In 1999, Channel Four broadcast the first series of Spaced, a brilliant sitcom about slacker twenty-somethings which was to gain critical acclaim, stacks of awards, and an international cult following. The director was Edgar Wright, the co-writer and star was Simon Pegg, the producer was Nira Park.
An early episode featured Simon Pegg’s character trapped in the game ‘Resident Evil 2’, and fighting off zombies. Both Simon and Edgar, already big fans of the zombie genre, enjoyed themselves so much, they concluded they should make a full-length zombie feature film. Soon after they began discussing ideas for what would become SHAUN OF THE DEAD.
Simon explains: “What we wanted to do was make a zombie comedy that was funny in terms of the characters and the dialogue but stayed true to the horror aspect. We were very keen to make the film scary in places, genuinely frightening.”
In 2001, the idea was pitched to Film Four. They loved it and commissioned the script. When the company collapsed in summer 2002, producer Nira swiftly sought a new financing and producing partner and in January 2003 found one in Working Title. Ten weeks later SHAUN OF THE DEAD was in pre-production.