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Edgar Wright says he’s not interested in doing a direct Shaun of the Dead sequel, at least not right now, because of the time commitment and difficulty returning to the same material.
The writer, producer and director — who reteamed with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost for Hot Fuzz and The World’s End — says that he hasn’t returned to the horror-comedy genre in general because he creatively covered everything he wanted to with Shaun of the Dead.
“I haven’t gone back to horror-comedy because with Shaun of the Dead, I felt like I had said much of what I wanted to say with that movie. It’s difficult to return to that, even as a producer,” he explained to SFX Magazine in a recent interview.
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While Wright did buddy-cop action comedy Hot Fuzz and science-fiction comedy The World’s End — two more installments in his Cornetto Trilogy with fellow writer Pegg and star Frost — he notes that he hasn’t pursued a direct follow-up to his beloved horror-comedy because he finds it “difficult” to return to that territory.
“Sometimes I get sent films — people want to make the next Shaun and want me to come aboard as a producer. But I find it difficult to cover the same territory again.”
But it’s not just retreading old narrative ground that’s stopping the Last Night in Soho writer-director from adding another chapter to his Shaun of the Dead story. It’s also the time commitment that filmmaking requires. Wright says the years it takes to make a movie requires one to “really love” doing it.
“The thing is that films take so long to make. I think that’s the thing that fans don’t quite understand sometimes,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘Why don’t you knock out a Shaun sequel?’ It’s like, these films take three years to make, you’ve got to really, really love it to do it.”
Because of that commitment, Wright says he’d prefer to spend his time challenging himself with new and different kinds of material. “Because films take longer to make, trying to challenge yourself with a different subject matter or something you haven’t done before, it’s always the real motivator,” concluded the filmmaker.
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