A geek goes to Hollywood: Simon Pegg charts his fantastic voyage in memoir ...
LONDON — A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away — the west of England in the 1970s — there lived a boy named Simon Pegg.
He loved zombies, "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "Star Wars," and dreamed of travelling far from his home to a remote and exotic world. Eventually, he got there: Hollywood.
The writer-actor behind geek-pleasing comedies "Shaun of the Dead," ''Hot Fuzz" and "Paul" — as well as portraying a young Scotty in the rebooted "Star Trek" film franchise — Pegg has come a long way from the provincial town of Gloucester, a journey he recounts in the memoir "Nerd Do Well," out this week.
The book offers a view of the movie industry from someone who is both an insider and an unabashed fan. It's also a journey through Pegg's formative influences, complete with digressions, flights of fantasy and strongly held opinions.
For Pegg, zombies are the greatest monsters ever, "Star Wars" a "childhood obsession" and a major creative influence — and George Lucas' lacklustre 1999 prequel "The Phantom Menace" a personal betrayal.
"I felt indignant," Pegg said, still nursing the sting more than a decade later. "I felt I'd put all that work in, spent all that money on merchandise, all the time and emotional investment — and it was crap. It's a terrible film, and I think it retroactively damaged the first three."
"Phantom Menace" is the only thing Pegg is negative about in a book that hints at emotional turbulence (his parents' divorce, a painful early romance), but charts an upbeat course through childhood, drama school and university. It also shares his stint as a struggling standup and his fortuitous meeting — at a suburban London Tex-Mex restaurant — with friend, collaborator and co-star Nick Frost.
The real-life episodes are interspersed with pulp fiction-style chapters from a spoof thriller involving a James Bond-type hero named Simon Pegg and his robot butler, Canterbury.
Such flights of fancy have been a feature of Pegg's work since "Spaced," a sitcom about an aspiring comic-book artist and a wannabe writer (Pegg and Jessica Hynes), and their odd array of friends and neighbours. It was an apartment-sharing comedy similar to "Friends," but more realistic and more fantastical, full of surreal flashbacks and dream sequences, and laced with pop-culture references.
Broadcast between 1999 and 2001, it set the template for what Pegg has done ever since — make audiences laugh while paying homage to the genres that inspired him: zombies ("Shaun of the Dead"); cop buddy flicks ("Hot Fuzz"); and aliens-among-us sci-fi ("Paul").
Voyage Of The Unicorn - News
Next, he plays a bumbling detective in "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" — directed by another childhood hero, Steven Spielberg. "Somewhere in me," Pegg admits, "there is a little kid leaping up and down going, 'I can't believe
Why are you wearing dark socks with flip-flops, plaid shorts, an airbrushed T-shirt featuring a unicorn and a fanny-pack? If you've been wondering about these queries, too, you're in the right place, because this week's cover story resurrects the
and voiced a swashbuckling mouse in "The Chronicles of Narnia: the Voyage of the Dawn Treader." Next, he plays a bumbling detective in "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" — directed by another childhood hero, Steven Spielberg.
The picture: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, opening Dec. 23 The threat: Unclear, but presumably involving a unicorn, a secret and, judging from the trailer, an ocean voyage. Best line from the trailer: “We can't turn back.
Set in the '60s “Moonchildren'' by Michael Weller kicks off the Berkshire Theatre Festival season at the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, with performances Tuesday through July 16. The play is a 1960s coming-of-age drama set in an unnamed college town,
Dragon's Pen: Voyage of the Unicorn
Back in elementary/middle school, there was a movie that I really liked called "Voyage of the Unicorn." It was a movie made for TV, so I don't think they ever released it on video/DVD. I just found my recording of it, so I watched it. Ya know, it is a little low-budget, but it's still a fun movie. ^-^ Brings back a lot of memories. I remembered a lot of the dialogue somehow.
Voyage Of The Unicorn - Bookshelf
Voyage of the Unicorn
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Voyage of the Unicorn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Voyage of the Unicorn is a 2001 television film starring Beau Bridges, Chantal Conlin and ... They partake of the quest that shows them the wonder of the mythological worlds: ...
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Directed by Philip Spink. With Beau Bridges, Chantal Conlin, Heather McEwen, Mackenzie Gray.
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Voyage of the Unicorn . Plot: Based on James C. Christensen's novel. Visit Answers.com for Cast, Crew, Reviews, Plot Summary.
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Voyage Of The Unicorn DVD movie video $6.55 in stock at CD Universe, A recently widowed antiquities professor Beau Bridges is having difficulties dealing with the.