Hot Press Meets Director Edgar Wright

Director Edgar Wright, usually a ball of non-stop chatter, is pensive. After all, it’s the end of an era. His latest film The World’s End is the culmination of his Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, following Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz. The alien invasion flick sees Pegg play Gary King, a middle-aged man-child determined to get his old school gang back together. Aliens aside, it’s a sweet examination of nostalgia and friendship – and Simon Pegg’s questionable style choices as a teen.

“Simon did go through that goth phase,” Wright reveals with a sly grin. “There are all these pictures of him as a Sisters Of Mercy fan, all dyed black hair, black clothes. And that’s such a typically teenage style, we thought it’d be fun to embrace it – but weirdly, I think he kind of pulls it off!”
Though known for his love of horror, sci-fi and running gags – characters falling over fences, Matrix references, the obligatory Cornetto cameo – music and the nostalgia it evokes became a powerful force in The World’s End.
“When I listen to songs that I listened to as a teenager about being young, it makes me, not maudlin exactly, but it hits me right there. There were lots of songs around at that time like ‘So Young’ by Suede that were about youth and the party lasting forever. I thought there was something really interesting about not only the power those songs have, but also about a character who made those party anthems his raison d’etre, and how it would ironically stop you living.”
He also drew on bands’ histories to cement the somewhat fraught dynamic of the long-estranged friends.
“There is always an interesting story when bands split up and there’s been some irreparable rift. Like The Libertines, I loved when they kicked Pete Doherty out! It’s like, ‘What did he do?’ ‘Oh, he robbed the other one’s flat and stole his TV and sold it for drugs’ – that’s a bad rift! One that won’t be repaired for years. We also loved that story of Syd Barrett coming back to Pink Floyd in the ‘70s. He just showed up at the studio without telling them, and it upset all of them. There is something really powerful about the old friend you haven’t seen for a long time coming back into your life. I think Gary on screen is almost like a ghost, still in his trench coat, still with the dyed hair – literally a blast from the past. Because that’s how those friends make you feel, haunted by your past, like you haven’t grown up.”
One actor who makes a delightful return to the screen in The World’s End is the wonderful Paddy Considine. Following his directorial debut Tyrannosaur and a recent diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome, the In America star claimed he had fallen out of love with acting. But like Gary, Wright was determined to get his old friend back.
“It’s really nice to have him here,” says Wright, “because he had stopped acting, and lost interest. But he didn’t want to pass on the final film. So I wrote that character with him in mind, the kind of reluctant, wary one who rediscovers the joy. Subliminal messaging!”
Looking back over his career so far, Wright enthuses that a highlight was zombie flick Shaun Of The Dead getting the seal of approval from George Romero, the Godfather of The Living Dead.
“He was the first person we sent the film to when we finished, it was very important for us to get his blessing, and he’s been so supportive,” the director gushes, his inner fanboy revealing itself.
And regrets, well, he has a few.
“I’m happy with my life and career – however there are still things I’d love to go back and fix,” he admits. “I have recurring fantasies about tweaking my first film, or that Matrix episode of Spaced which was a bit Jump-the-Sharky! I think about going back to school and listening more. I think about going on dates again, and going to gigs and films and seeing them before they were big.”
So you want to go back in time to be even more of a hipster?
“Yeah,” grins Edgar. “But a truly insufferable one!”