Actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright worked together on the films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. Their newest project, The World’s End, follows five middle-aged friends looking to redeem their honor by completing (some reluctantly) an epic pub crawl in their hometown, after having failed in their first attempt when they were teenagers.
The new movie fits right in as the third in what Pegg refers to as the “Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy” and Wright refers to as the “Three Flavours: Cornetto” trilogy. Pegg says, “Edgar put a Cornetto [a much-loved brand of ice cream in the U.K.] in Shaun of the Dead, and we did it a little more prominently in Hot Fuzz to be self-referential.” Each movie in the series features a different flavor of Cornetto. There is a red/strawberry Cornetto in Shaun of the Dead (representing zombies) and a blue/vanilla one in Hot Fuzz (representing the police). (Potential spoiler alert: The green/mintice cream in The World’s End speaks to the science-fiction/extraterrestrial elements of the film.)
Wright confides, “The appearance of the Cornetto ice cream in Shaun of the Dead is because it was a hangover cure for me in college and because it seemed like a funny thing for Nick Frost’s character to want on a Sunday morning. It’s popped up again because we had gotten free Cornettos at the Shaun of the Dead premiere, so we thought if we wrote Cornetto into Hot Fuzz, then we would get them at that premiere as well. For some reason we did not, and I felt let down by the lack of free ice cream, but by then it was too late.”
Pegg continues, “So we suddenly had this linking factor in the two films. We felt obliged that there be a Cornetto reference in The World’s End. It is a throwaway, but we hope the fans appreciate it.” (Watch for a scene where characters are eating peppermint with chocolate chip ice cream, as the green Cornetto wrapper represents. And pay close attention during the epilogue, when Andy (Frost) says he does not miss processed foods. A green Cornetto wrapper then blows into the fence in front of him, and he follows it longingly with his gaze as it drifts away.
The World’s End is available starting Nov. 19 on Video On Demand. Check your cable system for availability.
© Focus Features. Credit: Laurie Sparham
