Shaun of the Dead - jokes changed?

They throw both in the film itself.

The film isn't changed, as far as I know, for the american release. Nor is there any reason for it to be, as an American viewer I didn't feel like I missed much cultural stuff (although, I would have missed a lot if I had not seen Spaced).

Having NOT seen Spaced, I know I'm missing stuff - and yet, I'm vaguely aware of the origins of "Fried Gold", I know of the circumstances surrounding the fact/non-fact that dogs can't look up, and I know that the shared cast leads to amusing bits being more amusing (like when Shaun/Pegg runs into his Spaced girlfriend, for example).

I took part of my B-day haul and bought a new region-free player (my Apex 600a finally cacked out) - so Spaced will enter my life shortly.

You really got all of the Spaced in-jokes there in one fell swoop in the movie besides one joke sort of being reused from the series of Spaced, which I won't spoil here. However, I think it was brought up in Pegg's interview with Faraci, that the joke of Shaun running into that group of people is that they are all from British sitcoms (Julie Deakin and Jessica Stevenson from Spaced, Martin Freeman from the Office, and a guy from Black Books, and another guy from something else). So it's not just that he ran into his former co-star.

Yeah, there are a couple of crossover lines or gags between Spaced and Shaun, but not enough to require an in-depth (or even passing) knowledge of Spaced to "get" Shaun of the Dead. Mainly it's just little "moments" that worked in Spaced so they used them again here for the wider audience.

Knowing Edgar and Simon's previous stuff does add another layer of enjoyment, but it's more from seeing how they've evolved their style than through over-repetition of old jokes.

Pardon my ignorance - what's Spaced?

British sitcom from the Shaun crew. It's what they did before the film. Pegg and Stevenson pretend to be married to keep an apartment. Hilarity - steeped in pop culture and smart writing - ensues.

Or so I've been told. I want to see it badly.

Here's some more info on the show.

Seems like it's definetely worth a look.

The thing about Spaced is that it's completely random, and full of film references. Nothing actually really happens in the show plot-wise, and yet, everything happens. All they really do in each episode is be lazy in the apartment with their bizzare friends, and yet somehow they end up fighting zombies, building robots, having shoot-outs, talking about spider-mouse hybrids webbing up humans in order to steal cheese, and re-enacting Vietnam. The closest thing I can come to describing it is a live-action Family Guy.

So a British version of Seinfeld with movie references?

Gotcha.

My interview with director Edgar Wright is going up on the site in a few minutes, but I asked him about this:

Q: When you were making the movie was there ever a thought that this could play on a large scale in America?

Wright: We made a couple of concessions in the script. There was one bit that we changed where they’re in the garden and the line they say when they first see the zombie they go, “Oh my God, she’s so drunk.” Originally they said, “Oh my God, she’s so pissed,” which obviously means angry here. We didn’t want that to be a confusion. There were probably a couple of lines that we changed. And we kept an eye on the fact that some of the songs and albums and films mentioned are all pretty universal.

But then at the same time we didn’t want to condescend to anybody, least of all the international audience. If I’m watching an American film, I want to see some American culture. If I’m watching an Australian film, I want to see some Australian culture. The British films that I despise the most are the ones that try to be transatlantic. UK audiences don’t like it, and US audiences don’t buy it either. What’s been really encouraging during this tour, doing festivals and stuff and screenings, is that people really get into it and like the fact that there are cultural differences. Like saying “twat” instead of “twaht.” It’s not worth dubbing it, it’s not like it’s Gregory’s Girl or Trainspotting. It’s a nice little thing. If we can popularize the use of “twat” and “fried gold,” we’ll be happy. You know, “fried gold” is made up, it doesn’t even exist in the UK.

Yeah, Wright spoke about that at last night's post-screening Q&A in Atlanta. He said that the version that we had just seen and that will be shown in American theaters is unchanged from the UK version.

One Brit thing I did notice is that Ed (Nick Frost) said, "Eat your pig snacks", which I will assume are pork rinds. Frankly, I like "pig snacks" much better.

"Pissed" must be a Commonwealth adjective. In Canada (or at least the part I'm from) if you're pissed you're drunk.

I think Wright was talking about "pissed" being confused with "pissed off." So instead he put in "drunk" instead for both the UK and US versions.

However, both here and in the UK, "piss off" is common. Which is the meaning that is more prevalent in the US.

Either way, it works.

He also referenced the Batman soundtrack thing...they had to get permission from the artists to show the LP covers...Prince turned them down, and Sade didn't. He said, in the film, they actually went through Purple Rain and Sign O' The Times, both to which Shaun said "no", then he said "yes" when the Batman soundtrack came up. But Prince apparently didn't agree to let them show it, so they nipped it out.

They call them "Hog Lumps", which is just a fake brand name they came up with.

Well, sort of, except unlike Seinfeld it's actually funny, and far crazier. Seinfeld never fought zombies.