Spaced

Hands down, one of the highlights of my Comic-Con experience was getting to meet Simon Pegg and his Spaced cohorts, despite the brevity of our interaction. I sat down for a quick roundtable interview with Pegg and his costar on Spaced, Jessica Hynes, along with Edgar Wright, Pegg's frequent partner in crime (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) and the director of Spaced.

In the British comedy, Pegg and Hynes play Tim and Daisy, who rent a flat in London under the pretense that they are a couple. The show is filled with pop culture references and surreal experiences, and if you haven't already, you ought to get ahold of the newly available Spaced DVDs. For now, check out some of the highlights from our chat.

Q: There are a lot of horror references in Spaced. How did that come about?

Edgar Wright: I think that really is my default setting of shooting everything like it was a horror film, for no apparent reason. I mean, there were definitely a lot of references in the script already, particularly to The Shining . . . The whole style of the show is very stylized and sort of kinetic because the characters are so drenched in pop culture, it’s almost like, if they ever had to describe their mundane lives, this [a horror movie] is what it would look like. So it’s almost like, you’re watching them recount their lives, rather than the actuality.

Simon Pegg: Yeah, 'cause they’re like, "I went to work in a kitchen and it was like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest." Or, "I walked into the room that time and it was like the f---ing Evil Dead," you know? And that’s what you actually see. All three of us love the idea of taking very mundane things and turning them into slightly more grand, cinematic things. Which we took forward into Shaun of the Dead as well after having learned that on Spaced. Jess and I certainly wanted to have this world that was defined by popular culture, shaped by it.

The trio expounds on this and other things (like their intense admiration of Arrested Development), so read more

I've been reporting from Comic-Con these past few days, but here's a hodgepodge of random extra bits and pieces from my weekend.

• There was a panel I basically happened to attend by accident, which ended up being for this spooky-looking movie The Wolf Man, due in theaters April 3, 2009. Then, to everyone's surprise, the stars of the film, Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt, came onstage to talk about it. I'll post the trailer soon, so more on the movie itself later, but for now, how cute is this picture?!
• The writers of The Office spoke to a packed house on Saturday, and while the 11 people on the panel (12 if you count moderator Rainn Wilson) felt like a few too many, there were plenty of funny moments, especially from BJ Novak, Michael Schur, and Mindy Kaling. I particularly liked this part of Novak's answer about why he likes writing for Michael Scott: "It's so interesting to see someone with authority be so innocent and so wrong."
• Also a winner from that panel: Schur's description of how Dwight would act in the event of an actual robot invasion. "He would cross his arms in the middle of the street as the robots marched down the street, shaking his head and saying 'I told you so!'"
• Yeah, the Heroes screening and Hugh Jackman appearance were cool — but one of my other favorite panels of the weekend was much, much smaller. On Friday, I got to hear some of the original voice actors from the classic Peanuts specials talk about what it was like to put together shows like A Charlie Brown Christmas and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown. Several of the specials will be out on remastered, special-feature-laden DVDs this Fall, and I can't wait! Eventually, they're hoping to bring all the specials (more than 40 of them!) to DVD.
• Also, some of the best trivia of the whole weekend came out of that panel: Did you know Fergie was once the voice of Charlie Brown's little sister, Sally? (For more Peanuts trivia, check out today's Brainteaser!)

To find out Seth Rogen's latest dirty comment and to see Zachary Levi's hand in a compromising position, read more

For all you folks who are huge fans of the Simon Pegg-Jessica Hynes comedy Spaced, you've probably already ordered or put at the top of your Netflix queue the new series DVDs, which are releasing this upcoming Tuesday, July 22. For everyone else, BBC America is awesomely running marathons of the show today, starting at 3:00 p.m. EST.

According to EW, those of you holding out for the DVDs will certainly not be disappointed, as they feature "uber-geeky, super-amusing, very informative commentary by Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Matt Stone, Bill Hader, Patton Oswalt, Diablo Cody, and of course show creators-stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes, and director Edgar Wright."

In the meantime, I'm going to make my TiVo work overtime today with both this marathon and the Mad Men one. Yippee!

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• Pop Candy has news on a fully Veronica Mars-themed cruise this Summer!
• Right after the premiere of the Twilight teaser trailer, MTV Movies Blog has the new poster for the movie and an interview with the poster's designer who already knows what he'll do for the posters for the Twilight sequels.
• This Cinematical writer wants more superheroines on the big screen — with directors like Jon Favreau or Bryan Singer making their stories come to life.
• TV Squad is all happy about the people providing commentary on the forthcoming Spaced DVD, including Diablo Cody and Kevin Smith.
• FilmExperience examines what happened to the nine actors who were featured in the 2000 Young Hollywood Vanity Fair article.
• Rolling Stone's Rock&Roll Daily has video of the 15 most memorable musical moments from The Hills. Remember what was playing when LC and Heidi called it quits?
• Popwatch is taking nominations to elect the characters on TV that have the best chemistry.
• The TV Addict has an interview with Gossip Girl's Matthew Settle.
• Stereogum gives the new Wolf Parade album a premature evaluation, calling it "great rock & roll."
• TV Worth Watching is not pleased with the threatening tone of the "you'll miss them while they're gone" TV ads on CBS.

• Mariah Carey is on track for her 18th No. 1 single with "Touch My Body," Billboard reports.
• Tobey Maguire is gearing up to produce and star in an adaptation of the comic book Afterburn, ComingSoon reports.
• It's a busy day for pilot casting, including the news that Sara Rue will play the female lead in the adaptation of Spaced for Fox, writes HollywoodReporter.
• The finale of America's Best Dance Crew on MTV got 38 million votes to decide the winner, Zap2it reports.
• HBO will launch a Friday night comedy lineup in June, including an animated series called The Life and Times of Tim and the Australian series Summer Heights High, writes TV Week.




• Variety confirms that Ratatouille is the "kids' pick" of last year's movies, while The Golden Compass received the "Ick" award.
• According to ComingSoon, Will Arnett will join Kristen Bell in the Disney rom-com When in Rome.
• Netflix is issuing credits to members whose shipments were delayed by Monday's site outage, writes the Hollywood Reporter.
• Variety reports that Ice Cube will star alongside an as-yet-undetermined "big name rapper" in the movie Janky Promoters.

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There's good news and not-such-good news today as far as Simon Pegg and his British comedic series Spaced are concerned. Good news first: At long last, the Spaced DVDs will make their way to the U.S.! MTV Movies Blog learned from Pegg himself that the DVDs of the 14-episode series will be released here on July 23, 2008. Hooray!

As for the bad news, it looks like Fox is going to plow ahead with their Americanized version of Spaced — but without Simon Pegg or Edgar Wright's involvement. Pegg is none too pleased. Back in October, when the stench of this possible project wafted our way, many of you expressed your own outrage at the prospect of an American version of Spaced, especially one that didn't benefit from Pegg and Wright's creativity, or even their blessing. Now that the pilot is a sure thing, Pegg's indignation at not being consulted — but having his name used in press items about the Fox show — has only increased. To see what he's saying about it, read more

Fox will be rolling the dice on adapting the British series Spaced for American audiences. Spaced was a series that ran on Channel 4 for two seasons and sprung from the creative minds of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, the duo behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. The show follows a couple of strangers (played by Pegg and Jessica Hynes) who pretend to be married in order to rent an apartment.

The American version will be written by Will and Grace writer Adam Barr, but unlike The Office, for which Ricky Gervais is still a producer, neither Pegg nor Wright's name is anywhere to be found in this news.

Hopefully this will be as successful as The Office, but the cynic in me can't stop recalling that heinously neutered American version of Coupling that was on the air for a few disappointing minutes in 2003. I cringe at the idea of having another one of those on our hands. On the positive side, maybe this will finally get the complete series released on DVD in the US.

Any Spaced fans out there? What do you think of all this?

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