Home Movies

‘It’s not about if but when we will do something’: The next collaboration between Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright is happening one way or another

The Cornetto masterminds are officially cooking again, but they won't be taking the easy route.

mission-impossible-dead-reckoning-part-one-simon-pegg
Image via Paramount Pictures

That which is written in the stars very rarely fast-tracks itself into reality. The waiting game, the time in the oven, the lining up of all the necessary pieces and stochastic fields, or whatever it is you call the workings of the universe, is a very necessary piece of the stories that we each lead.

Recommended Videos

Simon Pegg, who recently stepped back into the shoes of Benji Dunn for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, knows this well, and is all too comfortable with the knowledge that, at some point in the indefinite future, he and Edgar Wright – the mastermind behind such works as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Last Night in Soho – will be joining forces once again; it’s just a matter of finding their collaborative edge outside of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.

Speaking to Discussing Film, Pegg reminisced on how much has changed for both him and the auteur in the decade since The World’s End first landed in theaters, and now that Pegg is running around Mission: Impossible sets more often, free time isn’t what it used to be.

“Edgar and I are always talking about what we’re going to do next. Neither of us can believe it’s been 10 years since The World’s End. But because our careers have obviously changed and we’re not just sitting around writing zombie films like we used to… I’ll say this, it’s not about if but when we will do something, which we will do because we’ve already started talking about it.”

He would go on to muse on the recent discussions that he and Wright have had with regards to collaborating, making especially clear that the duo aren’t interested in scrutinizing more genres with another Cornetto movie (the trilogy itself consisting of three seemingly separate films that all follow the same thematic throughline), and instead are dead set on gunning for originality.

“With what do next, we want to be completely different from that. We don’t want to do a take on action movies or a take on sci-fi or a take on horror. We want to make a movie that is totally its own thing, existing outside of the Cornetto trilogy. My desire, really, is to do something super different.”

It’s typically the best news of all when a pair of creatives – of the caliber of Pegg and Wright no less – so vocally dedicate themselves to the pursuit of fresh material, but toss in the fact that said material will certainly find its way to cinemas at some point, and all of a sudden you’ve got everybody’s attention.