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A Chat With Spaced's Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, and Jessica Hynes

BuzzSugar — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 09:30:45 -0700

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.

Q: Was that also a reaction to the way most sitcoms are shot?

Edgar: Yeah, I think so. I think at the time, when we made the show there were some critics in the UK who assumed that we were trying to sort of burn down traditional sitcoms and that isn’t the case, because some traditionally-shot sitcoms are just fantastic. And it was around the time that Friends was huge, and in the UK there were two or three shows that were kind of trying to do a British Friends, so we wanted to go against that, really.

Jessica: [With] Friends. . . however real it is or funny it is, ultimately there's an aspirational quality to it in terms of the lead characters - the way they look, their world - there’s something slightly unreal about it. And I suppose that I would differentiate between the style of Friends as aspirational and would think of Spaced as sort of inspirational . . . It was important to have it reflect absolutely and intimately our world and experiences and our friends and ourselves. And to have that kind of authenticity it needed to be kind of grubby and sort of . . . real. Because that was our world.

Q: In terms of American TV, do you think there are comedic shows that get it right?

Edgar: Arrested Development did. For the two and a half seasons that it was on-air.

Simon: Arrested Development was just so . . .

Edgar: Fantastic.

Simon: It was depressingly good. Sometimes you watch something as a writer and you think, "Aw, what’s the point?" That show was like that.

Edgar: That was great. Larry Sanders, obviously that’s a bit further back, Curb Your Enthusiasm is really good.

Jessica: I always really liked Seinfeld as a sitcom, just in terms of quality of gags, and characters.

Edgar: And Seinfeld had a big influence, particularly on the second series of Spaced, actually the plotting of Seinfeld was very influential for us.

Simon: I love the American Office, I think it’s great. I love the way that they've taken that and they’ve made it their own.

Photo courtesy of Channel 4

Comic-Con Round-Up

BuzzSugar — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:30:05 -0700

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.

Friday night’s bawdy session about Zack and Miri Make a Porno was moderated by Kevin Smith and included Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Traci Lords, and several others. The clip from the movie was pretty funny, mostly because of Rogen’s mugging and sarcasm. He's clearly cut out for Kevin Smith's style of comedy. At the panel, Elizabeth Banks had a funny comment when asked about what it was like to play Laura Bush after doing Zack and Miri: "Playing Laura Bush, it’s really just like playing a porn star. Just the hair is different." Rogen followed up with, "She wouldn’t even have to change her name." Yipes!
At the Chuck panel, moderator Kristin Dos Santos tried to get Zachary Levi and Joshua Gomez to repeat their 2007 feat of demonstrating an, er, compromising sexual position for the audience. They wouldn't do it - but did agree to reenact the moment with hand puppets. (See gallery for the image.)
Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, and Jessica Hynes from Spaced were all over Comic-Con, doing interviews (stay tuned for mine!), panels, and signings to promote the US release of the complete series on DVD. They screened three beloved episodes on Friday night: "Art," "Epiphanies," and "Gone," the one with the finger gun fights. And, speaking of finger gun fights, they kicked off the screening with a gigantic one - Pegg speculated it was their biggest ever - with about 1,000 people participating.
Another smaller but still very cool moment of the trip came in the panel where several Disney artists showed how they created the storyboards for Bolt, the film about a TV superdog who thinks his powers are real. I'm still not sold on John Travolta as the voice of Bolt, but the drawings were adorable (see gallery) and the writing in the sequence we saw, in which some cats torture Bolt in his trailer, was totally clever.
The panel for It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was fun, but for some reason I thought it would be more so. One of the coolest parts was that Damon Lindelof, executive producer of Lost moderated the panel, and is apparently a huge fan of Always Sunny. Also, little trivia: Rob McElhenney ("Mac" on the show) once played an Other on Lost.
The final celebrity of my trip: Red Fraggle! She made a special appearance at Sunday's Fraggle Rock DVD panel to lead the crowd in a sing-along of "The Beatle Song" and a recitation of the Solemn Fraggle Oath ("weeba weeba, woppa woppa, garpox gumbidge, whoopee!"). It should be noted that the vast majority of the crowd was not, in fact, parents with children but folks in their mid-20s, gloriously reliving their childhood. (The hand claps on the first runthrough of the Fraggle Rock theme were completely spontaneous and perfectly in sync.)

View 26 Photos ›

TV Today: Get Spaced on BBC America

BuzzSugar — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:00:30 -0700

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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Link Time! 5/6

BuzzSugar — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:30:45 -0700

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.

Buzz News Roundup, 3/28

BuzzSugar — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:32:50 -0700

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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Good: Spaced Is Coming to DVD! Bad: American Version Still Excludes Simon Pegg

BuzzSugar — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:30:18 -0800

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.

He recently posted on his website, Peggster.net:

My main problem with the notion of a Spaced remake is the sheer lack of respect that Granada/ Wonderland/Warner Bros have displayed in respectively selling out and appropriating our ideas without even letting us know. . . It is this flagrant snub and effective vote of no confidence in the very people that created the show, that has caused such affront at our end. If they don't care about the integrity of the original, why call it Spaced? Why attempt to find some validation by including mine and Edgar's names in the press release as if we were involved?

Frustrating, indeed. At least the U.S. version of The Office has included Ricky Gervais from the start. Do you think an American Spaced has a chance of survival without Pegg's involvement?

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Fox to Make American Version of Spaced

BuzzSugar — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:28:24 -0700

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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Arcade Fingerless Gloves: Totally Geeky or Geek Chic?

GeekSugar — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:44:57 -0800

This is one pair of gloves I wouldn't call practical - but they're kind of cute. Though they won't keep your fingers warm in the Winter chill, the Snow Day Arcade Fingerless Gloves ($16) will keep your fingers free for texting and, presumably, video-game playing.

The gloves (hmm. . . can I call them gloves if they don't have fingers?) feature vintage video-game designs, like this Space Invaders-themed pair. They're cute, but are they cute enough to make up for cold fingers? What do you think?

Watch Hit TV Shows On MySpace

GeekSugar — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:02:03 -0700

Networks like The CW and NBC are trying to tap into highly trafficked social networking sites like MySpace by offering video streams of popular TV shows. According Broadcasting & Cable, when The CW promoted America's Next Top Model on MySpace, their season-premiere ratings increased 36 percent among teens compared to its 2005 debut.

With over 61.5 unique visitors in January and even more in February, MySpace has become one of the best places for networks to showcase their goods.

MySpace also plans to launch a service where users can stream or 'host' shows on their MySpace page. As well, starting this summer NBC Universal and News Corp. will be launching a site with MySpace being their primary source for distributing TV and videos. Great - even more reasons to stay glued to my laptop!

Seth Rogen Talks Monsters, Aliens, and Halloween

BuzzSugar — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:30:00 -0700

Tonight, NBC is airing a Halloween-themed follow up to last Summer's animated hit Monsters Vs. Aliens, Monsters Vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space. Seth Rogen, who voices the gelatinous jokester B.O.B. in the half-hour special, chatted on the phone with a few reporters about reprising his role. He talked animated films, Halloween, and even a little bit of the upcoming adaptation of The Green Hornet that he's currently filming with Michel Gondry.

On why he enjoys voicing B.O.B.: I enjoy it because, I mean, this is the stupidest answer - I enjoy it because it's fun. The character is funny and the directors are cool and the story is funny; to me it's like a very fun format to kind of improvise, and try to discover a character in a different way than physically doing it, you know. You've got to do it all with your voice, and I really enjoy that.
On dressing up for Halloween: I have a girlfriend now and I've entered the unfortunate world of paired costuming. It's not fun. I don’t recommend it. I always end up being the lamer half - it's like she's a dog and I'm a fire hydrant or something like that. It's never fun. So maybe I'm dodging a bullet this year.

To hear what Rogen said about The Green Hornet and what he loves about Halloween TV, just read more.

On his Halloween TV faves: I always liked The Simpsons' Halloween specials, personally. They were always amazing. I always looked forward to that on Halloween. And I watched TGIF sitcoms growing up because I was a nerd and had nothing to do on Friday nights, and whenever the sitcoms would do their Halloween episode, I always enjoyed that for some reason. That always spawned some good comedy.
On the pressure of making The Green Hornet: I will blame Gondry if it sucks. No, I'm just joking. No, we are all in it, you know. I will say, I take a huge amount of the pressure. I understand that. I understand that. I understand that it's my face on it, you know, when it literally comes out even if it sucks for another reason, people will blame me and that's why I have to be so involved - to try to make sure that it doesn't suck. But there's a lot of pressure. I understand that. I've been talking about this movie for years, and if it sucks, then no one will be more disappointed than me, believe me.
On improvising as a voice actor: You can actually improvise a lot as a voice actor. I mean, real people I think don't - and I didn't - understand how animation works really. The time consuming part is really creating the characters and the sets and the worlds. And aside from that it's not that entirely different than shooting a live action movie; the characters mouths are quite easy to manipulate once all the information is built into the computer. So you can improvise a lot and it doesn't matter really how far along they are in the process; they can just make the character say something different. Almost more than in a live action movie because of how slow the process is.
On whether he'll do more voice acting in the future: I really enjoy it and I mean, I've always been a fan of animation - yes, I would like to.