Tag: Simon Pegg

Simon Pegg, co-writer and star of “Shaun of the Dead,” surprised Hero Complex Film Festival attendees Friday night, joining director Edgar Wright on stage. The Q&A — at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles — capped a zombie-themed opening night, which included a screening of “Shaun of the Dead” as well as Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake of “Dawn of the Dead,” a highlights reel of “The Walking Dead” Season 2 and a Q&A with Snyder and “The Walking Dead” creator Robert Kirkman. Wright would not discuss his Marvel “Antman” film project, only saying “there might be” some new developments. “I have to give a spectacularly vague non-answer,” Wright said, but credited Marvel producer Kevin Feige for having the courage to build “The Avengers” franchise from the ground up. Wright and Pegg did talk briefly about “World’s End,” the upcoming third installment ...

It’s almost here — we’re just one week from the start of the 2012 Hero Complex Film Festival and with the franchise in its third year we’ve moved to a sweet new home (Regal Cinemas at LA Live, where in September we brought you a 30th anniversary screening of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with Steven Spielberg and surprise guest Harrison Ford) and expanded the program (four days now with more than a dozen guests, including three that haven’t been announced). To get a bead on the festival, peruse the photo gallery above — be sure to click the “CAPTIONS ON” option if you don’t see text across the bottom of each image – and you’ll get a snapshot description of all of eight of our separately ticketed screenings. The box here on the right leads to the ticketing page. And how about those fun images in the gallery? ...

2012 HERO COMPLEX FILM FESTIVAL It might be a good time to work on your cricket swing  – Edgar Wright is bringing “Shaun of the Dead” to the 2012 Hero Complex Film Festival. The always-witty British filmmaker will be on stage at 10 p.m. on May 18 to look back on the 2004 cult comedy that marked his feature-film directorial debut and opened doors that led to him to “Hot Fuzz,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” and Marvel’s planned “Ant-Man” project. “Shaun of the Dead” also introduced many American fans to Simon Pegg, the title star, Wright’s co-writer on the movie and an actor with ramping popcorn prominence these days thanks to the “Mission: Impossible” and “Star Trek” franchises. The film grossed $30 million worldwide, and its mix of the daft and the diabolical had a lot of bite with critics such as Nev ...

If E.T. hung around earth a little longer, started wearing flip-flops and smoking pot, he might have ended up something like the title alien in “Paul,” the sci-fi comedy written by and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost that comes out on Blu-Ray and DVD this week. “The idea we had was that Paul had come to earth in 1947, and everything we know about sci-fi cinema had come from Paul,” Frost said, when Hero Complex interviewed him and Pegg about their long simmering bromance at the film’s South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival premiere in March. “It’s actually a smart way of ripping off every film ever by claiming that your character had inspired them.” In “Paul,” which is directed by Greg Mottola, best friends Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Frost) embark on the ultimate nerd road ...

There are few actors that have stepped into as many fanboy-favored universes as Simon Pegg. The British Comedian has beamed Spock onto the Enterprise (as Scotty in “Star Trek“), squared off against The Doctor and Rose Tyler (as The Editor in a “Doctor Who” episode), and performed some technical wizardry to help Tom Cruise‘s Ethan Hunt (as Benji Dunn in “Mission: Impossible III“), not to mention the genre projects Pegg wrote, such as “Paul,” “Shaun of the Dead” and “Spaced.” In her Friday story about his new memoir, “Nerd Do Well,” Los Angeles Times writer Carolyn Kellogg calls Pegg “as close as you can get to a real-life geek superhero.” Here’s an excerpt from her story: Fans who are eagerly anticipating reading about [Pegg's] experiences working on, say, “Star Trek,” may be surprised that there are few on-set anecdotes. He ...

Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey saw “Paul” and thinks it’s worth phoning home about… Don’t let “Paul’s” R-rating fool you. In the latest comedy from those funny Brits of “Hot Fuzz” and “Shaun of the Dead,” the wise guys have gone more off-center than off-color with this whimsical and surprisingly gentle road trip adventure about two friends, an obsession and an alien named Paul. After the sharp bite and harsh light of most American-style, guy-based funny films today, “Paul” comes as such sweet relief. If not for a lot of F-bombs and other naughty words, this would be a family film, a sort of fractured “E.T.,” with Seth Rogen never more likeable than as the bald-headed extraterrestrial who just wants to phone home (he should consider this kind of disappearing act, a la Mike Myers and Shrek, more ...

Hero Complex writer Rebecca Keegan looks for intelligent life in the comedy team behind “Paul“: The night they first knew they were kindred spirits, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost were in a North London curry house with a group of friends in 1993. “In moving a condiment, I made a noise like a droid in ‘Star Wars,’ the little one that Chewbacca roars at and he runs away,” says Pegg. Frost takes over the story: “Our eyes connected, and it was as if there was no one else in the restaurant through this pink mist.” Eighteen years later, Pegg and Frost are in Austin, where their alien road movie, “Paul,” is premiering at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival to an audience comprised primarily of other people who also would recognize the sound of an obscure “Star Wars” ...

Rebecca Keegan catches up with “Paul” stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to talk “Tintin.“ Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are experiencing a Spielbergian moment in their careers. Their new movie, “Paul,” an alien road comedy, is a love letter to Steven Spielberg films like “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” But the two British comedians also got a chance to watch Spielberg work up close as actors in the director’s upcoming film “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.” On Sunday morning, hours before the  premiere of “Paul” at the South by Southwest Film Conference and Festival, Pegg and Frost talked about the unusual work environment  on the “Tintin” set, which relied on much of the same performance-capture technology that James Cameron used on “Avatar.” “Steven, he did a lot of his own camera ...

Surely you know Simon Pegg and Nick Frost from the cop parody “Hot Fuzz” or the modern comedy classic “Shaun of the Dead.” But if you’re the kind of person who reads Hero Complex, then you also know them from the essential BBC comedy “Spaced.” However you know them, the pair are known for being able to fluently speak geek. Their latest collaboration, “Paul,” does to sci-fi films what “Shaun” did to zombie movies and “Hot Fuzz” did to cop-buddy flicks. Pegg and Frost play a couple of guys who have fulfilled their lifelong dreams of attending San Diego’s Comic-Con International, but soon find themselves driving cross-country with a small gray alien that sounds exactly like Seth Rogen. Like their previous films, “Paul” is awash in pop culture references and in-jokes. Afraid you’ll miss one of the inside gags? No worries. ...