With the final installment of The Cornetto Trilogy to be released in US theaters on August 23rd, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and moderator Chris Hardwick met with fans at San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H to answer questions about the film The World’s End.
It’s easy to see there’s a long-standing friendship between Pegg, Wright, and Frost, going by how well they played off of each other while answering the audience’s questions. And by how much they made fun of each other.
When asked about any similarities between The World’s End and Doctor Who, Wright answered “If you’ve ever watched Doctor Who and thought it would be funnier if the Doctor was really hammered, then this is the movie for you. Let’s just re-title it Doctor Hooch.” Pegg agreed, adding:
Our TARDIS in this film is beer.
In talking about what their next possible project together would be, Pegg said “We had the idea for The World’s End on the press tour for Hot Fuzz in between New Zealand and Australia, in the air basically. And so we’re not due to have our next idea until about four week’s time.”
Wright confirmed, saying “We’re scheduled to come up with the idea at the Seattle baggage carousel on Monday morning.”
A member of the audience asked how much improvisation they do with the lines in the films. Frost replied that they may riff and improvise during the rehearsal period, but that they have such a short amount of time for the filming process, they do stick to the shooting script.
Pegg added “We have a rehearsal period that we have with the actors, Edgar and I will write the script, we’ll go through the script with Nick, he’ll sprinkle his fairy dust on it..” “It’s actually dandruff,” Frost clarified.
When asked about the most challenging scenes they’ve done, Wright mentioned that the fight scenes in The World’s End were particularly difficult to film. Pegg said “We basically devised a new martial art called ‘Pub Fu’ which I hope you’ll all learn and take with you to your next bar.”
Pegg said he really enjoyed playing the character Gary King.
He was a challenge because he isn’t immediately likable. He’s a manipulator and he’s a fool. It was great fun to play somebody like that.
Regarding his favorite role, Frost said “I enjoyed being Ed in Shaun of the Dead, but it wasn’t a real stretch. At times they just came into my house and shot stuff stuff while I was just sitting about with my house shorts on.”
Since The World’s End features an epic pub crawl, someone asked what beer they’d want to drink in an actual pub crawl. Wright seemed to have been around more than enough beer in the filming of the movie. “If you’d been shooting in bars all day, the last thing you want to do at the end of the day is have a beer. So I’m gonna be a complete kind of a fop and say red wine.”
Wright also gave encouragement to aspiring filmmakers, saying the key is to keep working, keep experimenting and not give up.
Chris Hardwick followed that up by saying filmmakers should never pay attention to the comments on youtube, as they’re poisonous.
“By the way,” Hardwich added. “If there are any trolls here, I know you value your anonymity, but I am begging you on behalf of anyone who makes anything online. Please listen to what I’m about to say: your, Y-O-U-R, is a possessive. Y-O-U apostrophe R-E is a contraction of ‘you are.’ Every time I see ‘Your an idiot’ I’m like ‘That is a vortex of irony that is almost inescapable.'”
Photography by Hillary Papirio