LOS ANGELES It s not the end of the world, but The World s End marks a creative conclusion for Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright.
For the British trio behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Friday s release of The World s End completes a trilogy. The longtime friends have no future collaborations planned as each heads into new projects that match their growing profiles. Wright is writing and directing Marvel s Ant-Man. Pegg will star in Hector and the Search for Happiness, while Frost is starring (and dancing) in the upcoming comedy Cuban Fury.
It s fitting, then, that their final film together (for now) is a toast -- 12 times over. In The World s End, Pegg and Frost play former friends among a group reunited to take on The Golden Mile : A dozen pubs in their old U.K. hometown, downing a pint at each.
The real-life friends gathered at a Sunset Strip hotel (over ice-waters) to talk about movies, friendship and beer.
AP: Is it bittersweet to complete this trilogy?
Pegg: It feels like we ve done something we set out to do... We know we ll probably work together again. Highly likely, in fact.
Frost: At the heart of what we do is that we re all best mates, so it s not like that s that, we ll never see each other. We re friends first and foremost.
Wright: I feel the sense of satisfaction that we made good on a promise. We made a promise to ourselves as much as we did the fans of making three movies, so to actually finish the movies and have a film that we re really proud of three films that we re really proud of British films and pretty uncompromised, is huge for us.
AP: What was really in the glasses during filming?
Frost: It was like a sugared water: A water colored with burnt sugar with cream soda on top for the head. But the shots were Sambuca.
Pegg: It had to be water because we had to drink so much of it. It couldn t have been anything else. It couldn t be apple juice or tea... It tasted a little bit like weak-tasting lemonade, I guess, and we put away pints of the stuff.
AP: What is the beer that you name in the movie?
Wright: Crowning Glory... We named it in the script, and then we found this local brewery that said (they d) make a beer and call it Crowning Glory. So they have actually released it. It s like an ale. The one that s named in the movie ... is now real, which is hilarious.
AP: How did the two of you (Pegg and Frost) becoming fathers change your drinking habits?
Pegg: I don t drink at all now. I gave it up completely.
Frost: I try not to drink. Because what if I woke up and he d eaten a knife?
AP: What would Ant Man drink?
Wright: I think he s probably a lightweight because he s so tiny, but then so am I.
Pegg: He could probably still drink more than you.
AP: Will you all work on Ant-Man?
Wright: I like our collaborations together to be ones that we write. Not that I haven t written Ant-Man, but it s an adaptation. So I think when we reconvene it should be for (a) completely original screenplay.
Frost: So in five years time, when we get back together to do Rhino Man and the Abs, people will enjoy it more.
