Here Come Tha ‘Fuzz’!

This is to acknowledge that we at Collider are thrilled that Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are at last set to begin filming the cop thriller Hot Fuzz, which is, near as I can tell without paying attention to the press release, a complex and nuanced and altogether tawdry amalgamation of Lethal Weapon, Dirty Harry, Serpico, To Live and Die in L.A., Nighthawks, The Onion Field and 84 Charing Cross Road. It will be shot in IMAX 3-D with a fleet of seventeen brand new Panavision digital cameras built to Wright’s exacting specifications on a budget of $250 million. Principal photography is scheduled to run from March 2006 to May 2007, which accounts for three location changes (England, Belarus and Space) and a month-long production shutdown to allow the notoriously method-mad Pegg to gain 200 lbs., facial hair and a rash for the film’s third act. Upon completion of principal photography, Wright will plunge into a year-long postproduction process that will hopefully have the film ready for its planned in-competition premiere at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Following this, Wright, Pegg and Frost will undergo gender reassignment surgery and head to Broadway for a revival of Ed Graczyk’s Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.

I think this is all covered in the below press release, though it’s possible I got a few details wrong.

Working Title is delighted to announce its next production, Hot Fuzz, an action comedy from Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, co-creators of the hugely successful romzomcom, Shaun of the Dead.

A Working Title production in association with Big Talk Productions, Hot Fuzz is directed by Edgar Wright and stars Simon Pegg.

A comedy about a London cop who is seconded to deepest, darkest Somerset, the film is from an original screenplay by Wright and Pegg. Hot Fuzz will be produced by Nira Park (Shaun of the Dead), Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner and the executive producer is Natascha Wharton.

Pegg leads a stellar British cast including Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead), Jim Broadbent (Moulin Rouge), Timothy Dalton (The Living Daylights), Steve Coogan (A Cock and Bull Story) and Martin Freeman (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), Paddy Considine, Bill Bailey, Olivia Colman, Anne Reid, Rafe Spall, David Bradley, Stewart Wilson, Paul Freeman and Edward Woodward..

Says producer Nira Park, "We're delighted to once again be joining creative forces with Working Title on this very exciting and very British film. Together, we're looking forward to giving the police action genre the same treatment we gave the living dead in 2004."

Police constable, Nicholas Angel is good at his job, so good in fact, he makes everyone else look bad. As a result, his superiors at the Met have decided to sweep him under the carpet. So it is that London's top cop finds himself in the sleepy West Country village of Sandford. With garden fetes and neighbourhood watch meetings replacing the action of the city, Angel struggles to adapt to his situation and finds himself partnered with Danny Butterman (Frost), an oafish but well meaning young Constable, who dreams of being Mel Gibson. Just as all seems lost, a series of grisly accidents motivates Angel into action. Convinced of foul play, Angel realises that Sandford may not be as idyllic as it seems.