Beaks here...
I just concluded a fun little interview with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost pegged to the August 9th Blu-ray/DVD release of PAUL, and, wouldn't you know it, the third film in their "Three Flavors Cornetto" cycle came up! Pegg is, of course, well-practiced in the art of concealment, so nothing specific leaked, but he did address how they're dealing with fan expectation. He also mentioned that they hope to get a first draft written before the start of STAR TREK 2 (which is officially still in the scripting phase, so who knows how big that window will be?).
Here are Pegg's thoughts on THE WORLD'S END (which is still the working title)...
Mr. Beaks: How much do you consider your audience and what they expect from you. Is there a... I don't want to say "burden", but are there expectations you have to tend to?
Simon Pegg: Yeah, and I hope we sort of confound it in a way. I wouldn't want to become predictable or be the guys who do that. The next thing that we do will hopefully be... you know, in writing our new thing, Edgar and me have been very determined - that we're going to start in earnest very, very soon - to not just do the same thing again, to do something very different. Not to the point of alienating people who want something, but just give people something new and something different. You can't just stay where you are forever. You have to mutate to survive, and I think we're going to make sure that we do that. I'd hate to become stale and predictable. People are already making films that are kind of like the sort of thing we might do. I want to stay a little bit ahead of the curve at least.
Beaks: You said "very soon". Can you say how soon?
Pegg: We already started the conception process, so it's just a question of when we can get together. I'm just about to start shooting a movie here in the UK, so maybe between that and STAR TREK we might get a chance to bang out a first draft if we're lucky.
I also asked Nick Frost about the idea of playing Harry Mudd in STAR TREK 2 (as Simon suggested in this AV Club Austin interview). Though he said he's "happy watching STAR TREK as a fan", he did say he wouldn't turn it down. Something to consider, J.J...
