Four years ago, no one in the United States had ever heard of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, or Edgar Wright. But when the 2004 film Shaun of the Dead hit U.S. theaters, they suddenly became cult celebrities. Wright directed the romantic zombie comedy, or “romzomcom,” which starred Pegg and Frost as a couple of slackers trying to deal with the zombie apocalypse.

Shaun of the Dead is an homage to the works of George Romero and Sam Raimi, wrapped around a gooey center of wacky-yet-deadpan British comedy. Though it’s a ridiculous parody at heart, it shows a realistic scenario in which ordinary people attempt to deal, practically, with a totally unrealistic and impractical situation. American and British audiences were united in their love of this instant cult classic.

In Hot Fuzz, the trio tried their hand at the police action genre. Pegg played a highly skilled city cop reassigned to a quiet village, and Frost became his bumbling sidekick. While it lacked the universal appeal of their first film, it was still a rousing success with American audiences. Much of the parodied material originated in American theaters, including movies like Point Break and Bad Boys II. Timothy Dalton, the dark, towering, former James Bond, plays a villain in the story.

But where did these three get their start? On T.V., of course. Edgar Wright’s first major project was the sitcom Spaced, which aired on the UK’s Channel Four. It featured Pegg as a failing artist and Frost as his military-obsessed friend. Jessica Stevenson, who appears briefly in Shaun of the Dead, co-stars as a would-be writer to whom Pegg’s character pretends to be married, in order to rent a flat for the two of them. Many of the show’s cast and crew are still involved with Edgar Wright projects to this day - they can be seen as zombies, townspeople, or minor villains.

So what’s in the future for Edgar Wright? No one knows for sure, although there will be a third movie starring Pegg and Frost - another entry in what Wright calls his “Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy.”

Prepare for Wright’s next gory, chocolaty masterpiece with some Shaun of the Dead movie trivia, or meet the cop who can’t be stopped in Hot Fuzz movie trivia!

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