It’s time for Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz fans as well as all open and closeted nerds to rejoice. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost return next week with Paul.
The longtime friends and collaborators co-wrote and star in a new film about a pair of British comic book geeks who embark on a USA/UFO road trip from Comic-Con and end up befriending an alien. Despite having co-starred several times in film and television before, the movie marks the first time the pair have written together.
“Funnily enough, since we met about 17, 18 years ago we always wrote little things together that never came to fruition,” Pegg told Metro. “Paul was our chance to finally do something and finish it. It became a point of honour to get it done. There were days where we were literally apoplectic with laughter lying on the floor crying our eyes out over stuff that didn’t even end up in the script.”
The film also represents the first time the pair worked within the Hollywood studio system and though they admit that means they had to slightly curb their sensibilities to play to a broader audience, they were able to still maintain their distinct comedic voice.
“I always use the phrase, you mutate to survive,” said Pegg with Frost jokingly adding, “I think that we’ve managed to hopefully write a love letter to Steven Spielberg and the fan boys on one hand and on the other hand make something which is slightly more accessible for everyone to watch, even women.”
Though Paul should appeal to a wider crowd, Pegg and Frost know that their core fanbase shares their pop culture obsessions and certainly know how to appease them. In fact, when they debuted footage from Paul at last year’s Comic-Con there was actually a stabbing in the audience.
“They were fighting over seats at our panel,” explained Pegg. “That was simultaneously horrifying and flattering.”
