Now that Scott Pilgrim is out and alien road comedy Paul is nearing its release date, everyone is wondering what is next for Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Edgar Wright and the The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy? So we asked.
Last we heard, the third film in Wright's "The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy" (named that way for the appearance of different Cornetto ice creams in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) would be titled The World's End. Will we being seeing this third film any time soon?
You've had a lot success playing around with different types of genres, how do go about lovingly skewering these types of films, while maintaining a fresh perspective?
I think you have to be passionate about the genre. With Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz they were both genres that I felt very warmly about. That is a big distinction to make. Especially with Shaun of the Dead, it was a Valentine to George Romero, it wasn't a send up. I think a lot of people always refer to Shaun of The Dead as being a spoof, and Simon and I never saw it that way. We saw it as a zombie film that happens to be funny because of the characters' reactions.
What is the next genre that you would be interested in playing with?
I don't know. I'm trying to go beyond that, rather, and tell stories. I think after Hot Fuzz one of the reasons we didn't make a film straight away, was by the end of the Hot Fuzz press tour people would only ask us that question, what's next you've done zombies, you've done cops, what's next? You start to think that people assume you have a blindfold and a dart board, and oh okay, kung fu, let's do that. I think what I would like to do now is to make stories that appeal to me. And Scott Pilgrim is exactly that, I read the book, and I knew I had to make this movie.
So then what is the current status of The Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy?
We have an idea and we still plan on writing it. I think Simon and I have to be in the same room. We've both been busy and so has Nick. So I'd hope that maybe by the end of next year we'd start writing it.
So you haven't written a draft yet, just an idea?
We've had the germ of the idea for three years. So we need to either write it down or start completely from scratch. Basically there's nothing really to tell, anything you might have read is not true.
Not even the fact that the next ice cream [flavor to appear in the movie] will be Mint Chocolate Chip?
That's true but I said that basically to have some kind of answer when people would ask me about it. [...] There are only three flavors of Cornetto. So if we do it again, there is no other option.
So what does mint chocolate chip have to do with the end of the world?
Nothing. [Laughs]
Is the title that was released [The Word's End] still the same?
Maybe. I don't know, I think so. We liked that idea, it had a sort of resonance in a different way. It might be that we continue with that idea, or it might be that we start all over again.
It's got a lot of post-apocalyptic buzz on the internet.
We never said it was post-apocalyptic movie though. To be honest, in a weird way, I regret saying anything at all because then people start speculating. It's more we probably shouldn't have said anything at all. I've found that I regret speaking too soon about stuff. Because you end up sounding like the boy who cried wolf.