Hot Fuzz: Edgar Wright interview

The director of Hot Fuzz on his love of editing and shooting in his hometown of Wells.

Edgar Wright has come a long way since making his feature debut with the 1994 no-budget West Country western spoof A Fistful Of Fingers. Well, maybe not that far. Wright's third feature, Hot Fuzz (following Fingers and 2004's Shaun Of The Dead), is a riotous cop comedy set in Somerset and filmed on location in his hometown of Wells. It's a triumphant homecoming for the fresh-faced 32-year-old, who had a far-from-mispent youth making numerous amateur movies (including a cop/buddy pic, Dead Right, and the wonderfully titled Rolf Harris Saves The World).

Most critics seem to concur that Hot Fuzz lives up to the excellent standards Wright and co-writer/actor Simon Pegg set in two series of Channel 4 sitcom Spaced and their zombie rom-com. Where Shaun Of The Dead riffed off the horror genre, Hot Fuzz is in many ways a 120-minute homage to the career of Tony Scott (Wright is perhaps the only person in the world to have something good to say about Scott's 2005 Keira Knightley flop Domino), relocating straight cop Pegg into a rustic hole called Sandford. In the video Wright talks about shooting in his hometown, the joys of editing, and taking the Tony Scott approach to police procedurals.

Hot Fuzz is released in UK cinemas on Wednesday 14th February 2007.

Adrian Hennigan | Published 14 February 07