have you ever been as happy as you were on that night?
Wright: During that prologue at the start when they're 18, when you're at the end of school, you are briefly the king of the castle. For a brief moment, you are master of your own domain. In the final year of school, you think you know exactly what's going on, you're the oldest kids in school. Then as soon as you leave, whether it's to go to college or straight into employment... I remember when I finished art college and briefly, like, signed on, it was like 'vroooom', right down. All of a sudden you've got no money, you're not living with your parents any more, that's it. So for some characters, they get a job, rally, start to grow up. Then there's ones like Simon's character Gary King, they want to be the coolest kid in school forever.
Frost: And that's fine, I think, to a certain point. It could literally change overnight - one minute, you're fine, then the next you're the last one of your friends who isn't married with a child. It can happen that quickly. For me, though, I've never been happier. I've never been happier than I am right now sitting next to Edgar and being with you. I went away on holiday a couple of weeks ago, I've got a 2-year-old baby. Having that baby has made me so happy. He literally spent 30 hours that week trying to spend his tongue up my nose. So things like that, it's a different kind of happiness.
...
The World's End opens in New Zealand cinemas tomorrow.
3 News
source: newshub archive
