“No luck catching them swans then…”
Released in cinemas on 16 February 2007, Hot Fuzz quickly became a fan favourite for all lovers of the action genre, in much the same way Shaun of the Dead did with horror three years earlier.
Director Edgar Wright once again teamed up with star Simon Pegg to co-write the script (as they would once again do with The World’s End in 2013), with Nick Frost also returning as Pegg’s on-screen partner.
To celebrate the movie’s anniversary, we’ve put together this list of 15 things you may not have known about Hot Fuzz, starting with…
1. This is two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett, playing Nicholas’ recent ex.
2. Nick Frost said he would only play the role if he was allowed to choose the character’s name. Which is how we got Danny Butterman.
3. For the movie’s world premiere in London, they used blue carpets instead of the usual red.
4. Throughout the movie, Nicholas constantly tells other police officers to keep their notebooks on them at all times. The one time Nicholas doesn’t have his on him, he goes out to his car to collect it, allowing the murderer to kill Leslie.
5. In an earlier draft of the script, Nicholas had a love interest named Victoria. In subsequent drafts, Victoria was written out, but a lot of her dialogue was given to Danny, usually with zero changes made.
6. In the same DVD basket where Danny finds Supercop, there is another DVD titled Zombies Party, which is what Shaun of the Dead was titled in some countries. The price tag covers Simon Pegg’s face to help stop completely breaking the fourth wall.
7. Wright explained that he “wanted to make a title that really had very little meaning… like Lethal Weapon and Point Break and Executive Decision.” The movie was originally titled Hott Fuzz, but Pegg asked him to change, knowing he’d have to explain the extra T in every press interview around the movie’s release.
8. In one scene, Nicholas and Danny are asked if they’ve found the killers yet. Right behind them is a poster for the album Hot Fuss by The Killers.
9. During the castle scene, Joyce says “Janice Barker has decided to name her twins Roger and Martin.” This is a reference to Lethal Weapon characters Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs. They were likely delivered by Dr. Hatcher, played by Stuart Wilson, who was the big baddie in Lethal Weapon 3.
10. This is the second entry in Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, with Nicholas and Danny seen eating a Vanilla Cornetto. That flavour comes in a blue wrapper (to match the colour associated with the police), while they ate a Strawberry Cornetto in Shaun of the Dead (red/blood/horror) and a Mint Cornetto in The World’s End (green/aliens/sci-fi).
11. Edward Woodward plays one of the small town conspirators in Hot Fuzz (before ultimately being blown up by a sea mine). His most famous role is as a police officer in The Wicker Man, investigating possible murders and missing people in the middle of a small town conspiracy.
12. Bill Bailey plays two different characters, both named Sergeant Turner, in the same police station, with one reading a novel by Iain Banks, and the other reading books by Iain M. Banks. All of the books are actually written by the same author, with Banks using M. for his sci-fi stories. One of the books in the movie, titled Complicity, is about a series of cruel but “fitting” murders.
13. The two Andy’s mention that every farmer and his mother have guns in Sanford. Later in the movie, the first two people to shoot at Nicholas and Danny are a farmer and his mother.
14. This is three-time Academy Award winning Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings), stabbing Nicholas through the hand. He isn’t the only director who appears in the movie, with both Joe Cornish (Attack The Block) and Garth Jennings (Sing) also appearing in background roles.
15. If this list has put you in the mood for a rewatch, Hot Fuzz is available to watch on Netflix right now.
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