Shaun of the Dead turns 20 this year, but the origin of Edgar Wright's breakout horror comedy goes back even further.

Wright and his cast, including co-stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, recently spoke to IndieWire for an oral history celebrating Shaun of the Dead's anniversary, where they revealed its premise stemmed from an episode of Wright's TV show Spaced where Tim Bisley (Pegg) fantasizes about a video game-inspired zombie shootout. "Edgar and I shot the zombie sequence for 'Spaced,' and we both remarked afterwards that we should make a zombie movie because it was so much fun. We thought it would be easy to do. We were powered by naïveté in those days. We thought we could do anything!," Pegg recalled, with Wright adding, "We were so high from doing that sequence. I remember being in a cab with Simon on the way home, and we started talking about how we should do a whole movie of that."

Compared to the zombie films that inspired their movie, Wright envisioned his with a more melodramatic twist, describing it as "a zombie apocalypse through one character's experience as he's going through his own quarter-life crisis: a perpetual adolescent whose life is starting to unravel." The final script -- which followed Pegg's titular Shaun as he and slacker friend Ed (Frost) attempt to repair his failing relationship during one such apocalypse -- ultimately impressed co-star Kate Ashfield, who won the role of Shaun's long-frustrated girlfriend Liz. "I thought it would be a great cult movie because of how off-the-wall it was," she said, calling Wright, "so well prepared and referenced so many other films — he was a real geek! I think his brother did the storyboards — everything was drawn out and planned so clearly. They knew exactly what they were going to do."

Shaun of the Dead Has Been Highly Praised

Shaun of the Dead would not only receive widespread acclaim from critics but major Hollywood names too, including the progenitor of the modern zombie genre George Romero. Its success led to Wright, Pegg, and Frost collaborating on two more genre hybrids -- the action comedy Hot Fuzz and sci-fi comedy The World's End -- in what's now dubbed the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, both of which earned similar critical acclaim. However, despite paying homage to their film in an early COVID-19 PSA video, Pegg made it clear last year that he had no interest in making a sequel to Shaun's story.

Last year Wright helped produce Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, an animated re-adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novels -- which Wright first adapted in 2010's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World -- starring the voices of his film's entire live-action cast. Meanwhile, his most recent films include the 2021 documentary The Sparks Brothers and the psychological thriller Last Night in Soho.

Shaun of the Dead is currently available to rent/buy on Prime Video.

Source: IndieWire