Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright have spoken to NME about the 20th anniversary of their beloved ‘rom-zom-com’ Shaun of the Dead, which were they presenting at the Pilton Palais cinema at Glastonbury Festival.
The filmmaking duo, the who created the so-called Cornetto Trilogy – comprised of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End – between 2004 and 2013, also discussed approaches they have received to “sequelize” the film and their plans to make a new movie.
NME: Hi Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright! Have you been surprised by the amount of renewed interest in Shaun of the Dead lately?
Simon Pegg: “It’s kind of never really gone away since we made it… Whenever there was some crisis, that meme of me with the beer popped up. But it’s nice to get to 20 years and realise that people are still talking about it.”
Edgar Wright: “Also, I think the main subject of conversation is people saying: ‘Oh, fuck! That was 20 years ago! Oh my God – I’m old! What have I done with my life?”
Pegg: “We always said that we weren’t parodying zombie movies with Shaun of the Dead; we were parodying romantic comedies – if we were parodying anything. Shaun of the Dead is a zombie movie; there’s no satirical edge there aimed at the genre itself. We took it very, very seriously and we abided by the rules laid down by George Romero and we were extremely careful not to take the piss out if it. What we were taking the piss out of was – and I’m sure Richard won’t mind us saying this – the Richard Curtis-style British rom-com.
NME: It recently came out that the famous scene of you throwing records out to ward off zombies nearly featured David Bowie albums…
Wright: “With the record scene, we had to get clearance for the album covers. You’ll notice that some of the ones we trash, you don’t actually see the album covers. You don’t see ‘Brothers in Arms’ by Dire Straits and you don’t see the Batman soundtrack.”
Pegg: “I wrote a lovely letter to Mark Knofler trying to assure him that me throwing his record at zombie, quite dismissively, was actually a compliment. Which it wasn’t!”
Wright: “The one artist who was OK with her album getting trashed and gave us the clearance, was Sade. So we think Sade is the coolest.”
Pegg: “I bumped in her in New York once in an elevator and you know how elevators get really quiet? It was just me and her in the elevator and I went: ‘Thanks for letting me throw your record at a zombie.’ She said: ‘You’re welcome.’ It was a good icebreaker.”
NME: You’ve often been approached to “sequelize” films from your Cornetto Trilogy. What sort of approaches have been made?
Pegg: “Just constant badgering!” [Laughs]
Wright: “It was more at the time, because Shaun started to take off – especially in the US. We did Hot Fuzz instead of a Shaun of the Dead 2. We didn’t want to do a sequel to the film; we wanted to do something else. And I think that was basically how we continued on with it. There’s definitely been suggestions of spin-offs, but I feel like we just wanted to tell different stories. And do things in the same tone, so we’d do tonal sequels. The Cornetto Trilogy is a trilogy of tone, really, isn’t it.”
Pegg: “That’s why it’s called the Cornetto Trilogy – because each of those films is a sequel of the other. I feel like with all of those films, it’s a story that has a beginning, middle and an end. Some of my favourite films are sequels and I think sequels are an important part of filmmaking, but some films just don’t need to be furthered. I think sometimes people just wanna see the same thing again. It’s better to challenge people and give them something they don’t necessarily want. [Laughs]
“Shaun, particularly, is a story that has a beginning, middle and an end. There’s nothing to do afterwards. There’s no more story to tell after that. Unless we bring back the zombies – it just feels tired to do that.”
Wright: “Comedy sequels are really difficult as well. It’s very rare that there’s a comedy sequel that works, because usually you have to return the characters to their status quo at the start of the second one. So if there’s a rom-com sequel – not mentioning any names – they have to demolish everything that happened in the first one to even have a second one. So it always feels quite contrived.”
Pegg [to Wright]: “Do you want to mention one?”
Wright: “No. There’s one that’s in my head, but I know the people that made it. I can’t.”
NME: Go on!
Pegg: “Are you worried about getting cancelled?”
Wright: “Yes. I wouldn’t say anything bad about the makers of Bridget Jones 2.” [Laughs]
NME: It was reported last year that you guys are working on a new film…
Pegg: “We’re always working on a new film…”
Wright: “…What it requires is us to actually write it.”
Pegg: “When we made Shaun of the Dead, all we had to do was write Shaun of the Dead. And then things changed and escalated for us both personally and professionally and now it’s very, very hard to look into the future and go, ‘OK, let’s block out those six months or whatever. But that’s what I think we have to do. Now that I’m clear of Mission Impossible 8, Edgar’s got a movie coming up, I’ve got a movie coming up – but beyond that, there’s some fallow that we can work in. And I really, really wanna do it.”
Wright: “What we basically need is to be in the same room. When somebody asks us to be in the same room, like the NME, we’re here. So what you need to do to get us to write a new film is basically book an interview that lasts about six weeks. Unless you have any immediate plans after this, we could in theory start writing it now.”
NME: I’ve got a good idea for a film about a really cool NME journalist, actually…
Wright: “Isn’t that a bit far-fetched?”
Check back at NME for the latest Glastonbury 2024 news, reviews, interviews, photos, rumours and more. Check out the NME liveblog here for all the latest Glastonbury action as it happens.