15 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Hot Fuzz Posted by IFC on November 10th

Even if you’re a huge fan of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s work with director Edgar Wright, you may not know these fun nuggets about their amazing buddy-cop comedy.

1. Ice cream inspired the film.

Hot Fuzz is the second chapter in the so-called “Cornetto Trilogy,” directed by Wright and named after the popular ice cream cone snack. The trilogy also features the director’s films Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End. Whereas Shaun represents the red strawberry flavored Cornetto and The World’s End is the green mint flavor, Hot Fuzz is the blue original flavor.



2. Simon Pegg’s character borrowed his name from a crew member.

Pegg’s character, Nicholas Angel, was named after the film’s music supervisor Nick Angel, who also worked on Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End.

3. Keep your eyes open for uncredited cameos.

There are plenty to spot. Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson appears as the deranged Santa Claus who stabs Nicholas Angel in the opening montage. Cate Blanchett plays Angel’s jilted ex-girlfriend Janine. Attack the Block director Joe Cornish plays her new boyfriend, Bob. Martin Freeman, Steve Coogan, and Bill Nighy (who also appeared in Shaun of the Dead) play the police inspectors who transfer Angel out of London, and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy director Garth Jennings plays a crack addict Angel busts in the opening montage.



4. Director Edgar Wright went home to shoot Hot Fuzz.

The film was shot in his hometown of Wells in Somerset.

5. But something is missing from the film’s version of Wells.

The Wells Cathedral—a 500-year-old medieval church at the center of the city—had to be digitally erased from shots because Wright wanted Sandford to technically be a village (an English settlement without a cathedral) and not a city (an English settlement based around a cathedral).

6. Wright was very familiar with the film’s supermarket.

As a teenager, Wright worked at the actual Somerfield that appears in the movie, and Wright’s real-life boss at the supermarket inspired the character of Simon Skinner.



7. Wright and Pegg put their moms to work.

Wright’s and Pegg’s mothers and Wright’s high school drama teacher play the befuddled judges for the village-of-the-year contest at the end of the film.

8. A great prop from Shaun of the Dead makes a cameo of its own.

The cricket bat from Shaun of the Dead is hidden in the background of the scene where Edward Woodward’s character is introduced to Nicholas Angel while doing surveillance of Sandford on a series of CCTV monitors.



9. There’s one other subtle Shaun cameo.

When Danny tosses a DVD copy of Supercop into a bin in the supermarket, a DVD copy of Shaun of the Dead can be seen next to it, but the cover uses the film’s Spanish and Portuguese title: Zombies Party.

10. The DVD collection in the film had a back story.

Danny Butterman’s massive DVD collection—including his prized copies of Point Break and Bad Boys II—is actually the DVD collections of Edgar Wright, his brother Oscar Wright, and fellow director Joe Cornish combined.

11. Those DVD clips took some work.

Every clip of Point Break and Bad Boys II used in Hot Fuzz had to be cleared by stars Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze, Martin Lawrence, and Will Smith … as well as their stunt doubles.



12. You can really visit the Crown Pub.

The scenes were shot in the Royal Standard in Beaconsfield.

13. There’s a trick for telling the twins apart.

The way to distinguish between the twin characters played by actor Bill Bailey involves looking at the books they read. One brother reads books by writer Iain Banks, while the other reads books by Banks’ very similar sci-fi nom de plume, Iain M. Banks.

14. Danny’s bloody flipbook illustrations have a pedigree.

They were drawn by Edgar Wright’s brother Oscar, a comic book artist.



15. Wright found a spot for his favorite band.

The music that plays over all of the paperwork processing scenes—which Wright humorously had edited together to seem like action scenes—is a song called “Here Come the Fuzz” by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Wright’s favorite band.