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Edgar, after Hot Fuzz you took a break and made Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Did you learn anything different to bring back to these films from that experience?

EW: We actually came up for the idea of this story on the Hot Fuzz press tour like six years ago. So we had the story worked out and I think that gap after the writing had us grow older, making us have more to say on the subject. I don’t think we would have written as good a screenplay as this six years ago, because now Simon’s over 40, I’m 39, I don’t think we would have said the same things six years ago. So hopefully in that case, it feels a little more mature, even amongst the head smashing and various other things (laughs).

Coming back to this was very nice, because we always had this really strong idea, but you just build up lots of personal experience. The great thing about making these movies is that as geeks, you got to make a zombie film, a cop film, and a sci-fi film. But on the comedy side of it, it’s really personal stuff and it’s really hopeful. Sometimes people say, “This one’s quite dark.” I wouldn’t use the word “dark”, but “honest.” I feel like a lot of American comedies are about the man-child of being a big kid forever. Never, ever scratch below the surface that much. With this, I think, if you set up some of these issues, you have to tackle them head on. As such, I think the comedy in this is more prickly and complicated than in the other two, which I think is a good thing.

After watching the film, I feel like you have done your fair research on pubs and drinking. The movie is set primarily in 12 different pubs so I was curious about how the 12 different designs came about and for you, what makes the perfect pub?

EW: We wrote the script and obviously “The World’s End” was always going to be the last one. They are all named after real bars. We wrote the story and then named the bars after things that happen in the scene. So they are all real bar names. Even “The Famous Cock” is a real pub in the UK around the corner from my house. As I discovered when we went to clear the names, it is the only one in the country (laughs).

NF: There are lots of cocks, but there is only one famous one (laughs).

EW: In terms of the design, as you see in the movie, one of the things we wanted to tackle which is happening a lot, is how chains are taking over pubs and they all start to look identical. So it’s something I find a slightly sad thing, is that so many pubs are in older buildings, they get this makeover, all of the signage looks the same, they have that fake, folksy, handwritten chalk that is supposed to look like someone did it that morning but it came straight from the factory. There are about ten bars around me in my neighborhood that I can walk to in ten minutes, but so many of them look exactly the same. … I wanted the quest to feel like it was becoming nightmarish, that you are going through these chambers or levels with each pub.

But my perfect pub would be an old fashioned one. There is one pub in the movie that we had to give a makeover to, to look like the others, but it was actually a nice pub and it still is, the fifth one they go to.

NF: For me, I have a problem going to pubs. Being relatively successful, I can’t go into them without people talking about you essentially and it’s fairly annoying. When they talk about you when you are on TV, it’s OK, but when they are right in front of you, and all you can hear, “THAT’S HIM! THAT’S HIM! IT’S A HOT FUZZY!” So a perfect pub to me is one with no one in it (laughs).

EW: You should do a Ray Winstone, and have a pub in your own house.

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