want to make a movie with us,
then it’s them.”
BILL NIGHY(Philip)The script was
one of the best I’d ever read in my
life. It’s perfect.
WRIGHTOh, that’s very nice. Some
people just didn’t get it. I’m not
embarrassing her by saying this,
because she says the same
thing—Penelope Wilton initially
passed. Helen Mirren was offered
Barbara. She said, “I would only do
the movie if I got to play Ed.”
FROSTShe would have been
amazing.
WRIGHTKate Winslet was briefly
interested in playing Liz.
PEGGWe had tea with Kate Winslet.
She was like, “Yeah, okay—but no.”
KATE ASHFIELD(Liz)Iwasatthe
British Independent Film Awards,
and Simon and Edgar came up to
me. I didn’t know either of them.
They said, “We’re writing a zombie
romantic comedy and we’d love
for you to be in it.” And I said,
“Great! I don’t know what that is!”
Then, a year later, there was a
script, and it was fantastic.
PARKWe did quite an early read-
through, and Simon and Nick were
just brilliant. I remember Tim and
Eric looking at each other going,
“Okay, we understand why we’re
making a movie with these two.”
Shooting began in the spring of
2003 on the streets of North Lon-
don. Wright filmed two compli-
cated one-shots of Shaun visiting
hislocalstoreonthefirstday.
PEGGI think Edgar wanted to show
the crew that he wasn’t f---ing
around.
Edgar Wright
and friends
WRIGHTA lot of people think
Shaun of the Deadwas my first
film, but it’s not. I made a goofy
Western [A Fistful of Fingers] when
I was 20. I felt withShaun of the
DeadI was getting a second
chance to make my first movie.
I left nothing to chance. I really
prepped the s--- out of it.
PEGGI got the sense initially that
the crew thought this was going
to end up going straight to DVD or
never being released. But as the
shoot progressed, the support
really increased.
NIGHYAlargepartofmy
responsibilities was to die bleed-
ing from the neck in the back
of a Daimler.
PEGGI remember that very well.
It was a Jag—a green Jag.
NIGHYNick Frost and Simon
Pegg would make me laugh,
which is hard to do when a man’s
sitting in a pool of dried blood.
They would both do their Al
Pacino impressions, which
were impeccable.
FROSTThe more Bill laughed, the
more we f---ed about.
PARKWe made the movie for
£4 million [approximately $6 mil-
lion]. That was a proper beg-
borrow-steal shoot. At times, it
definitely felt like a student film.
WRIGHTWe saved by encouraging
fans ofSpacedto be zombies.
I think they got paid a pound.
We pushed their fandom to the
limits. [Laughs] I think some of
them were pissed off because of
the long hours. But we couldn’t
have done the movie without
those fans.To c re a t e b u z z ,Shaunwas
screened for a group of horror
directors. Among them? The
Zombie King himself, George
Romero.
WRIGHTThey screened it for him
at some cinema, with a Universal
security guard. I remember think-
ing, “Even if George Romero did
pirate it, he’s the one person who’d
be entitled to some of the profits.”
I got the call and George goes,
“Oh, it’s wild, man. I love it.”
PEGGI apologized to him that Bill’s
character [reanimated] too
quickly. George said, “You know
what, Simon? I didn’t mind.”
WRIGHTIt was like the movie was
for an audience of one—and he
liked it.Shaun of the Deadwas a sleeper
hit on both sides of the Atlantic,
ultimately grossing $30 million
worldwide. Instead of making
asequel,Pegg,Frost,and
Wright reteamed for 2007’s
cop comedyHot Fuzzand then
2013’s alien-invasion movieThe
World’s End. That completed
the so-called Cornetto Trilogy,
named after a brand of popular-
in-the-U.K. ice cream featured
in all three films.
WRIGHTWe ended up outgrossing
28 Days Laterin the U.K., which
was bananas.
FROSTI don’t think it was until
we went back and did the
Hot Fuzzworld tour that we real-
ized how much people loved
Shaun of the Dead. It went from
us doing pretty good gigs at small
bars, so to speak, to then going
back and there’s 5,000 people
going mental.
PARKIt was made with real love,
and that rubs off when you watch it.
WRIGHTEating a Cornetto was
my odd hangover cure.
PEGGI jokingly wrote a treatment
forFrom Dusk Till Shaun, which
was a sequel. Edgar thought
it would be funny to do the film
again, with vampires. It was
all just pub talk.
WRIGHTI would like to work with
them again, of course.
PEGGIt’s just a question of sync-
ing up our respective diaries.
FROSTWhen it happens it’ll hap-
pen, and it’ll be great. Or people
will hate it.X