This September, Cornettos are back in vogue and dogs can look up because Shaun of the Dead is returning to Cineworld. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg's endearing rom-zom-com is, amazingly, now 20 years old, and we're inviting you to join the anniversary celebrations on the big screen.
Wright's film is the story of slacker Shaun (Pegg) whose life is so stultifying that he remains oblivious to the zombie outbreak that has started to grip London. There's only one thing for it: team up with his slobbish best mate Ed (Nick Frost), mend fences with his girlfriend Liz (Kate Ashfield), rescue his mum Barbara (Penelope Wilton) and hole up at the local pub The Winchester.
Shaun of the Dead remains endlessly quotable, even 20 years on. It's a sly goldmine of Easter Eggs for genre fans, a laugh riot for those in need of comedy and a genuinely gruesome bit of undead scrunge to boot. Here are some 20th-anniversary facts that will have you adopting your best zombie stance.
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Shaun of the Dead was inspired by the Spaced episode 'Art' in which Pegg's character Tim Bisley imagines himself in a zombie apocalypse after playing an FPS zombie video game (Wright directed the series, Pegg co-wrote it with Jessica Hynes and Nick Frost co-starred)
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Wright said: "One evening, I was round at Simon [Pegg] and his pal Nick Frost's flat for drinks when I said we should make our own zombie movie, a horror-comedy. It would be from the point of view of two bit-players, two idiots who were the last to know what was going on, after waking up hungover on a Sunday morning"
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After the success of Spaced, Wright was so committed to getting Shaun of the Dead off the ground as his feature film debut that ignored several offers to direct TV episodes
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The movie was eventually picked up by Working Title, the company behind several Richard Curtis rom-com hits like Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), further supported by Wright's producer on Spaced, Nira Park
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Wright and Pegg were inspired to make the film owing to their shared love of George A. Romero's zombie classics like Night of the Living Dead (1968)
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After Romero died in 2017, Wright said, "It’s fair to say that without George A. Romero, I would not have the career I have now. A lot of people owe George a huge debt of gratitude for the inspiration. I am just one of many."
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Wright cited his ignorance regarding the 2001 UK foot and mouth outbreak, which had escaped his attention for two weeks despite dominating the news agenda at the time
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Wright said, "It's plausible that the world could be ending and [Pegg and Frost] could be the last to know"
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As a filmmaker, Wright was also interested in setting a zombie movie in a country where guns are not especially prevalent
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Wright also capitalised on Pegg and Frost's longstanding relationship and chemistry: before making Spaced, they had met when Frost was a waiter, bonded over their love of Star Wars, and tended to attend the same pub night after night (hence the presence of the Winchester in the film)
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Pegg co-wrote the script with Wright and described the creation of Shaun's heroic character arc as a "wish fulfillment" fantasy
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Additional influences on the script included Alfred Hitchcock's classic suspense thriller The Birds (1963) and Peter Jackson's notoriously bloody horror-comedy Braindead (1992)
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The movie was shot over several weeks around London in the summer of 2003 with the Duke of Albany pub in New Cross acting as the Winchester (the building was later converted into flats)
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The zombie extras numbered 150 and were largely played by fans of Spaced who, according to Wright, reached "a pure crazed hysteria" after "being cooped up on set"
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The pool cue fight sequence was co-ordinated with Queen's 'Don't Stop Me Now' before the song had been cleared for use in the finished film, which meant Wright and Pegg had to convince band member Brian May to use it
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The comic anthology 2000 AD produced a Shaun of the Dead strip called "There's Something About Mary" which was written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright and details the origin story of the zombie woman Mary who appears in the garden
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Distributor United International Pictures hired actors to play zombies and dropped them around London to create the illusion of disruption shortly before the film's release
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Shaun of the Dead was released in 2004 to critical acclaim and box office success, eventually grossing $38 million against its $6 million budget
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It was also nominated for two British Academy Film Awards: Outstanding British Film and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer (for Nira Park)
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The film's celebrity fans include Quentin Tarantino who saw the movie and got Pegg and Wright involved in his 2007 Grindhouse project (Wright directed the trailer for the fake film-within-a-film 'Don't', in which Pegg appears briefly)
Is it time at the bar or what? Click the link below to book your tickets for Shaun of the Dead's 20th anniversary. The film returns to Cineworld screens on September 27th.
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