The World's End preview

After two hugely successful films Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost join forces again… we take a look at their journey and what we can expect from the third installment in our The World’s End preview.

Shaun of the Dead was a breakthrough in several ways. It marked the feature debut of Edgar Wright. It was Simon Pegg‘s first major movie role. It featured probably the only occasion that Bill Nighy and Penelope Wilton portrayed the walking dead. It was the first ‘Zom Com’ but, most of all, it was the beginning of the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. British cinema would never be the same again.

In the early 1990’s Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson and Pegg’s mate – a then unknown Nick Frost – put their creative juices together and came up with the innovative sitcom Spaced, nominally the story of a group of eccentric characters living under the same roof. In actuality, it was a clever and accomplished pastiche of sci-fi, action and horror movie genres.

Wright and Pegg in particular had grown up with the likes of Star Wars, Bad Boys and, in particular, the zombie movies of George A Romero. Spaced abounds with knowing references, in-jokes and lovingly created homages with a comedic background. In one particular episode, a dream sequence is played out as a scene from Dawn of the Dead. After the series had run its course it was this episode that provided the inspiration for their first foray into the movies.

A critical and box office triumph, Shaun of the Dead would signpost the way ahead for Pegg and Wright. Now big names in the movie business, the public craved a follow-up and hoped above all else that it would not disappoint. Pegg had started making a name for himself as a lead in other movies but he was always destined to collaborate with his old friend again. Putting their heads together they looked for genres other than horror. The action movies of the 1980’s and 90’s were to be the next target and the result was Hot Fuzz.

Fuzz proved to be a worthy successor to Shaun, with Pegg and Frost having enormous fun fusing Midsomer Murders with Point Break. By now, the two films were being touted as part of a trilogy, a different flavour cornetto featuring in both movies. The curse of part three was hanging in the air.

Wright, Pegg and Frost forged ahead with their own careers. Wright directed the sorely underrated Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Frost featured as support in a number of movies and Pegg was gaining a reputation as comedic gold in blockbuster movies such as Star Trek and Mission Impossible 4. It was beginning to seem less and less likely that the project would ever see the light of day. And then there was an announcement…

Pegg and Wright appeared in a press release to reveal the title of the next film. It was to be called The World’s End and information beyond that was not forthcoming. No plot, no cast, not even a poster. Just the title, scrawled on a white board flanked by the co-creators, looking for inspiration.

It was, however, enough to get the fans on board. Speculation grew and grew and gradually snippets of information have leaked out. Pegg has been quoted as saying it will be a ‘social sci-fi’ and will take place against the back drop of a very British pub crawl. This fits in very well with the ethos of the previous movies. Nick Frost is back, whilst Pegg and Wright are again taking on the script writing duties. What could possibly go wrong?

One detail had yet to be revealed. The question on everyone’s lips? Just what is the flavour of cornetto for the final part of this trilogy? Mint choc chip! Remember you heard it here first!

The film has a tentative release date of August 2013.