| Three Flavours Cornetto | |
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 Official logo | |
| Directed by | Edgar Wright |
| Written by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring |
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Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
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| Language | English |
| Budget | Total (3 films): $38 million |
| Box office | Total (3 films): $156.7 million |
TheThree Flavours Cornettotrilogy (also sometimes referred to as theCornetto trilogy or theBlood and Ice Cream trilogy)[1][2] is ananthology series of Britishcomedicgenre films directed byEdgar Wright, written by Wright andSimon Pegg, and produced byNira Park. The series stars Pegg andNick Frost, with several other actors, includingBill Nighy,Rafe Spall andMartin Freeman, also appearing in all three films. The trilogy consists ofShaun of the Dead (2004),Hot Fuzz (2007), andThe World's End (2013).
The trilogy of films does not share a storyline, and is named after its repeated passing references toCornetto ice cream cones. Produced on a combined budget of $38 million, the films grossed $156 million worldwide and garnered critical praise.[3][4][5] In addition to brief references to the Cornetto ice cream brand, the films’ plots have other common elements: each depictsromance and struggles with maturity.
The name is also a reference to the FrenchThree Colours trilogy (1993–1994) by directorKrzysztof Kieślowski.
| Film | Cornetto Flavour | UK release date | U.S. release date | Director | Screenwriter(s) | Producer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shaun of the Dead | Strawberry | 9 April 2004 | 24 September 2004 | Edgar Wright | Edgar Wright andSimon Pegg | Nira Park |
| Hot Fuzz | Classico | 16 February 2007 | 20 April 2007 | Nira Park,Tim Bevan andEric Fellner | ||
| The World's End | Mint | 19 July 2013 | 23 August 2013 |
The first film isShaun of the Dead, a 2004romanticzombie comedy film (self-dubbed "rom-zom-com"[6]). Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to gain focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather in the midst of anapocalyptic uprising of zombies.[7]
The trilogy'sCornetto reference begins with a scene in which Shaun buys a cone for his friend Ed (Frost) at his request as Ed wakes up groggy and badly hungover after a night of drinking. Director Edgar Wright has said that he used to use Cornettos as a hangover cure.[8]
The second entry isHot Fuzz, a 2007buddy copaction comedy. Pegg and Frost play police officers who investigate a series of mysterious deaths in a small English village; Danny Butterman (Frost) grew up there and Nicholas Angel (Pegg) is an outsider, accustomed to the fast-paced busy life of London law enforcement. The two officers purchase Cornetto cones at a corner shop at various times, and a scrap of the wrapper falls onto the counter when Angel later makes other purchases at a motorway service station.
The third installment isThe World's End, a 2013science fictionapocalypticcomedy. The film follows a group of friends, led by Pegg, reattempting an epicpub crawl of their youth and discovering an alien occupation of their home town. In the final scene of the film, a Cornetto wrapper blows past in a breeze, briefly catching on a wire fence.
Wright said in an interview forEntertainment Weekly, "We thought it would be a funny idea to do a sci-fi film where even the people who are going to be your saviours arehammered."[9]
The name originates from a "silly joke" during the promotion ofHot Fuzz.[10] Wright had written inCornetto ice cream as a hangover cure for Frost's character inShaun of the Dead, based on his own experiences. At the after party for the film, they received free Cornetto ice creams so Wright and Pegg decided to include another reference to Cornetto in their next film in a failed attempt to get more free ice cream.[11] InHot Fuzz, Wright included a couple of brief throwaway scenes that referred to the Cornetto joke inShaun. On the promotional tour ofHot Fuzz during production ofThe World's End, one interviewer pointed out the use of Cornetto in the first two films, and Wright jokingly said that they represent a trilogy comparable toKrzysztof Kieślowski'sThree Colours film trilogy.[12][9][13]
Wright seriously considered the three films as a trilogy, and wroteThe World's End to complete themes set out in the earlier films, adding a Cornetto reference to the film. Each film in the trilogy is connected to a specific Cornetto flavour appearing in each film.[2][14]Shaun of the Dead features a red strawberry-flavoured Cornetto, which signifies the film's bloody and gory elements,[15]Hot Fuzz includes the blue original Cornetto, to signify the police element to the film,[16] andThe World's End features the greenmint chocolate chip flavour (though shown only by a wrapper caught in the wind) representing "little green men" and science fiction.[17] According to Wright,Wall's, manufacturer of the Cornetto, was "very pleased with the namecheck".[18]
Wright considered each of the films a "Trojan horse", "genre films that have a relationship comedy smuggled inside a zombie movie, a cop movie and a sci-fi movie".[10] Thematically, Wright saw each of the films containing common themes of "the individuals in a collective [...] about growing up and [...] about the dangers of perpetual adolescence".[10] Wright reworked the script ofThe World's End to conclude on these themes.[10] The films are further linked by a common set of actors. Wright, Park, Pegg, and Frost collaborated previously in the TV seriesSpaced from 1999 to 2001.Martin Freeman,Bill Nighy,Rafe Spall,Julia Deakin,Patricia Franklin, andGarth Jennings appear in each of the films as well as other projects by Wright and Pegg. Clark Collis observes inEntertainment Weekly that the films also feature "a running gag involving garden fences".[9]
DiscussingThe World's End, Wright said that any actor who appeared in the first two films would also appear in the third, adding, "We even got back Nicola Cunningham, who played Mary the zombie inShaun of the Dead. And Mark Donovan, so the first two zombies fromShaun of the Dead are in this. The twins are in it."[19]
| Actor | Film | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Shaun of the Dead | Hot Fuzz | The World's End | |
| Simon Pegg | Shaun | Sgt Nicholas Angel | Gary King |
| Nick Frost | Ed | PC Danny Butterman | Andy Knightley |
| Julia Deakin | Mother of Yvonne | Mary Porter | B&B Landlady |
| Martin Freeman | Declan | Met Sgt. | Oliver Chamberlain |
| Bill Nighy | Philip | Met Chief Inspector | The Network (voice) |
| Rafe Spall | Noel | DC Andy Cartwright | Young Man |
| Patricia Franklin | Spinster | Annette Roper | Upstairs Beehive Lady |
| Garth Jennings | 'Fun Dead' Zombie | Crack Addict | Man in Pub No. 5 |
| Reece Shearsmith | Mark | Collaborator | |
| Michael Smiley | Tyres | Rev. Green | |
| Nicola Cunningham | Mary | Patient | |
| David Bradley | Arthur Webley | Basil | |
| Paddy Considine | DS Andy Wainwright | Steven Prince | |
| Alice Lowe | Tina | House Buyer | |
| Film | UK release date | Box office gross | Budget | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | U.S. and Canada | Other | Worldwide | |||
| Shaun of the Dead | 9 April 2004 | $12,349,489 | $13,542,874 | $4,147,029 | $30,039,392 | $6 million[20] |
| Hot Fuzz | 16 February 2007 | $41,212,142 | $23,637,265 | $15,724,367 | $80,573,774 | $12 million[21] |
| The World's End | 19 July 2013 | $13,354,358 | $26,004,851 | $6,730,078 | $46,089,287 | $20 million[22] |
| Total | $66,915,989 | $63,184,990 | $26,601,474 | $156,702,453 | $38 million[23] | |
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|
| Shaun of the Dead | 92% (7.77 average rating) (208 reviews)[3] | 76 (34 reviews)[24] |
| Hot Fuzz | 91% (7.65 average rating) (203 reviews)[4] | 81 (37 reviews)[25] |
| The World's End | 89% (7.43 average rating) (235 reviews)[5] | 81 (45 reviews)[26] |
