Hot Fuzz (2007)
- The most famous, quotable line in Hot Fuzz wasn't actually in the script; it was completely improvised by the actor on the third take.
- The studio almost pulled funding for Hot Fuzz midway through the shoot, convinced that the general audience wouldn't connect with the highly unconventional tone.
- Despite a very rocky opening weekend, Hot Fuzz went on to gross over 5x its initial budget thanks purely to incredible audience word-of-mouth.
Hot Fuzz is a 2007 British action comedy directed by Edgar Wright, the second installment in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy. Simon Pegg stars as Sergeant Nicholas Angel, London's most productive police officer, who is transferred to the sleepy village of Sandford in rural Gloucestershire because his exemplary record is making his colleagues look bad. Paired with the enthusiastic but dim Danny Butterman, played by Nick Frost, whose knowledge of police work comes entirely from action movies, Angel discovers that Sandford's suspiciously low crime rate conceals a dark secret.
Hot Fuzz was Edgar Wright's most tightly constructed and elaborately plotted film, functioning as both a loving homage to and sharp satire of Hollywood action films, particularly the buddy cop genre and the films of Michael Bay and Tony Scott. Every seemingly insignificant detail planted in the film's leisurely first half paid off during the explosive third act, which transformed the quiet village into a full-scale action movie battlefield. The film's massive ensemble of British character actors β including Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Paddy Considine, and a cameo from Cate Blanchett β brought an absurd commitment to the escalating lunacy.
Hot Fuzz earned $80 million worldwide on a $12 million budget.
