Three Flavours Cornetto
Official film series logo
Directed byEdgar Wright
Written by
Produced by
Starring
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
2004–2013
CountriesUnited Kingdom
United States
France (SOTD, HF)
Japan (TWE)
LanguageEnglish
BudgetTotal (3 films):
$38 million
Box officeTotal (3 films):
$156.7 million

The Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (also sometimes referred to as the Cornetto trilogy or the Blood and Ice Cream trilogy)[1][2] is an anthology series of British comedic genre films directed by Edgar Wright, written by Wright and Simon Pegg, and produced by Nira Park. The series stars Pegg, Nick Frost, and Bill Nighy, with several other actors, including Rafe Spall and Martin Freeman, also appearing in all three films. The trilogy consists of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013).

The trilogy of films does not share a storyline, and is named after its repeated passing references to Cornetto 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 depicts romance and struggles with maturity.

The name is also a reference to the French Three Colours trilogy (1993–1994) by director Krzysztof Kieślowski.

Films

Film Cornetto Flavour UK release date Director Screenwriter(s) Producer(s)
Shaun of the Dead Strawberry 9 April 2004 Edgar Wright Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg Nira Park
Hot Fuzz Classico 16 February 2007 Nira Park, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner
The World's End Mint 19 July 2013

Shaun of the Dead

The first film is Shaun of the Dead, a 2004 romantic zombie 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 an apocalyptic uprising of zombies.[7]

The trilogy's Cornetto 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 hung over after a night of drinking. Director Edgar Wright has said that he used to use Cornettos as a hangover cure.[8]

Hot Fuzz

The second entry is Hot Fuzz, a 2007 buddy cop action 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 convenience store 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 World's End

The third installment is The World's End, a 2013 science fiction apocalyptic comedy. The film follows a group of friends, led by Pegg, reattempting an epic pub 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 for Entertainment 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 are hammered."[9]

Connections and themes

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con

The name originates from a "silly joke" during the promotion of Hot Fuzz.[10] Wright had written in Cornetto ice cream as a hangover cure for Frost's character in Shaun 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] In Hot Fuzz, Wright included a couple of brief throwaway scenes that referred to the Cornetto joke in Shaun. On the promotional tour of Hot Fuzz during production of The 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 to Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colours film trilogy.[12][9][13]

Wright seriously considered the three films as a trilogy, and wrote The 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 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] and The World's End features the green mint 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 of The 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 series Spaced from 1999 to 2001. Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Rafe Spall, Julia Deakin, Patricia Franklin, and Garth Jennings appear in each of the films as well as other projects by Wright and Pegg. Clark Collis observes in Entertainment Weekly that the films also feature "a running gag involving garden fences".[9]

Recurring cast

Discussing The 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 in Shaun of the Dead. And Mark Donovan, so the first two zombies from Shaun 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

Reception

Box office

Film UK release date Box office gross Budget Ref(s)
United Kingdom U.S. and Canada Other territories 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]

Critical response

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]

References

  1. ↑ Edward Douglas (16 April 2007). "EXCL: The Guys of Hot Fuzz!". Archived from the original on 25 June 2008. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
  2. 1 2 "Hot Fuzz duo confirm third movie". BBC News. 3 April 2008. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 25 May 2009.
  3. 1 2 "Shaun of the Dead (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Archived from the original on 26 April 2007. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Hot Fuzz (2007)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Archived from the original on 30 August 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  5. 1 2 "The World's End (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Archived from the original on 19 January 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  6. ↑ Smith, Kerry L. (22 September 2004). "'Shaun Of The Dead': The World's First Rom-Zom-Com (Romantic Zombie Comedy)?". MTV News. Retrieved 22 December 2020.
  7. ↑ J.C. Maçek III (15 June 2012). "The Zombification Family Tree: Legacy of the Living Dead". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  8. ↑ The World's End - The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy on YouTube
  9. 1 2 3 Collis, Clark (30 August 2013). "3 Blokes. 3 Films. Many, Many Laughs". Entertainment Weekly. pp. 46–47. Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Howell, Peter (23 August 2013). "Edgar Wright: Crawling toward the apocalypse, and a sweet finish". The Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 19 August 2014.
  11. ↑ Edgar Wright [@edgarwright] (30 March 2019). "Also: at the after party they gave out free Strawberry Cornettos (as featured in the movie) so me and Simon contrived to mention Cornettos in the next one as a way of getting more free ice cream next time around... (we didn't)" (Tweet). Retrieved 3 April 2019 – via Twitter.
  12. ↑ Elisabeth Rappe (3 April 2008). "Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg going to The World's End". cinematical.com. Archived from the original on 13 May 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2009.
  13. ↑ "The World's End - The Origins of the Cornetto Trilogy". IGN. 23 June 2013. Archived from the original on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  14. ↑ "Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost Might Finally Finish Up Their Ice Cream Trilogy". I Watch Stuff. 12 December 2011. Archived from the original on 19 May 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
  15. ↑ Shaun of the Dead DVD commentary
  16. ↑ Hot Fuzz DVD commentary
  17. ↑ "World's End panel SDCC 2013". YouTube. Archived from the original on 24 July 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  18. ↑ Huddleston, Tom (9 July 2013). "Edgar Wright: 'I can't watch zombie movies'". Time Out. Archived from the original on 17 July 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  19. ↑ "13 Things We Learned on the Set of The World's End". IGN. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  20. ↑ "Shaun of the Dead (2004)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on 24 January 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  21. ↑ "Hot Fuzz (2007)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on 30 August 2017. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  22. ↑ "The World's End (2013)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  23. ↑ "Three Flavours Cornetto Movies at the Box Office". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Archived from the original on 9 July 2019. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  24. ↑ "Shaun of the Dead (2004)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 9 May 2019. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  25. ↑ "Hot Fuzz (2007)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 14 October 2017. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  26. ↑ "The World's End (2013)". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on 19 January 2018. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
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