Wright: The difference with this one is that the actual character comedy is a little more honest and frank. I'd say it is both darker and also sillier, which seems like an odd combination, but I think when you see the movie, you'll see why.
Pegg: You can't do the same thing over and over again - we never wanted to do that. We wanted to make a different film. There are things that we returned to, things that we were fascinated by and things that bond the three films together as a threesome, or trilogy if you want to use a lofty term. Those things are friendship and the struggle of the individual against the collective.
MB: Sir Peter Jackson has been a big supporter - did you have time to catch up with him?
Wright: Peter said, and I quote, it was his favourite of the three. You can quote Sir Peter Jackson on that. So given how much he loved the other two, that was very pleasing for us.
Frost: I think he was counting The Lord of the Rings trilogy in there.
MB: How much has Sir Peter's support meant for this film premiere?
Wright: It was amazing... it's always really, really gratifying to come to New Zealand and feel welcomed with open arms.
Frost: Out of everywhere we go, Wellington always feels like the nearest to our home audience.
MB: Is that because it's so grey here?
Pegg: It's never grey! This is the first time I've seen Wellington grey.
Frost: [Pointing to the grey sky and howling wind outside]: The sun's coming out, I mean, it's quite nice.
MB: Here we are at a pub - are you getting sick of pubs at the moment?
Frost: I'm sick of not drinking in a pub. I think it's terrible, you're in pubs and you don't have a drink - I think that's a shame.
Pegg: We spent three months in and out of pubs, because nine of the pubs we shot in were real, and three were sets. I don't really go into pubs so much - it's not easy for us to go into pubs any more, just because pubs are places where people are a bit loosened up and sometimes it can be a bit difficult when everyone wants to come and talk to you.
Frost: Yeah, when they go like that: 'There he is!'
Wright: After this film they'll say, 'Hit me with a stool!'
Frost: I want to shoot a film in a brothel, we'll get to do all our press in a brothel.
Pegg: I don't drink anyway, so it's kind of, it's not part of my life.
MB: There's a huge binge drinking problem here in New Zealand. Are you expecting a backlash to the binge drinking in the film?
Wright: I don't think so, because as you'll see in the movie, it doesn't glorify drinking. It definitely shows the negative sides of it too.
MB: The film is a sci-fi/comedy/robot apocalypse film, but it's also a bit of a cautionary tale, isn't it?
Wright: Aside from all the sci-fi mayhem, it is a cautionary tale about not looking back. There's that phrase, 'You can never go home again' - I think a lot of people have been through that experience, whether it's going back to a home town or going to a wedding or a school reunion where you reconnect with old friends - it's always bittersweet. We came up with this idea about five friends, four of whom have become adults and one person who wants to be a teenager forever, and him trying to recapture that - not even glory days, but one glory night. And you know, the sting in the tail is that he gets a wild night of a different hue.
MB: This is the last film in the trilogy, but it's not the last time you'll all work together again, is it?
Wright: I hope not ... I'd definitely like to work with Simon and Nick again, because it's like working with your best friends.
Movie preview
Who: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright
What: The Brit big screen comedy trio behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, now The World's End
When: Opens at cinemas on Thursday.
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