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LICKING CRIME Frost and Pegg keeping their cool on patrol in Hot Fuzz

Matt Nettheim

Spaced debuted on the British network Channel 4 in 1999 and featured violence, drug use, and an abundance of movie references. (In the first episode's first scene Pegg tries to convince his ex-girlfriend that he is in touch with his emotions by protesting, ''Jesus, I cried like a child at the end of Terminator 2!'') Spaced swiftly acquired a rabid following — there were even a couple of small conventions. But after two seasons, Pegg and Wright pulled the plug and began writing Shaun, a ''rom-zom-com'' that relocated George Romero's apocalyptic vision to North London and, specifically, a pub very much like the one frequented by Pegg and Frost (who once again played best friends).

Shaun of the Dead eventually found a home at Working Title Films, the British production company famous for romantic comedies such as Notting Hill and the Bridget Jones movies. Once it was finished, Pegg and Wright set up screenings for their cinematic heroes, including Romero and Raimi, in the hope of securing quotes they could use to help promote the film. Shockingly, nearly all of them responded. ''That was one of the most exciting periods,'' says Wright. ''Getting responses from Quentin and Robert and then Sam Raimi and then Stephen King.''

Romero was impressed enough to cast Pegg and Wright as zombies in 2005's Land of the Dead. But it was Tarantino who really took Pegg and Frost under his wing. And by ''under his wing'' we mean to an L.A. strip joint.

''We went to the club where he shot a lot of Pulp Fiction,'' recalls Pegg. ''It was the kind of place where the color drained from you when you walked in — it looked like you'd be killed. But he's a hero there. So they shut the place down for us. It was amazing.''

''I was a huge fan of Shaun of the Dead,'' says Tarantino. ''Their jokes were like little perfectly placed time bombs. It's just genius.''

In 2005, the Pulp Fiction auteur commissioned Wright to create one of the fake trailers for his and Rodriguez's then-nascent Grindhouse project. ''I think the reason that those directors kind of adopted Edgar is because there's something to him that they all have in themselves,'' says Pegg. ''Which is loving films and putting them on come hell or high water. Now Edgar's going to be grooming some young boy...''

''Don't say that,'' protests Wright. ''It sounds like Michael Jackson and the Jesus juice!''

Wright shot the exteriors of Hot Fuzz back in Wells. The picturesque nature of the town contrasted perfectly with the plot's double-fisted gunplay. It also meant that Wright didn't have to waste precious pounds on location scouting. Sure, the budget may have been twice as big as Shaun's, but every bit helped.

''We were trying to do really ambitious stuff on not enough money,'' says the director. ''You can make eight and a half Hot Fuzz's for one Bad Boys II.'' Nevertheless, Wright wanted the film's action scenes to be every bit as exciting as those found in a ''real'' cop movie. ''The car sequences were just fabulous to do,'' says onetime 007 Timothy Dalton, who plays a sinister supermarket owner (and murder suspect) in the film. ''Simon and I were leaning out the windows of cars going at 70 miles an hour with fabulous big handguns blasting off. I told Edgar it was more exciting than anything that I'd ever done on a Bond movie.''

And what cop movie would be complete without a soupçon of homoerotic tension between its two lead characters? Hot Fuzz features a truckload of the stuff. There is even a point in the movie when the audience is led to believe Pegg and Wright might actually be about to take their onscreen relationship to ''the next level.''

''I love watching that scene with a crowd,'' Pegg says with a smile. ''You can hear sphincters all around the theater tightening.'' The actor has had plenty of opportunity to watch Hot Fuzz with an audience. For the last three weeks, the trio have been hosting sneak previews of the film across America, while Wright has been blogging on his MySpace page about fans, hash brownies, and the dubious delights of meeting Dolph Lundgren.

''The screenings are selling out in minutes. We're turning away hundreds of people,'' says Andrew Karpen, co-president of Rogue Pictures, which is distributing Hot Fuzz (and also released Shaun). ''As huge as they are in the U.K., on the Internet they are just pop stars.''

After living together for more than half a decade, Pegg and Frost went their own domestic ways five years ago. But they did sleep together for old time's sake the night before Pegg's 2005 wedding. And although they've been working on different projects — Pegg will next appear in the David Schwimmer-directed comedy Run, Fat Boy, Run, while Frost has starred in a couple of British TV shows — the pair are collaborating on a road movie, although they're loath to reveal any details. ''We have a healthy Internet following and they'll put things together,'' says Pegg. ''They've started to, because of things we've said in interviews.''

''They've already written the script based on the little fragments!'' jokes Wright.

''Someone's got to,'' smiles Pegg. ''We don't have the time.''

Additional reporting by Chris Nashawaty

Posted Apr 13, 2007 | Published in issue #930 Apr 20, 2007 | Order Article Reprints

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