Celebrating The World's End

There were some very important guests at the Empire Leicester Square for the world premiere of The World’s End. No, we don’t mean the stars and the bigwigs from Universal, Working Title and Big Talk — we’re talking about Edgar Wright’s old drinking buddies.

When introducing the film, writer/director Wright noted that when he was 19-years-old he attempted an epic pub crawl in his hometown, much like the one in the film. He attempted 15 pubs but confessed that he “barely managed six of them.” His old mates from those days were in the audience for the premiere and he told them: “20 years later this is an apology, and a thank you for carrying me home.”

This final film is the now-christened Cornetto trilogy (also including Shaun of The Dead and Hot Fuzz) comes a decade after they shot Shaun. Producer Nira Park of Big Talk, hereafter to be known as the most glamorous producer in the UK, remembered that 10 years ago they were shooting a scene from Shaun at Ealing Studios and laughing through the hard work.

“Working Title supported us then and gave us the freedom… We’ve had the most amazing experience making these three films.” She went on to thank Wright and star Simon Pegg as “the best collaborators and my best friends.” Pegg also echoed her praise of collaborating with Working Title. He said of The World’s End: “We kept it very British. Thanks to Working Title for letting us make the film we wanted to make.”

Nick Frost got a laugh just by shouting the word ‘tits’ when he took to the stage, before he turned serious to confirm that - even though this trilogy is over - this filmmaking group still plan to work together in the future. He quoted Churchill: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

In addition to Pegg and Frost, other stars in attendance included Eddie Marsan, Paddy Considine, Rosamund Pike and Steve Oram.

DSTRKT hosted the after party, where sadly there were no pints of lager as seen in the film, but there were plenty of cocktails to make up for that. They included themed drinks named for the pubs in the film, such as The Beehive and The Good Companion. In a nod to the film’s soundtrack, the DJ played retro gems from the likes of The Farm and The Mock Turtles. Guests dined on miniburgers, bowls of gnocchi and risotto, and mini donuts. Although some people’s sweet tooths were sated before the film, with the much-appreciated offering of mint Cornettos.

And the photo booth provided much entertainment: