Shaun Fits The Bill

Given that comedy series Spaced was such a work of uncompromising genius, we at Empire Online have extremely high hopes for Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright's feature film, Shaun of the Dead. Catching up with one of the film's stars, Bill Nighy, at the Love Actually premiere, we were happy to have our hopes reinforced by a glowing testimonial from the actor. "This year I've been king of the vampires in Underworld, a knackered rock star in Love Actually and, in the birth of a genre, a zombie in the rom-zom-com which is Shaun of the Dead, which I think is a real rocker. I think it's going to travel and I think it's going to be an international hit." "Nick Frost and Simon Pegg are comic geniuses, they are absolutely inspired young men. They're sick also, they're sick in the head - there is so much blood in this movie that it's unhealthy and wrong in every way." Nighy is now appearing in the show-stealing role of Billy Mack in Love Actually, a washed-up rock star who is, as co-star Emma Thompson describes it, "the funniest thing you'll see in a film for the next five years." "That stops me in my tracks," said Nighy when informed of Thompson's praise. "She's one of the actors I admire more than any other working today and, If she says that, then she's probably on drugs."