Simon Pegg and director Greg Mottola recently held a press dinner to discuss the Blu-ray and DVD release of their fantastic comedy Paul, which will hit the shelves on August 9. Simon Pegg also shed some light on a few of his other high-profile projects, such as Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, where he reprises his role of Benji Dunn from Mission: Impossible III. While he had a fairly small role in Mission: Impossible III, his role seems to be expanded in Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.
"I get on really well with
J.J. (Abrams) and we'd always said if there was another Mission: Impossible, can Benji come back? It'd be fun for Benji to come back. I had two days on
Mission: Impossible III. That was it. I did seven months on the fourth one so yeah, I go back."
Back in November, there was also talk that Jeremy Renner may take over the Mission: Impossible franchise for Tom Cruise after this new movie. However, Simon Pegg doesn't necessarily believe that to be the case.
"It has been bandied around. Looking at the film as it is, I don't think so. It's anyone's guess really. It certainly sets up a new IMF agent who can return and who is an Ethan level player. We'll see. I honestly don't know. It's one of those things that there's a lot of life in that story because it is a kind of Bond thing that you can just have iterations of different adventures and different teams and stuff. I can't say really. I don't want to give anything away. It's another
Mission: Impossible but it's an evolution I think."
Last week, we reported that Simon Pegg and director Edgar Wright want to start writing The World's End, the last movie in their "Three Flavors Cornetto" series, before Star Trek 2 starts shooting. Simon Pegg reiterated this plan at the event, and believes they can write more efficiently now.
"One thing
Edgar and I have discussed, we've been away for a weekend and got things going, is that we're not going to just do what we've done before. Even though we want this film to be like
Shaun of the Dead times
Hot Fuzz, we're not the genre guys. We didn't set out to do zombie movies, we just wanted to make a zombie movie, and we wanted to make it in light of the fact that most British films were romantic comedies. We thought it would be funny to make a zombie movie and a romantic comedy and a zombie movie at the same time. I think people want to figure us out and they want to know who we are. That's not it. So we're not going to do okay, let's do cowboys next. What
Edgar and I are trying to do is fit in some writing time before I start
Star Trek. We'd like to be able to sit down long enough to be able to maybe even get a draft out even. Because I think this time we'll be able to hit the ground running. We've written two films together. We procrastinated a lot on
Shaun of the Dead and
Hot Fuzz. We watched a lot of films. We luxuriated slightly. I think with this one, because we're match fit, I think we can do a little bit more and write as good a script but do it slightly more efficiently."
Although they haven't started writing yet, Simon Pegg does have the story all mapped out for The World's End. However, he would not share any plot points with this dinner party.
Simon Pegg also talked a bit about The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn and working with Steven Spielberg.
"Yes, because you can feel his DNA in the way that it moves. I've seen some of it. Motion capture is more like directing live action because you are dealing with a 3D environment. You're moving the camera around a 3D environment, but that 3D environment is digital. It's not real. All the way that the camera moves, it's
Steven and you definitely feel that."
Simon Pegg also said he would be interested in making a sequel to Paul, if they could come up with the right story.
"The reason I would make a sequel to
Paul, and I'm sure
Greg would probably agree, is because, ultimately, I don't do my job for anybody but myself. The product of what I do is important, but the making
Paul was so much fun. I got to work with some amazing people, in an amazing place, and we had an amazing three months. It was life-changing, and I'd love to do that again. If we could think of a story that was absolutely justifiable, that was worth doing, I would do it again, but for that reason, so I could have that experience again and enjoy working with people, the camaraderie and the friendship. People often forget that there is a process that exists in filmmaking. It's not just the product, there is the process of making a film, which is incredibly enjoyable. The product is the result of that, which everybody sees, but it's not always why you do it. There is also the product of that, which is fame, which is really why you don't do it. The chance to work with those people again would be wonderful.
Nick (Frost) and I have this idea that we had out on the way to Area 51 that was really funny. It was like oh, this could be great. It would cost an absolute fucking fortune. If it involved more than one
Paul, it would mean that we'd have to have twice that budget again. The idea was it was called Pauls. Again, it was like From Dusk Til Shaun, that title is so good we have to make that film."
Stay tuned for our entire piece on this amazing dinner with Simon Pegg and director Greg Mottola for Paul, which hits the shelves on Blu-ray and DVD on August 9.
Paul was released March 18th, 2011 and stars Mia Stallard, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jeremy Owen, Jeffrey Tambor, David House, Jennifer Granger, Nelson Ascencio. The film is directed by Greg Mottola.
Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol comes to theaters December 16th, 2011 and stars Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Jeremy Renner, Josh Holloway, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Vladimir Mashkov, Michael Nyqvist. The film is directed by Brad Bird.
The World's End comes to theaters in 2012.
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