Word that “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” filmmaker Edgar Wright would be reuniting with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to complete their “Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy” with “The World’s End” surprised many of us when the news arrived back at the beginning of May. All three creative minds have been very busy with a variety of projects since "Hot Fuzz," but with lensing set to begin in September, Wright and Pegg are beginning to tease out what fans can expect from their next collaboration.
Talking with go-to cinema periodical Empire in their native U.K., while the new film appears to be more mature than “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz,” Wright contends that “I would say it's darker, more personal and more silly." The movie is set to follow a pub crawl involving Gary King (Pegg) and four childhood friends (one of whom will be Nick Frost as a character named Andy Knight), while an apocalyptic event is taking place. Pegg added that the movie involves "a crawl through twelve pubs, culminating in the final one, which is ‘The World's End.’ " Though curiously enough, Pegg calls the film more “social sci-fi,” encouraging readers to “"look it up on Wikipedia and then bone up on John Christopher and John Wyndham." So while 'Shaun' was a zombie comedy, and “Hot Fuzz” was a English countryside version of a Michael Bay film, could “The World’s End” riff on “The Tripods” and “The Day Of The Triffids” to go the alien invasion route?
Adding a bit more to think about, Pegg tells The Telegraph, “We’ve said in our most lofty moments that 'Shaun Of The Dead' was about evolution – it was about Shaun becoming something more than he was. 'Hot Fuzz' was about devolution – it was about [super-cop] Nick Angel dumbing himself down to become something else. And 'World’s End' is about revolution, which will be apparent when you see it.” Intriguing….
While production waits until September, Pegg finishes up work on the highly-anticipated “Star Trek 2” where there has been a lot of talk about Benedict Cumberbatch’s villain role. He's “not just another disgruntled alien. It’s a really interesting… sort of… thing” Pegg said about the baddie. So is he Khan? Some folks just can’t let it go, with rumor once again cropping up in recent weeks, but Pegg candidly states: “It’s not Khan. That’s a myth. Everyone’s saying it is, but it’s not.” So while we’d like to hope that’s definitive enough, speculators are going to speculate until they see the final result.
Looks like plenty of science fiction is in the cards for our merry band of 'Cornetto' creatives, and frankly we can’t wait.