The World's End

Though the eyes and lenses of the world will be focused on London next week as Angelina Jolie is due to be at Brad Pitt's side when his new undead-battling film World War Z is unveiled in London on 2 June, the real zombie apocalypse is likely to unfold when The World's End opens on 19 July and five friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier unwittingly become humankind's only hope for survival.

As it happens, a couple of days ago I was reading a review of What Fresh Lunacy is This?: The Authorised Biography of Oliver Reed that mentioned his very own Wimbledon pub crawl.

Digging deeper:

The story goes that Steve McQueen flew to England to discuss a film project with Reed and they planned a night out. This turned into a marathon pub crawl that took them via the Hand in Hand, the Crooked Billet, the Fox and Grapes, Rose and Crown, Firestables, the Brewery Tap, the Dog and Fox and Finch's (now closed), where they aimed to drink a pint within 15 minutes before moving on to the nearest pub. During this Reed threw up on McQueen. The unofficial world record on this crawl is 16 pubs (two laps), held by Oliver Reed himself.

The fates are telling me that Saturday July the 20th should comprise an early viewing of The World's End followed by our own attempt on the Ollie Reed 8.

(See Icons passim for more Oliver R meaty goodness.)